Zap's Wrap Dec 16th

hi friends,

My to-do list is piling very high and emails are overloaded, but I can’t miss getting this newsletter out!!

Last week was crazy busy with moving into startup house, everything that comes with getting an office ready (wifi, painting, furniture, landscaping, etc), and hosting a Christmas party with some of my favorite folks. This week is the same chaos to wrap the year up. I think I am getting into my busiest season ever…

Nashville startups launch team

I’m tinkering with a new idea around building a Nashville startups ‘launch team.’

Here’s the thought- a lot of startups have a cold start problem when they launch their product. They need to get users and/or customers, fast. Unless they have an audience, they have to spend lots of money or fight tooth and nail for attention.

I’m thinking of building an email list of ~200-300 folks who will take 10 minutes out of their month to help a startup ‘launch.’ This would look like getting an email update from me and/or the founder, getting a cal invite with the official launch timing, and receiving specific instructions on how to help. Instructions may include activities like, liking and commenting across platforms like LinkedIn, HackerNews, ProductHunt, or Instagram.

Why this helps- lots of early engagement can trigger the algorithm to create a ‘viral’ moment, which boosts the viewing to reach more potential customers/users.

If this is something you think is cool and you would be willing to spend a little time on, sign up here.

Startup stuff that’s cool:

• I checked out the operation at HeroWear, an exosuit company that helps the 1/3rd of our workforce that moves heavy things as part of their job do their job easier and safer. The CEO Mark joined after he watched the startup pitch at a Vandy event. Nowadays, they are doing millions a year in revenue with many name brand clients in logistics, manufacturing, and the military. Feel like they keep a low profile given that I haven’t been aware of their progress, but they are an emerging winner here in town!

• I met Vivian, an undergrad computer science and piano student at Vandy building the AI agent for investment bankers after seeing the manual, repeatable tasks she had to do at her investment banking internship last summer. They already have an MVP with over 100 users and 2 business customers. They are looking for a couple grand to help cover API costs. If there are any Vandy alums reading that want to write a small angel check to help these students keep moving, I think this is a cool chance to do so.

• As you guys know, I am not a huge healthcare person. That being said, I wanted to give a shoutout to Joe, founder of Send-It Healthcare. Why? 1) This guy literally named his company Send-It because he decided that’s exactly what he was going to do lol. 2) To save money, he takes meetings at the Brentwood Public Library. That level of dedication to frugality and putting everything toward the business is next-level. 3) Without any fundraising experience he was able to close a VC lead on his preseed from NewStack Ventures. 4) When I was helping Julie, a very experienced engineer find a new startup gig, he was able to convince her to join the team for perhaps less salary because he sold the vision of the future and what they could build.

• I had lunch with Sydney, another person in venture who just moved to town and joins the growing list of new investors who have moved here! She runs platform and operations for Focal, a preseed investor.

• I caught up with Tess who is building At Home Ads. Genuinely think she has a potentially billion dollar idea to change SMB, local marketing.

• Caught up with Madison, cofounders of Nemah with his wife Mary Lawless to talk about brand building.

• One of my portfolio companies, Elysian, the AI for claims officially launched with Grace’s post here. Never thought I would be so excited for innovations in the insurance industry, but boy does this one have me pumped!!!

• Caught up with one of my biggest mentors, Tim. Startup house member #1, woohoo!!! (even though I am not recruiting members lol, Tim claimed the spot. more coming soon).

Jobs

• Liam is hiring for a full-stack engineer for WhiteCoat AI. Check out the JD here and ping me if you are interested.

• InRev is hiring for a full-stack engineer. This one is a rocketship. They have 10xed revenue in the last year and aren’t slowing down.

Events:

• I’m hosting a workshop about how to get started as an angel investor on Tuesday, Jan 14th. Teaming up with my friends and the people I rely on for their expertise- Peter at Gust and Tommy at Riverfront Advisors. Link to sign up is here.

• Because of demand, we are also hosting a virtual workshop about angel investing on January 13th at 4pm. Sign up here.

Personal stuff:

I celebrated Christmas with some of my portfolio founders, other founders I love, and great mentors.

Then flew to upstate New York to celebrate Christmas with Mr. Zap’s family. I hate to admit it, but bagels are WAY better up there…

to the moon,

zap