Seeing the Future
Last Thursday, a bunch of founders understood their businesses for the first time. That was awesome!
Founding a startup is hard. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t have monthly dinners to support each other through it. Founding a startup is infinitely harder when you’re blindly groping around, hoping to land on the right combination of decisions someday. Last week we talked about how documenting your assumptions enables other, more experience, people to provide feedback. Essentially, this process enables you to see the future and make changes before you get there. Thanks to all who showed up and took pen to paper!
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IMPORTANT NEWS: May will be our only dinner between now and August.
Our June dinner date conflicts with the final Techstars Boulder Demo Day (and I want everyone to send the program off in style)
We’re off for summer break (and my honeymoon!) in July.
Next month, we’re excited to bring David Mandell to the stage to talk about being a badass CEO. It’s an incredibly popular talk that he’s given to hundreds (thousands?) of founders over the years and we’re lucky to host him in May.
Remember, if you’ve been to a dinner before, as a known member you can purchase a May ticket with no application.
Team shoutouts:
Megan, who can help with any of your PR or content marketing needs;
Lizzie, who 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!
Eric, who coaches startups professionally and can help you identify your most important priorities and then execute on them (customer discovery, sales, fundraising, etc).
I also want to thank our volunteers, Arielle Evano and Paul Traficanti!
We are a community of founders and investors who help one another build incredible business. We support one another and the community in the following ways:
Help others CEOs with their Asks.
Refer new CEOs to the dinners.
We keep the community strong by:
Posting about Thunderview on LinkedIn
On to the asks…
Asks
My name is Alex Raymond, and I'm the CEO of Kapta and the host of The Conscious Entrepreneur Summit and The Conscious Entrepreneur podcast. I am looking for one or two more CEO speakers for the Summit (June 4 & 5 in Boulder) - over $10M in revenue and/or raised, must be willing to be open and vulnerable in sharing your "anti-hero story." Also looking for podcast guests - folks with great experiences and/or deep expertise in a specific area (marketing, sales, HR, fundraising) with our audience.
I'm Bree Thomas, CEO of Balance. We help variable income workers struggling to match lumpy cash flows with basic life expenses by helping them forecast their income on a calendar. Through this process, we create a distinctive cash flow health profile that banks can trust to underwrite for a group that historically is underserved and a thin file/no credit file demographic. I'm interested in connecting with employer groups that hire gig workers, such as bars/restaurants and specialized gig platforms.
My name is Chris Oltyan, I'm the CEO of Compliable. For companies that need licenses in order to grow and expand their business we make sure there are not bottlenecks in their ability to obtain and manage those licenses. We have about $300k in stalled proposals, would love insight on how you have unstuck things that are close to closing.
My name is Derek Sakamoto. I am the CEO of Parachute. We provide downside protection to individual investors in private companies by insuring their investment.
My name is Jacob Segil. I am the CEO of Afference. We enable touch for spatial computing using wearable neural interfaces. I currently need help selecting a beach head market after sharing our first demonstrations with potential partners and customers.
My name is Jacqueline Claudia. I am the CEO of SmarterX. We help retailers and CPG companies with regulatory compliance, waste minimization, and other challenges using various AI and machine learning tools fill in the data gaps and drive decisions. We are going through our 3rd major transition, and I need help or commiseration on managing team morale and effectiveness.
My name is Jordan Esbin. I am the CEO of Credit Pulse. We help large manufacturers assess and monitor their customer credit risk by providing a SaaS solution that uses alternative data and AI to predict various risks. We're building our MVP now with pilot customers, I need help with hiring a lead engineer and advice on fundraising(preparing to fundraise later this spring/summer).
My name is Josh Allan Dykstra. I am the CEO of #lovework, which helps middle managers of hybrid teams have amazing culture and performance.
My name is Joshua Campbell and I am the CEO of Melismatic. We deliver personalized music therapy through real-time music generation that responds to individual's preferences and biometrics. We will be launching our MVP very soon and I'm looking for people interested in trying it out.
My name is Kyle Shannon and the CEO of Storyvine and the founder of the AI Salon. Storyvine is an automated video storytelling platform that primarily serves the healthcare and formal market and we’ve recently expanded our platform capabilities dramatically by incorporating generative AI. Interested in talking to anyone who is pivoting their business because of AI.
My name is Margo Harrison. I am the CEO of Wave. We are a company that brings evidence-based products to market to treat period pain and symptoms. We are pre-product, pre-revenue.
My name is Mason Hays. I run iBOS. We help blue collar businesses save 1 work day per week by automating their laborious yet important work with enterprise software powered by robotic tailoring. I currently need help with market testing.
