Zap's Wrap July 27th

hi friends,

What I’m working on this week:

• Getting the word out about the Tech & Startup Career Fair at 3686- Wednesday, September 16th. The goal is simple: put the best tech companies and startups in one room with Nashville's tech talent. If hiring or building your talent brand here matters to you right now, hmu ⚡

• Raising my 10th SPV (: This one's special because it's the 3rd time I've backed this company. I believe in them more every time. I need to update my website now that we’ve done so many deals!

• Hosting the 2nd annual Zappy Awards for Lighthouse founders! And over the weekend we're moving Eric and team OneTap in to work out of the Lighthouse full time (:

• Doing the thing that scares me, making the talent platform better. If you want to work at a Nashville startup, go check it out: talent.lt.house

• Hanging up our brand new sign made by the talented Marcus!

Last week I forgot to take ANY photos, but I hosted a founder dinner with Customers Bank, caught up with a bunch of founders, and spoke on a panel about ecosystem building in Pittsburgh.

Reflections recently

Last week I couldn't stop thinking about growth.

To grow, you have to do things that scare you. And doing scary things isn't natural. Nobody accidentally does the hard thing. So you have to be intentional about it or you'll stop growing and not even notice it happened.

I looked back at the last few years and can see my own progression of doing the hard thing:

• quit my job with no plan and started working for myself

• started helping founders raise, started sharing deals with other VCs

• started investing

• planned my own conference. for VCs.

• leased a space and started The Lighthouse

• led my first SPV into a company I'd already backed

• scaled those SPVs, now closing my 10th

^Every single one of those terrified me. But now, they are muscle memory.

That's the part I didn't expect. The work that used to scare me is the work I'm most drawn to now, because it's easy. When I look at my week, the easy stuff is helping a founder with their raise, setting up the next SPV, writing the next $5k check. I could fill every day with it.

But if it's easy, it's not the thing I should be focusing on.

Honestly, it never really gets easier to do the next hard thing. You just keep moving the line. It takes bravery every time. (Mr Zap says he'd characterize me as more stubborn than brave. LOL still counts.)

This week the universe kept sending me signs from my past, reminders of where I started and how far that is from here. I think it's making me look at all of it for a reason.

Time to figure out the next hard thing!

Upcoming Events

• Founder Legal Workshop: Replacing Your Lawyer with Ai, Friday, July 31st @ 9am

  • Lots of founders are saving on legal costs and having Ai do the work instead. In this workshop, learn where you can leverage Ai to help you, where you should call a lawyer, and better decipher all of the gray in the middle.

• ZAPPY HOUR with Wefunder, Wednesday, August 5th @ 5:30pm

  • Drinks and hangs at Coral Club in East

• Nashville Tech Ops Community, Wednesday, September 9th @ 5:30pm

  • A meetup exclusively for folks who work in operations at tech companies. Any type of ops fits in though!

• Nashville Customer Success Community, Thursday, September 10th @ 5:30pm

  • A meetup exclusively for folks who work in customer success.

• Lighthouse Open House, Wednesday, September 16th @ 9am

  • We’re excited to host a partner pop up during 3686 and give folks the chance to come see the house and grab coffee from Paradeisos!

Personal

Me and Mr Zap spent the weekend in Pittsburgh for Derrick’s wedding! Pictured here with my friend Wolf.

I managed to get a spot in the Nashville Hyrox race. Speaking doing things I am scared of, this is high on the list. I have done so many hard races, but this one is totally outside of my comfort zone! I am doing the doubles with Brooke in December.

to the moon,

zap⚡