VCs Need You Too
Last week, for the first time since our opening dinner in 2023 , we sold out Thunderview CEO Dinner!
Like, seriously. I had to tell people they couldn’t come. With more than 50 startup CEOs and investors, we hit capacity and officially achieved “sold out” status. After a year and a half of hosting these dinners, I couldn’t be more grateful to all of you and the community we’ve built!
I can’t go any further without thanking the three rockstar VCs who joined us last night:
Rich “Talk to 200 VCs” Maloy from SpringTime Ventures
Natty “We Need You More Than You Need Us” Zola from Matchstick Ventures
Hayfa “Be Sure You Want VC Funding” Aboukier from Range Ventures
You three brought your A-games and I was so impressed by your willingness to be frank and open with all of us about the state of VC funding, and how founders can get it (if they should be getting it at all).
If you were there, you know how good it was. If you weren’t, well, glean what you can from these resources that they shared and we promised to send out:
Now that we’re selling out our dinners, it’s even more important that you buy your ticket to the next one NOW.
Get Your Ticket for the October 3rd Dinner HERE!
It’s going to be another banger of a panel, focused on early startup sales, which makes all the difference whether you are bootstrapping or raising capital. As Natty Zola said last week, “sales is the best capital out there,” and we’re going to announce a couple of early-stage experts shortly.
Deep gratitude once again to everyone who was there last night. If you weren’t able to join us, please do sign up for next month! We would love to sell out again, and if this keeps up we might even have to talk to Danny about moving us upstairs 😉
Eric!
Team shoutouts:
Megan, who can help with any of your PR, social media, and content marketing needs;
Shaw, who can handle all of your creative and branding needs;
Danny and the Mercury Cafe, who should be your first thought for live music, date nights, and events;
Joe, who can help you out with photography, videography and custom fucking furniture!
And Eric, who coaches startups professionally and can help you identify your most important priorities and then execute on them (customer discovery, sales, fundraising, etc).
Our Mission
We are a community of founders and investors who help one another build incredible businesses. 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 Monica Norder and I'm CEO of a workforce solution that is currently in the wind-down stages and so I'm am truly just looking for inspiration tonight from all of these other wonderful stories and to learn from anyone who made a pivot from plan A idea to plan B idea.
My name is Adam Zucker. I am the CEO of Cloverleaf AI. We help Government Contractors and Government Affairs teams with finding sales opportunities, tracking policy, and understanding their reputation by ingesting videos of government meetings and deriving insights/analysis from them. I currently need help with transitioning our company from a Founder Led Sales organization to a scalable sales organization.
My name is Keegan Drake. I am the CEO of Bloomsday. Our platform guides homebuyers through the homebuying process. Our MVP is online, and I am looking for people who are planning to buy a home or who have just bought a home to test it.
My name is Ala Stolpnik. I am the CEO of Wisary. Wisary, an AI-powered tool, helps Product Managers align business and engineering to build the right products on time. I have a demo day approaching and I'm looking for tips related to engaging with investors.
My name is James Garofalo. I am the Cofounder/CEO of Lokiten Behavioral Health. We help men, women, and children across the lifespan obtain affordable, accessible, and destigmatized mental health services by offering virtual and in person appointments through a variety of outpatient programs. I could use help with learning a bit more about term sheets.
My name is Jimshade Chaudhari. I am the CEO of Marketron. We are a B2B software company that provides sales enablement and operations software to radio broadcasters. I'm looking to talk to someone who has successfully subleased their downtown office space.
My name is Joshua Campbell. I am the CEO of Melismatic. We help humans live their best lives through personalized generative music that adapts to their preferences, feedback, and biometrics in real time. I'd love to talk to anyone who has trouble with their sleep, especially those who would be interested in trying our prototype.
My name is Patty Ferreira. I am the CEO of Silvis Materials. We are helping to reduce our carbon footprint by providing bio-based binders and adhesives for building products and packaging. We filed our first patent last month and are beginning tests with customers in the industry. We are currently raising our seed round.
My name is Ariel Snapp. I am the CEO of Creatively Free Studios. Our current project helps ocean lovers clean up the ocean through AR interactive gaming experiences. I currently need help with finding a technical co founder in gaming and AR.
My name is Tony Macias. I am the CEO Butterflye. We help Product Managers turn releases into revenue opportunities by translating technical jargon into easy to consume Go-To-Market communications. We have a product in market, have some early wins and are looking for funding partners to help capitalize on this massive Release Readiness opportunity.
