Zap's Wrap July 28th

hi friends,

Because I love making myself work so much, my summer project has been planning a HACKATHON!!

I am teaming up with John from AI Tinkerers to plan LIGHTSPEED- a startup hackathon.

Lightspeed is a 48-hour sprint where builders turn real startup and investor challenges into working MVPs- no fluff, just launch.

By the end of the weekend, teams present prototypes backed by customer insights to a panel of expert judges and the community.

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

Whether you’re job hunting, startup-curious, or just want to build something that matters- this is your weekend!!!

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

Startup stuff that’s cool

• I caught up with Luke, who left his role as Director of New Products at Zapier last month to start something new! Luke is a 2nd time founder. His product is launching in the next few weeks. One to watch 👀

• I met Andrew, who is building SiteVue AI (no public website yet). Andrew is a technical founder who is ex-Amazon + Meta building AI-powered visibility for frontline performance. He has his first 4 customers lined up in the manufacturing space and launches with 3 of them in August!

• Not to make it too confusing, but I met another Andrew. Andrew moved here only a few months ago. He previously built and sold a business in the manufactured home space, took a year off to travel the world, and has decided to sink his teeth into building a company that provides rewards and incentives for using carpooling called MobileFlow. While everyone else is building in AI, Andrew is building in blockchain! Love to see zigs when others zag.

• I caught up with Michael, who is building b2b saas in the mortgage tech space with Fusion Technology. He just signed his 2nd customer!

Startup jobs

I am hiring for:

• SDRs

• Full stack engineers

• Devops engineer

• Revops killers

Just email me (:

Events

• Tuesday, August 5th @ 2pm- How to build a winning startup with your unit economics with Tim Connors [virtual]

  • This workshop will give you the fundamentals to understand how to scale. I make all of the founders I work with participate in this event!

• Wednesday, August 6th @ 6:30am- Startup Run Club

  • Join us to run 4 miles and grab coffee at Silver Fox after.

• Wednesday, August 6th @ 2pm- Know Your Worth: Set a Smart Valuation

  • I’m on a panel at the EC talking about valuations!

• Monday, September 8th @ 8:30pm- BURNT with 11 Tribes

  • 3686 is a MUST attend event for folks inside and outside of Nashville interested in startups! I’m hosting a founder late night hang with Kristina, GP at 11 Tribes in Chicago.

Personal

I went on a girls trip to Gatlinburg & Dollywood with Leah, Catherine, Natalie, Nora, & Channing! These ladies are all amazing personally and professionally.

I also signed up for the sprint triathlon in Winchester, TN on September 13th with Analys! Let us know if you want to join us to swim, bike, & run.

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