May the Fourth Be With You
So, mental health is a thing…
If you haven’t noticed, it’s getting hard out there for an entrepreneur. Money is tight (both on the customer side and the financing side), everything is more expensive and it’s harder than ever to get prospects’ attention, let alone convert them. Starting/running a company is never easy, but it maybe feels harder than usual right now.
Perhaps it’s not surprising then that the theme of the evening turned out to be founder mental health. Across the tables, it felt like people returned to the topic of how we can support one another during stressful times. I’m especially excited that the conversations weren’t just vent sessions — there were a lot of suggested solutions and commitments to help one another.
In his presentation, Gregory Menvielle of Okya offered some sobering statistics about the general mental health situation in the entrepreneurial community. He also gave some specific suggestions on how to improve things, including leading your team by modeling vulnerability about your own experiences, helping others in order to get help yourself, being open to proactively getting help when you need it and, lastly, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach to employee benefits.
Georgia Grace Edwards of Gnara Apparel walked the room through best crowdfunding practices, which continues to be an interesting (and often dilutive) capital approach for early-stage companies.
This is our third dinner and I continue to be honored that you took the time out of your busy life to be a part of this growing community (127 people will read about the asks below). For me, the best part about the Thunderview CEO dinners (and this was on full display last night) is that it’s full of members who are excited to help each other, in ways large and small. Whether it’s making an introduction or walking someone through the entire fundraising process, we’re a community of people who show up for one another. Fuck yes!
Our next dinner is June 1st, and here’s what you need to do in order to be there:
Help another CEO with an Ask (see below), and;
Refer another CEO to sign up! You can even just post about us on Linkedin with a link to our website (tag Eric Marcoullier and our LinkedIn page!)
Please send feedback as well! While we are now three dinners in, we are still only three dinners in, and we’re open to optimization always!
Quick shoutouts to our team:
Joe, who takes lovely photos of us at the dinner and would love to take photos of you and your team as well!
Megan, who can help with any of your PR or content marketing needs (and who was so sad to miss dinner last night — she’ll be back next month!)
Lizzie, has a marketing/comms background and now runs her own Integrative Health coaching practice
Danny and the Merc, who should be your first thought for live music, date nights, and events!
And finally, follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn! Maybe you’ll even see a photo or two that you’re in 😉
We truly love throwing these dinners, and if you keep coming, we’ll keep hosting. See you next month.
Eric!
Asks
My name is Marcella Hall, I’m the CEO of MascotxYou. I am looking for warm introductions to college athletic departments.
My name is Georgia Grace Edwards. I am the CEO of Gnara Apparel. We help women and other underrepresented voices in the outdoors answer nature's call -- quite literally -- with our patented GoFly zipper technology, which features a second discreet zipper that runs all the way to the back waistband of our Go There Pants and Shorts. We have secured our dream retailers ourselves in our first year on the market, and are now looking to expand our independent retailer wholesale door count geographically with the help of sales reps.
My name is Margaret Melville. I am the CEO of Lasa Health, a clinical decision support software to help healthcare providers better diagnose and manage patients with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain. I need help connecting with small primary care, GI, and OBGYN clinics interested in providing feedback about our platform.
My name is Rani Powers. I am the CEO of Pluto, a B2B SaaS platform that empowers scientists in academia and pharma to analyze complex biological data sets in minutes. This is helping them make new discoveries and develop new medicines and diagnostics faster and more accurately. I currently need help with hiring our first VP of Sales and structuring their comp.
My name is Chris Oltyan. I am the CEO of Compliable. We help companies license their employees and corporate entities so they can legally operate, enter new markets more quickly, and grow their workforce efficiently. After we had to do a round of layoffs, I feel like I'm fighting to get people to stop throwing up roadblocks to moving quickly. Basically, what are your best practices on getting people not to underestimate the power of the force, realizing that force-choking people is not a real option in today’s work environment.
My name is Casey Lawlor. I am the CEO of UnVale, a social marketplace for the characters, avatars, and digital art that represents Gen-Z’s identity online. 80% of the 2bn Gen-Zs online prefer to remain anonymous, yet this generation cares more about identity and self-expression than any generation before. Their solution is to create user-generated content that represents every facet of their identity. We are the home for designing this digital alter ego. We just launched and I am looking to network with those in the gaming, creator economy, and social media spaces.
