Zap's Wrap August 18th

startups, startups, and more startups

Author

Haley Zapolski
August 18, 2025

hi friends,

I’m back from vacation!!! Today feels like a full-on sprint LOL.

My fav part of my trip to Costa Rica with Brianna- learning to surf and driving around all week on golf carts and 4-wheelers.

My 2nd fav part was coming home and getting back to work on Sunday with several Lighthouse founders! I got to catch up with Sammy with Morrow, Chris with Heard Music, Channing with Eva, Grace with Elysian, and Simba with LaborUp.

This week’s newsletter will be short, but there’s still a bunch of stuff coming up so check it out.

I’m ready for deal season to get started. I helped a Nashville startup get a scout check last week to kick off the season 😎😎😎 

Upcoming events

3686 is coming!!! This is TN’s biggest startup event. Did you get your ticket yet?! Some stuff I’m hosting during it:

Photo from last year’s 3686

Lightspeed Hackathon

Are you an aspiring founder or early team member who reads my newsletter???

You should 100% come to a hackathon so you can experience startup-life in 1 weekend. Also, there’s a chance you could win CASH or mentorship from VCs or other startup founders. THIS IS YOUR SIGN TO JUST DO IT.

Lightspeed is a 48-hour sprint where builders turn real startup and investor challenges into working MVPs- no fluff, just launch. Challenges come from active startups and VCs, so what you build could actually go to market.

🏆 $2,500 Judges’ Pick

🏆 $2,500 Audience Favorite

🔥 Mentorship prizes from challenge sponsors like Tim Connors, GP of PivotNorth, Mike Rosengarten, GP of 1121vc, and others.

Sign up here! Or DM me if you want to find a way to get involved.

Startup jobs

I am on the hunt for:

  • A Product Owner for an EHR startup

  • Lead full stack engineer for a creator analytics tool

  • Account Executive for a b2b saas startup

Ask me questions about Nashville startups through my AI-self here.

Or, come visit me at in-person office hours weekly on Thursdays.

to the moon,

zap