Zap's Wrap June 30th

nashville startups

Author

Haley Zapolski
June 30, 2025

hi friends,

Every time I think I might have found all the startups in Nashville, I find at least a dozen more (and some I want to invest into 👀).

Buckle up, lots of new founders this week!!

Startup stuff that’s cool

  • I met Ryan (in-person, finally!) who just moved his family to Nashville from Baton Rouge. He’s building Conduit, wire fraud protection software, and plans to build his team in-person here! He is looking for engineering talent, full stack with java backend and javascript frontend.

  • I met Luis, building Pathway, ai agents for fast-casual restaurants. He is ex DoorDash & his cofounder is ex UberEats. I am trying to help him land some Nashville design partners!! If you know restaurants, hit me up!

  • I met Sam, who is moving to Nashville next month from Canada! He just sold his services company to build Iron Fort, a compliance platform that supports security control management, real-time compliance monitoring, & audit readiness. He already has customers & revenue.

  • I met Seth, who moved to Nashville 3 weeks ago from LA (although he reminded me he is NOT from CA lol). He is a serial entrepreneur building Audivi, ai voice agents for drive-thrus, and just closed his first big, name brand customer.

  • I met Bobby, cofounder at TaxNow. They help CPAs and taxpayers access their tax data from the IRS. They’re closing a round now and Bobby is leading the charge!!!

  • I caught up with Vraj, who just graduated from Vandy AND YCombinator! He and his team are building AtLog, ai voice agents for rent-to-own stores. They’re back in Nashville for the summer before they leave us again ):

  • Danny just closed his first (paid) design partner! He is building an AI-powered operating system for CPG brands that connects your existing tools and centralizes data in one place. If you know any CPG brands that could use his help, let me know!

  • Had breakfast with the dynamic duo behind Folx Table, Emma & Dallas. Their platform helps communities build deeper relationships. If you run a community and want to use their tech to organize social events, reach out to them! We used Folx to host several founder dinners on the same night and it made my life way easier.

  • I met Jonah, who just graduated from Stanford and moved to Nashville. He is building Untethered, a medical device company that uses smart glasses technology to help addicts understand and recover.

  • I caught up with Dan, who just landed his first few design partners at Listening Post!

  • The EC has applications open to their programs until June 30th (today)! You can learn more about their programs and apply here. These programs are for all types of founders (not just tech) and for all stages.

  • Some startups hiring:

Upcoming Events

  • 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 interviewing 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

  • I need to get some more public events on my calendar. What do you want to come to? (:

Lighthouse

We hosted Elysian’s team offsite! They are building AI for claims. Mark my words- they are going to be a billion dollar company (and my billion dollar investment lol).

We hosted our member founders for a Poker Night! I couldn’t have done it without the help of my friends Joey and Nick running our beginner and expert games.

Personal updates

Hosted a tea party at the Hermitage hotel with some girlfriends (:

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