My name is Andrew Antonio. I am the CEO of Urban Sky. We are a provider of high-resolution, city-scale aerial imagery via stratospheric balloon. We recently launched our initial high-resolution beta imagery catalog and I'm looking for data analytics companies that might want to test and develop applications around our core data products.
My name is Eric Schneider. I am the CEO of Patchr. We teach students how to invent real electronics and manufacture their inventions, teaching industry-realistic electronics engineering to k12. I am looking for advice on acquisition strategy and conversations around acquisitions.
My name is Ari Kaufman. I am the CEO of Spout. We help water utilities meet the mandate of finding water-contaminating lead service lines across the country in real-time, cost-effectively and at scale.
My name is Eric Reinhardt, I am CEO of Helio Home. We make it simple for homeowners to remove fossil fuels and fully electrify their homes. We are looking to add key talent in marketing and product so if you have talented people in your networks who want to work in climate please send them my way.
My name is Chris Saxman. I am the CEO of a Redesign Health Company in Stealth. We help people who suffer from gastrointestinal conditions by providing them with chronic disease management that is well integrated into the care they receive from their PCPs and GI specialists. I currently need help with my approach to product.
My name is Grant Gunnison. I am the CEO of Zero Homes. We are a technology-enabled marketplace to electrify homes (think heat pumps, solar, electrical, storage, EV chargers, etc.). We will be launching our Beta in a couple of weeks and I’m looking for people interested in testing our app AND I'm looking to put together a peer group dinner (once a month 3-4 hours with 5-8 people).”
My name is Dustin Ramsay. I'm CEO of Sarus Lifting. We help crane & heavy haul companies save time and reduce risk through our software platform for project planning and execution. I need help negotiating corporate partnerships with large heavy equipment manufacturers that are interested in working with us.
My name is Jessica Tams. I am the CEO of Seven Falls, an active investor and advisor, and an independent Director of Atari. At Seven Falls, we develop consumer-focused franchise experiences utilizing AAA games and four-quadrant cinema. My ask is to get feedback on Colorado (and especially Boulder and Denver) as a bass for starting a company.
My name is Brian Hurst. I am the CEO and founder of More Seconds. We have both a product and a suite of services. Our core SaaS product, mDash is an intelligent project management tool designed specifically for managing web development projects. And as you can probably guess, our core service offerings are all web development related, specifically we specialize in CMS development. I am hoping to find product market fit and would love to hear more about reaching that point from others with experience.
My name is David Sturgeon, I am the CEO of Uncanny. We use bleeding-edge computer vision to increase the production value and create new advertising inventory on live-streamed content. I currently need help finding a world-class computer vision engineer.
My name is Keaton Brown. I'm the CEO of The Windy Company. We help car owners put their windshield wipers on autopilot with seamless ordering, simple installation, and subscription options. We're about to launch a new site and I'm looking for feedback on messaging, brand, or any other ideas that might stick out to make our concept "click".
My name is Eric DeGrass. I'm the Founder of BugZero. We help Enterprise IT reduce risk and avoid costly outages with automation and being proactive. I currently need help with pivoting our messaging to GRC personas because of recent EU regulations requiring a solution like ours.
My name is Mike Cronley. I am the CEO of Class Composer. We are an online tool to help elementary schools streamline the yearly class list creation process. I need a consultant or a contractor to help us build out our first CRM.
I’m Toby Dallas, CEO of Parts Dashboard. We help small engineering and manufacturing businesses manage all of their customer, design, configuration, and inventory data with our software platform. I’m trying to figure out when you should call time on your startup, or hang in there buddy – product-market fit is just around the corner!
My name is James Dice. I am the CEO of Nexus Labs. We help the commercial buildings industry keep up with new technology by producing content, courses, and community. I currently need help with non-dilutive financing/loan sources.
My name is Ian Jackson. I am the CEO and co-founder of Fridays. We are a pre-launch eye drops brand centered on delivering an elevated experience in an industry filled with generic stagnant competitors. We'll focus on elevated branding and tapping into some core communities such as gaming, creatives, action sports, and cannabis to gain a foothold. We will be launching in early fall and I’m looking for people interested in chatting about growing and scaling CPG brands.
