The Hottest Ticket In Town (Go Nuggets!)
The Nuggets won, but the hottest place to be last night was the Merc.
It seems every time we have one of these dinners, there’s a pretty good reason why people won’t show up… and yet they do. Last night we competed with Game 1 of the NBA Finals, and I think everyone who was there will agree they were glad they picked the Merc over Ball Arena.
Before I go any further, I have to give a major thank you to our panel! Mat Vogels, Julie Penner, Brad Greenwald, and Rich Maloy, thank you, thank you, thank you for the raw honesty and truly valuable insights you laid down last night. I wanted a no-BS discussion about the state of fundraising in 2023, and we all got it.
If you were there, you know just how GOOD last night’s conversation was. If you weren’t, or if you wish you could hear it again or share it with others, you’re in luck — we recorded the entire thing, and we’ll be posting it on YouTube once the 8GB file uploads from Joe’s phone (stay tuned for an email next week when it does!)
This was the first panel discussion we’ve had at these dinners, but I have a feeling it won’t be the last. If you have feedback (or ideas for other topics!) hit “reply” and don’t hold back. Really, if you have any feedback at all, now’s the time to share because…
WE’RE TAKING NEXT MONTH OFF.
Call it a summer break, but we won’t be hosting our dinner in July. Instead, we’ll be taking the month to work on our processes, evaluate what’s worked (and what hasn’t), and return better than before on August 3rd. Same place, same time, as always. And if you forget and show up at the Merc on July 6th, Danny will be happy to take care of you.
I encourage all of you to take the extra time to do even more to help our growing community. A reminder of what’s required to join us in August:
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!)
On to the team shoutouts:
Joe, who takes lovely photos of us at the dinner and would love to take photos of you and your team as well — check out all the photos from last night here;
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!
One final ask of mine, and then on to yours: follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn!
You keep coming, so we’ll keep hosting. See you in August!
Eric!
Asks
My name is Mike Soderholm, CEO of TalkGo. We are the technology and distribution solution for voice-enabled AI. We give consumers and businesses access to voice technology, hands-free, without having to unlock your phone and dig through 60+ apps. ["Alexa, pre-heat the over to 425 on your way home. HeyStarbucks, order me a large latte on your way to work.] Our goal is to transform how people use their voice to enhance their everyday lives. Besides ongoing capital, I'm looking for a firmware developer to join us later this year.
My name is Max Dordevic. I am the CEO of NeuroX1 Inc. We partner with pharmaceutical identify drug targets and underlying mechanisms of neurological disorders and using generative chemistry design novel compounds with the most favorable characteristics needed for clinical efficacy. I currently need help with how to structure partnerships in biopharma.
My name is Loren Kerr and I’m the CEO and Founder at DEX, a toolkit for competitive esports. We’re in an “unproven” market with a lot of interest. While our MVP is subscription based, we could use the help of a fractional strategy or financial officer that could help us dial into specifics of a sustainable business model that could help us attract more leagues to join our platform.
My name is Grant Gunnison. I am the CEO of Zero Homes. We are a technology company helping people electrify their homes. I am looking to put together a peer group that would like to meet monthly for dinners. Looking to start in late June, shoot me a note if you'd like to participate.
My name is Mackenzie Langley. I am the CEO of Lighthouse. Lighthouse is a social network designed for nonprofits to increase their impact, improve their operational efficiency, and grow their community of participants, volunteers, and donors. In response to user feedback, I am in the process of re-working the product roadmap and am interested in connecting with mentors who have a background in using design thinking to build great products.
My name is Stephanie Cohen. I am the Founder & CEO of ModBox Builders. The housing market is in crisis with record low/no inventory levels, to solve this, we build single and multi-family homes for sale and/or rental for low to middle-income families. I currently need help with figuring how to financially run my business until I raise funds.
My name is Chris Oltyan and I'm the CEO of Compliable. We help industries stay in compliance by automating the paperwork and management of all the forms they need to submit to their regulator. Right now we're looking at moving into new verticals and our GTM strategy involves a lot of marketing spend. I want to be sure we're using this spend effectively and would love to know what metrics matter to people and how we can make sure our spending is being effective. If you've had experience with failed campaigns, would love to talk about what went wrong and how you would try to detect the issue sooner if you had to do it again.
My name is Tim Wolters. I am the CEO of CrowdSolve. We help early stage climate companies get off the ground by providing automated curriculum, mentorship, and connections to funding. I currently need help with raising a fund to support more climate entrepreneurs.
