Zap's Wrap September 23rd

hi friends,

Last week, I spent 2 days at a family office conference. I’m not raising a fund or anything, but I felt like I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go and experience what it was like.

And honestly, the biggest lesson for me was realizing I’m on the right path. If I stay focused on doing the work- finding founders, helping them, creating real value- the money shows up at the right time. I’ve now got 4 SPVs under my belt, and I feel grateful that putting deals together through Sydecar hasn’t been a distraction, it’s actually been an accelerant. It lets me keep my eyes on the mission: helping founders win. Right now, that means being heads down with Dan, Joey, Jimmy, and Jared (and my 17 other portfolio founders). And I wouldn’t want it any other way!!!

Then, I headed to Bozeman for a founder retreat!!! We had 12 founders go for a long weekend of hiking, swimming, cooking, chilling, & working. I am so grateful to the best founder coach of them all, Tim, for letting us stay at his place!

Startup stuff that’s cool

• After closing his first customer, Tom just left his job and went full time on his next startup! I’ve known Tom for awhile and couldn’t be more thrilled about what he’s building with Finch. I’m already invested in Ai for the insurance side, so I might as well invest in the Ai for the insured side too LOL.

• I met Eric, an M&A attorney who is building a platform for firms who do a lot of M&A with his startup, deadhead.ai. Eric hopes to help streamline processes and cut down on billable hours. I’m hitting up my friend who acquire businesses to try out his software.

• I caught up with Mary Pillow, who exited a restaurant tech startup a year ago and just joined another TN restaurant startup, zigy, that gives the power of ai to franchise owners. She is teaming up with a 50+ franchise operator to build this company.

• I cold plunged with Cooper, who recently announced their new product at SoBet. He’s in the throws of football season, managing contests and shipping product.

• I believe the best person to help a founder is someone who just ‘did the thing.’ I’ve been really grateful for the help from Shaun and Travis, 2 founders who recently moved into different roles in the companies they built who have been spending time helping Lighthouse founders.

• Finally, I got to watch a bunch of student startups pitch thanks to Baxter Webb. We need more startups spinning out of Vandy and we need more students to stay here and build their companies, which he’s working on.

Upcoming events

• Tuesday, September 23rd @ 1pm What First Time Founders Need to Know About (with Peter Swan from Gust)

• Friday, September 26th @ 7am Rise & Grind at Framework (cold plunge + sauna)

• Thursday, October 2nd @ 9am Raising Money 101

Personal

I got to hangout with Sydney and team Focal while they were in Nashville!

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

to the moon,

zap