My name is Alex Raymond. I’m the CEO of Kapta and the host of The Conscious Entrepreneur Summit. As we get the summit off the ground (currently in year 2), I’m looking for a small number of Ambassadors who are committed to their personal growth as entrepreneurs and are willing to help spread the word about the event.
My name is Tom Kiss. I am the CEO of Ate. We built an easy-to-use, mindfulness-based, visual food journal to support people on their health journeys. I am currently looking for advice on financing our mostly bootstrapped company to accelerate our growth.
My name is Loren Kerr. I am the CEO of DEX. We are an eSports Data Insights & Analytics platform that enables esports organizations by providing tools to recruit, monetize, and manage their organizations. We have the interest of some intramural eSports leagues and university programs but are looking to find an investor willing to help us get to market by end of year. My ask is for feedback on what an investor would be looking for at our stage.
My name is Gregory Menvielle. I am the CEO of Okaya. We provide a mental health assessment platform that uses a video selfie to understand people's mental health and fatigue levels. We are launching a new data drive in a few weeks and would like people interested in providing us data. We're especially interested in working with non-native speakers and minorities. In return, we'll make a donation to a non-profit mental health support group.
My name is Mike Hartman. I am the CEO of Flourish AI. We are curing middle and high school loneliness by building an interactive app that combines conversational AI with a life-like digital avatar. We are just reaching our MVP build stage and I need help with ways to find an AI/LLM-focused CTO to join our team.
My name is Derek Liston. I am the Founder/CEO of dijjoo. dijjoo is an ethically-designed private journal and social sharing app designed for the adventure/outdoor community. Our mission is to harness the power of social media to have a massive impact on the most pressing social and environmental issues facing our planet. We launched on the app stores in March and we now have customers and revenue. We are looking for corporate or charity partners who share our mission and who are interested in co-marketing for scale.
My name is Eric McClure. I'm the CEO of Mainn. We are a member engagement platform for Chambers of Commerce that leverages rich engagement and attribution data to help them better promote and protect the interests of the business members they serve. I've scaled and exited a bootstrapped startup before, but looking to hear from other founders what has and hasn't worked when it comes to their experiences raising capital and operating under the umbrella of outside financing.
My name is Ilya Radzinsky. I am the COO of TaxDome. We are a CRM for small to medium-sized accounting firms. We have over 5,000 paying firms globally using it since launching 4 years ago. I am looking for help with implementing OKRs across an organization (we are >150).
My name is Ian Fischer. I am the CEO of C Prompt Games. We are a game developer focused on creating PC strategy/management titles. Our team has a unique set of skills and experience that makes us one of very few developers capable of this work. Our team is growing and I'd like to hire additional people in Denver (but, see above, the skill set is rare).
My name is Stephanie Cohen, I am the Founder & CEO of ModBox Builders. We build affordable housing for low to middle income home buyers and rentals. We build single family and multi family residences, we are currently seeking funding to build a model home, hire, and participate in trade shows. We have revenue and tremendous community and government support statewide and we are putting all the pieces together to execute on our current traction and position for growth. I’m looking to connect with entrepreneurs with a strong understanding of the investor space.
My name is Caleb Polley and I'm the CEO of Cubby Beds. We make smart beds for kids with special needs. I'm looking for a CEO group to join such as YPO or 10X CEO and would love to talk to anyone who has gone through programs like this.
My name is Rachel Kois, I’m the founder of Simple Switch. We help businesses & shoppers more easily spend in alignment with their values with our easy online shopping platform with products vetted for their impact on people and the planet. I started the company for individual consumers, now that we’re selling to businesses our demand on track to 10x our sales this year, so I’m looking for founders or operators with experience in B2B sales who can help me and my small team handle that fast scaling.
My name is Brandon Metzger. I'm the CEO of Bear Market Consulting. We are developing AI avatars representative of various business personas to empower my consulting work and also to be available on my website as a product for companies to rent. I'm looking for patient and respectful beta testers to help me find tune these AI models around specific use cases.