My name is Andrew Antonio. I am the CEO of Urban Sky. We help GIS organizations to acquire more frequently updated, high-resolution, low-cost mapping data by operating the first ever fully reusable, rapidly deployable, low-cost stratospheric imaging systems. I currently need help with debt financing!
My name is Rani Powers. I am the CEO of Pluto, a B2B SaaS platform that empowers scientists in academia and pharma analyze complex biological data sets in minutes. This is helping them make new discoveries and develop new medicines faster and more accurately. I currently need help with hiring our first VP of Sales and structuring their comp.
My name is Eric Reinhardt. I am the CEO of Helio Home. We are managed marketplace for whole home electrification. We make it easy for homeowner to remove fossil fuels and fully electrify their homes. We are launching our end to end sales experience would appreciate users with a keen product eye to give us feedback.
My name is Ed Likovich. I am the CEO of Nymbl Science. We are a digital health company that provides personalized balance training to older adults to prevent falls and improve quality of life. We are looking for Product mentors and advisors.
My name is Kyle Shannon. I am the Founder/CEO of Storyvine. We are a video agility platform and allow our clients to create high-quality video from anyone, anywhere at any time. We're always looking for intros into healthcare/pharma and have also completely re-imagined our platform using generative AI. I want to talk to anyone seriously exploring AI in their business.
My name is Steve Pockross. I am the CEO of Verblio. We are a content creation platform that enables marketers to create quality content at scale. We've recently scaled back dramatically with the dual headwinds of AI and recessionary trends, and I'm looking for ways to excite and motivate my remaining team to scale back up to levels we'd already hit before.
My name is Jess Ward. I am the CEO of Athinka and host of Firepower X. We help firefighters outsmart stress by beefing up their mental performance game. I'm hosting a firefighter wellness conference in October and would love to connect with someone who knows Steve Buscemi to potentially have him speak – he used to be with FDNY!
My name is Trevor Jones. I am the CEO of Lynx Global Intelligence. We help mining companies with their sustainability data capture and reporting with a SaaS platform that lets mine staff upload data from the mine site itself. I currently need help with sales and marketing messaging to a global audience that is typically traditional and in an older generation (mining CEO's) that can be resistant to adopting new tools.
My name is Davis Hart. I am the CEO of Public Key Financial. We help institutions adopt blockchain by providing bank issued yield-bearing tokenized fiat (aka stablecoins) that address the risk and capital efficiency problems of existing options. I currently need help finding a first hire/co-founder with experience in depository banking and an interest in digital assets.
My name is James Dice. I am the CEO of Nexus Labs. We help the commercial buildings industry with keep up with new technology using educational content and community gathering. I currently need recommendations for tools or methods that help with creating processes, delegation, and task management.
My name is Todd Hanford. I am the CEO of JobVyne. For most job seekers, applying to jobs is a black hole of sorrow and frustration. We create and aggregate professional communities to help job seekers make meaningful connections and get hired. We just pivoted and I am looking for early product feedback to help prioritize development.
My name is Tom Kiss. I am the CEO of Ate. We support people on their health journeys by making journaling and self-discovery easy, so people can be more consistent in their efforts, resulting in lasting positive changes in their lives. I am currently looking for advice on ASO. Would love to chat with anyone about ASO.
My name is Eric DeGrass. I am the Founder of BugZero. We help Enterprise IT avoid costly outages from operational defects from their mission-critical vendors by proactively addressing risk. I currently need help with ideas for celebrating big wins with a geographically diverse 100% remote team.
My name is Mike Hartman. I am the CEO of Flourish AI. We are a mobile app focused on curing loneliness in middle and high school students via a digital companion driven by conversational AI. We are launching our pre-seed fundraising efforts next week and I would love to learn any tips or tricks others are willing to share about building momentum at the start of this process.
My name is Eric McClure. I am the CEO of Mainn. We are an engagement platform for chambers of commerce to better promote and protect their business members. We will be launching an MVP on June 14th for a specific live event, and I'm interested in talking to anyone with experience launching a new product.
My name is Zac Garthe. I am the CEO of Sigil. We are making eCommerce honest with groundbreaking technology so consumers can trust the products they buy. I need a coach!
My name is Joseph Abrahams. I am the CEO of Gobo. We help tech companies launch partnerships with other products by providing an out-of-the-box developer portal and app marketplace. I'm looking for intros to heads of product at series B, B2B SaaS companies to do a quick user test of a new website.
Hi, my name is Tore Nilsen, CEO of iBOS. We create AI software robots that builds enterprise software at lightning speed. We are a spin-off with a mature technology in used by 30+ global enterprises. We have bootstrapped last year with profit and are now looking to get help to prepare for seed funding to speed up market launch and growth.