Hi, my name is Robert Reich, and I'm the founder and CEO of R2AI. Our vision is to automate 90% of a financial compliance program using AI agents, language models, and ML. We have a working POC and are in early conversations with several large banks. Currently, I need introductions to banking executives, lobbying firms, and compliance professionals.
My name is Romain Vakilitabar and I’m the Executive Director of PopShift (PopShift.org). We introduce Hollywood’s leading TV writers to fascinating people with different lived experiences so that they can write more creative, nuanced and impactful shows. We’ve learned of a couple key things we could do to disrupt an industry so desperately in need of disruption. We’re looking to start a for-profit to do so, and need some talented tech folks to help us build a basic MVP.
My name is Sam Syed, I am the CEO of EVchargeME. We are a peer-to-peer EV charging network that allows residential homeowners (hosts) to generate an income by charging Electric Vehicles (users). I currently need help with CO.gov connections in the renewable energy vertical, and outsource CFO.
My name is Sam Monson. I am the founder & CEO of We Hate Exercise. Studies show that when people set out to exercise, only about 1/3 to 1/2 are still doing so 12 weeks later. Let's be honest, that shit is HARD. But with our online program that provides motivation and accountability, that number skyrockets to 95%. Intrigued? Sitting here suddenly feeling a twinge of guilt that you haven't exercised as often as you know you should lately? You are not alone. Come find me to learn more about the movement we are starting. I need help identifying non-dilutive funding or impact investor leads...pretty please. And thank you!
My name is Suchi and I'm the Founder & CEO of Learnfully .. a tech-enabled services company for K-12 learners with learning differences, which can be around 50% of all learners. We're an education therapy company that determines the learning profile of a learner and matches them with the most efficient and effective solution to help make progress. We've been around for 3 years, we know the service is very needed, our next steps are to scale our gtm strategy. Any advise on community-based/channels marketing would be greatly appreciated!
My name is Thomas Underhill. I am the CEO of LAINIE.ai. We are a legal platform powered by AI technologies that is helping startups reduce their legal fees, starting with a patent wizard. I currently need help with securing some contract work (fractional CPO, GTM & product strategy/pricing/packaging/monetization, M&A) to pay the bills. I have been doing some work for private equity, large management consulting, and technology firms - I'd love to do more work in this area, but I'm not super picky. I'm also seeking founder contacts who want to save money on their patent fees.
My name is Tom Keller. I'm the CEO of pcklr. We help governmental agencies and contractors streamline Medicaid application and renewal by simplifying eligibility requirements for beneficiaries and reducing enrollment churn for administrators. We're building a behavioral health telehealth platform to increase health access and equity across the state and need help with initial funding and hiring.
My name is Ziah Orion I am the CEO of Conscious Cashflow. We help investors with a desire to make a return while making an impact by putting their money into mental health and recovery facilities. I currently need help with refining the sales materials we send to investors.
My name is John Schnipkoweit and if you are like me, you listen to podcasts while you are running, driving or doing something hands-free. I am excited to share that today I am founding PodBranch - we are like Pinterest for Podcasts. With PodBranch, just take a screenshot and we'll save that exact Podcast moment for you - creating a "Branch" with a summary, links, speaker info and more. I'm looking for people who listen to podcasts and want to help us test.
Hi my name is Maggie Gannon. I am CEO of Haven. We are a quality improvement software for advanced illness care delivery. We combine clinical care with QI solutions to help providers meet unaddressed physical and emotional needs for patients making the strenuous care journey more bearable. We are looking for help with marketing and sales.
My name is Kenzie Butera Davis. I am the CEO of Maro. We help K12 school districts with universal mental health screening with the single most efficient tool for screening kids at school & matching families with care. I currently need help with financial modeling / seed round budgeting and identifying a fractional product designer.
My name is Caroline Caselli. I am the CEO of Haven Connect. We help Affordable Housing Property Managers with waitlist management by providing a self-updating CRM. I would love to connect with other CEOs who have raised venture capital and then chased profitability.
My name is Roman Kaludi. I am the CEO of Multiplur. We help Video Game Developers save time and money developing video games by using our GenAI tools. I currently need help with introductions to game studios/companies for discovery and sales.
Thunderview CEO Dinners is also proud to partner with Colorado Startups to collaborate on events and resources.You can join their LinkedIn, Slack, and Facebook to connect with fellow startup community members. Check out some of their flagship events and events calendar (recommend adding the google cal to see upcoming events).
Looking forward to seeing you in May. Grab your ticket RIGHT NOW!
Eric!