Zap's Wrap June 16th

9M raised for Nashville founders 🚀🚀🚀

Author

Haley Zapolski
June 16, 2025

hi friends,

Exciting news- I have now connected Nashville founders with $9M in capital. I want to hit 20M this year!!!

I made an SPV investment into Jimmy at Glasshouse for his seed round. I was a preseed investor, so getting to re-up for this round (and getting others to join me) is an exciting milestone.

I am now working on my 3rd SPV into a Nashville startup! If you want to invest in Nashville startups as an angel, please let me know.

With many startups closing rounds this month, I am hiring a TON for engineers + other talent. HMU if you are an engineer who wants to work at a startup or if you are interested in any of these roles:

Startup stuff that’s cool

  • I caught up with Chris & Tim at Grouped. They help artists build and engage their fan community and officially opened their Nashville office! They are both 2nd time founders, Chris built and sold a company to Coinbase and Tim to Spotify. They are one to watch and I am a proud investor in what they are doing!

  • I met Luis who recently moved to Nashville because his wife is a doctor who got a job here! He is building the ai-copilot for restaurants with Pathway. If you know someone operating a fast-casual restaurant, they should talk to him.

  • I met Jeff, who is the cofounder and Head of Growth at a startup in the recruiting tech space. Their team is all 2nd time founders looking to meet companies who hire a LOT or recruiting firms!

Upcoming Events

  • Tuesday, June 17th: Demo Party: Listening Post

    • Come drink beer and eat pizza while demoing Chief AI officer in a box from Dan & Seth

  • Tuesday, June 24th: Product Leaders Hangout

    • Email me if you work in product and want to come meet likeminded folks!

  • Tuesday, July 8th: How to run your fundraise like a sales process

    • A lot of founders have never raised before and don’t know how to do it. In this event, I’m asking Jimmy, 1st time founder, how he raised his most recent round and how other founders can follow his process.

  • Tuesday, July 15th: Getting started as an angel investor

We hosted 100 engineers to learn about Nashville startups sharing from our brand new stage!

Personal updates

I attempted to go to Bonnaroo for the first time! What a BUMMER that it got cancelled (after waiting around for 5+ hours). Now I’m itching for another music festival to go to with my founder friend Channing.

I did make it to Tristan’s 40th bday! He’s building saas for construction tech and I got to hangout with many other founder friends there (:

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