Zap's Wrap October 6th

hi friends,

I just made my 22nd angel investment 😅

This one means a lot to me- I’ve been asking to invest in Tristan and Edgevanta for a long, long time now. They’ve bootstrapped from day one, but the time finally came where they opened the door for a few friends who’ve been part of the journey to write a check.

Edgevanta is building AI agents for civil estimating- an incredibly unsexy but deeply valuable problem space that Tristan has lived and breathed for years.

I met Tristan at the very beginning, when he had just an idea and was looking for a technical cofounder. He’s shown up for my events, my weird ideas, and my experiments in the ecosystem since the start. I’ve spent many a Sunday at yoga and coffee with him (and often James), where we’d go deep on building, startups, and life.

If you know Tristan, you know he’s tenacious. He once went to the ER during a 100-mile ultramarathon and STILL finished the race. That same grit has shown up in every chapter of building Edgevanta. He’s faced all the first-time-founder pain, and he’s kept moving forward.

This is one of those bets that feels less like an “investment” and more like backing a person you’d bet on no matter what they build next. Hope you can follow along with what they end up building here.

Startup roles

I am hiring for:

• Ops interns

• Client success/operations

• Demand Generation Manager

• A sales cofounder selling into manufacturing

Startup stuff that’s cool

• Jimmy & team just hit 1M in revenue at Glasshouse!! I event got a key chain as a commemoration.

• We hosted Randy and team 4IR for an in-person team strategy session! It was great to get to meet the rest of the folks behind the manufacturing startup.

• Calling all parents: one of our founders launched Library.fm! This tool allows parents to create personalized stories for kids, that includes their names and their friends names and stories that relate to them.

• I caught up with my friend Bill, who is saving lives running Genomind by helping people figure out what medications work for them. Many years ago, Bill and I were running partners and he has many great stories!!

Upcoming events

• Raising Money 101 Friday, October 10th @ 9am

  • An intimate session for first time founders.

• DUMB SHARK TANK Saturday, October 11th @ 7:30pm

  • A comedy show for startup weirdos.

• 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.

Lighthouse

Last week was full of great founder hangs!

• Had sushi with Luis + Adarsh (cofounders at Pathway) and Jimmy (founder of Glasshouse)- 3 of the most high-energy, fast-talking founders I know. Jimmy spent a decade selling restaurant tech before starting Glasshouse, and Luis + Adarsh are now building AI for restaurants. When founders who really know their space start swapping notes, it’s magic!!

• Nikki hosted the music tech founder crew over to her house for dinner! It’s been amazing watching all of these founders evolve and building a tight friend group.

  • Giggs has some really cool new product ideas I can’t wait to see come to life

  • Chris with Heard now has every major label as a customer and will close a strategic round this fall.

  • Channing is about to take Eva nationwide.

  • Ira now works with over half the NFL and is selling internationally to soccer markets.

  • Travis is like the wise sage, one of the few founders outside of healthcare to take a tech company to series B

• Finally, we had a group breakfast (:

Personal

I spent the weekend in Detroit with Mr Zap, celebrating our 2 year anniversary! We biked all around the city and ate all types of ethnic foods.

I lived in Detroit for 2 summers during college and love the city. I really credit Detroit with sparking my passion for city building and economic development.

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

to the moon,

zap