Zap's Wrap October 13th

hi friends,

I’m headed to Venture Atlanta tomorrow!

If you’re going to be there, let me know- I’ll be with my friend Channing, who’s also the incredible founder of Eva. I’ll also be rolling with my Overline crew, Sean & Michael.

A big win from last week: we had another cofounder pairing happen through the Lighthouse!

John Zila is now working with Mike at Watt Data. John’s a brilliant engineer and founder, and moments like this remind me why we do what we do. Every time I see two talented people team up, it feels like proof that we’re on the right path.

The longer I do this, the more I believe every great startup needs two things: a killer salesperson and a killer engineer and it’s powerful when you can identify and connect them early.

Two other wins recently: Bailey is joining LaborUp and Jonah is joining Unity AI. Both were working on their own ideas but decided to join other founders instead of going at it alone and I think that’s one of the smartest (and hardest) decisions in startup life.

If you are looking for a partner to take the journey with or a startup to join, we are hosting Engineers meet Nashville Startups this Friday @ 5pm.

Startup stuff that’s cool

• We hosted a founder lunch with my friend David and got to catch up with a few founders doing really exciting things. Michael from Fusion just closed his fourth customer, putting him closer to $1M in ARR than $500K (🎉), Andrew from SiteVue closed his first customer and hit $300K in ARR, and then I got to listen in on some crypto talk that was way over my head from Derek at Birthday Labs and Bennett at Canopy. Love hearing how everyone’s building in such different directions but all pushing forward. 

• I met Tavaris, founder of Freighlens, software to stop invoicing errors in logistics.

• I hungout with Eric who is building OneTap. He is focused on helping scaling restaurants with their maintenance by putting QR codes on their equipment that they can quickly scan and get in touch with someone to help fix it.

• I ate at Chili’s with the restaurant tech entrepreneur himself, Luis. It’s been really really fun working with him and his cofounder and they just got their 7th restaurant customer.

• I spoke at DelTech in Memphis about raising capital outside of the coasts!!!

Upcoming events

• IP Strategy 101 Thursday, October 17th @ 5:00pm

  • Breaking down the essentials of intellectual property.

• Engineers meet Nashville Startups Friday, October 18th @ 5:00pm

  • Engineers only. Meet Nashville startups who are hiring or searching for cofounders.

• Product Leaders Thursday, October 23rd @ 6pm

  • DM me if you want to come! I am still sending out invites to this.

Lighthouse

We finally have a beautiful whiteboard in the entryway with all of our founders on it!!

One of the funny problems at The Lighthouse is that you can walk in and have no idea who’s actually here… founders tend to disappear into meeting rooms for the entire day.

So now we have a new little system to show who’s in the house at any given time. Still need to make a few laminated tags, but I love how visual and dynamic it feels.

It’s such a simple thing, but it makes the space feel way more alive, like you can actually see the community that’s being built here. 

Personal

We hosted DUMB SHARK TANK this past Saturday night!

For the first time ever, I didn’t have enough people who wanted to pitch… so I ended up pulling one together last minute 😅

My idea was definitely on the darker humor side, Cellmate Growth Partners, a growth hacking agency for private prisons. Luckily, I think people laughed at our evil little company…

On a more personal note, I also helped my little brother move this weekend. He’s been living in Nashville the past year and a half because I was here, but decided the “big city life” isn’t for him anymore. So he’s headed back home to Bettendorf, Iowa. I am very sad that he has left Nashville.

Come visit me at in-person office hours weekly on Thursdays.

to the moon,

zap