Zap's Wrap August 9th

hi friends,

wow, this week was action packed. which makes me breathe a sigh of relief because july was wayyy too slow.

for me, i like to feel like im winning every day! the best feeling is getting a founder an investor, customer, or a hire. luckily, i had a few of those this week, which makes it a good week (:

perhaps the best thing was hosting a successful gathering of engineers and founders. we had over 100 coders come learn about 12 startups! here’s my post. if you are an experienced engineer interested in learning about startup opportunities in town, hit me up!

startup stuff that’s cool:

• we’ve got a new investor in town! i met dan phillips, partner at sandbox industries. he recently moved from chicago and is a michigan grad like me (: he focuses on healthcare investing so i think he’s in the right place.

• even though he’s been in nashville for years, i just met patrick girouard, founder of district cover. they’re on a mission to make commercial insurance more accessible and affordable to small businesses. can’t believe there are now 3 insuretech founders in nashville, with jack genet and grace hanson. i also know more about insurance than i ever expected lol.

• talked to bren marschner who recently left his job at BCG to solve a problem he saw while there. sorry i can’t tell you cuz it’s a secret lol 🤫 

• i caught up with ian nott, founder of xuron. he just inked his 3rd customer!

• insuretech startup is looking for a lead engineer. sola is natural disaster recovery insurance. they already have a few engineers, but need someone who can help with architecture + scale. they want this person to be in Atlanta with them!!

• caught up with Michael Naber who’s building the AI platform to map infrastructure called simerse. they just finished with some successful, paid pilots and are now getting LOIs from others.

• ate lunch with josh massey. he’s built carepool to do millions a year by only raising $150k at the beginning, super impressive. they have some exciting new things rolling out with their tech that i hope go well!

events coming up:

• the state government is paying for angel investing training! if this is something you’re interested in learning about, check it out here.

• 3686 is coming up in 1 month. they just dropped their schedule. get your tickets here and use code AMBASS3686 for $50 off.

• me and my friend/entrepreneur/angel investor bill brennan are hosting a pool party for the families of entrepreneurs saturday sept 7th. somehow i am roped into running childrens games like diving contests and water balloon toss and mr zap is on the grill lol. if you want more details about coming, let me know!

I said goodbye to my summer ‘intern’ last week. Evan didn’t actually do any work for me, but he worked on his startup and came with me to the office every day. it was fun watching him learn many of the hard lessons of entrepreneurship! i miss him and can’t wait for him to come back!

blue skies,

zap