I’m Dr. Sam Monson, CEO of We Hate Exercise. We have a 12-week program proven to get people physically active and (bonus!) feeling the power of connectedness with others in the program. Our current raise is with mission-aligned non-profits who have a venture philanthropy fund. I’d love intros to anyone you know in the non-profit world whose mission is aligned with physical activity and/or social connection.
My name is Jaclyn Tracy. I am the CEO of SISTAIN. We are a sustainable home goods marketplace enabling nontoxic living. We are currently raising a $2M Seed round and we need help meeting consumer, marketplace and impact investors.
My name is Suzanne Caldwell. I am the CEO of Data Brain Technologies. We are a partner with one of four Nvidia Cloud data centers that Nvidia selected to roll out their AI Cloud solution. We provide Nvidia Cloud GPUs as a Service. We are also a Big Data, AI consultancy. Looking for a best in class data labeling tool.
My name is Cole Weiler and I am the CEO of BoltWise. We are a sales automation platform specifically designed for Industrial Distributors. We use AI to translate part descriptions to expedite quoting. I'm looking for a CRM that tracks prospects with the least amount of user overhead.
My name is Aaron Dix. I am the CEO of BettrData.io. We help data companies reduce time to market and costs around data operations with our SaaS automation platform. I currently need help with hiring.
My name is Aaron Raybin, I’m the founder of AliceHome. We help high-end apartment communities attract great residents, reduce their turnover costs, vacancy loss, and improve their reputation management. We’re expanding to another state and I’d love to talk with anyone that’s had experience building or managing an in-person team out of state. What were unexpected challenges? What were key learnings or things you would do differently if you had to do things over?
My name is Mel David. I am the CEO of Virch Merch. We help the music industry with live event merch logistics and technology by shipping live event merch directly to fans. I currently need help with fundraising and finding more tech people to add to our team!
I'm Toby Dallas; I'm the CEO of Parts Dashboard. We help small manufacturers keep control of all their complex product and production information through use of our software. We need help with sales and marketing, more specifically how best to identify and pursue a willing market niche.
My name is Romain Sepehr Vakilitabar. I am the CEO of Pathos Labs. We help TV writers with telling more accurate, relatable, and creative stories by introducing them to the world's most fascinating people. I currently need help with ideating new business models that could help us diversify our revenue streams.
My name is Scott Kiere, CEO of Urban Green Development. We do what the name implies, developing sustainable real estate development projects throughout Denver Metro. I'm showing up to contribute to the community as moved, touched and inspired to do so.
My name is Loren Kerr, I am the CEO of Carousel, we are a recruiting platform for esports platform built to help esports organizations not only find athletes, but also provide tooling for them to increase ARPU without the need for traditional paths with sponsors and ads. With tens of thousands of committed users upon launch, I'm hoping to get our platform to market early next year and I'm looking for developers or another founding member willing to come on board and get us to launch in early 2025.
My name is Jesper Johansen. I am the CEO of Cofounder of CFO Nav. We help midsized companies in Europe and North America. Our SaaS application helps companies evaluate and execute on strategic alternatives and stay on track through scenario modeling. We have streamlined the process through best practices so CFOs can trust the analysis that guides their most important strategic decisions. I currently need help with fundraising.
My name is Keith Raphael. I am the CEO of Straddle. We help startups and software platforms build faster, more secure account-to-account payments by combining open banking, identity verification, and money movement into a single API. I'm looking to connect with experienced technology founders and investors for product strategy and API design feedback.
My name is Pam Glick. I am the CEO of Lumena Inc. We better human performance through awe inspiring cognitive experiences. I currently need help networking amongst leaders in our target market of commercial aviation. Individuals who lead Human Factors & Pilot Development, Maintainers, Flight Attendants, etc.
My name is Derek Sakamoto, and I’m the Founder of Parachute. Parachute protects new venture investment capital. My ask is if you’re interested in learning more, please connect with me.
My name is Maggie Gannon, CEO of MiaHave. We help healthcare organizations assist unmet mental and emotional health needs of patients with chronic and lifelimiting illness. I need help with fundraising.
My name is Andy Jacobs. I am the CEO of Qrati. Have you ever sought a place to host community-sourced photos/videos for a group, a business or a large event? Then each option you considered fell short? Qrati is a visual storytelling platform for events. We provide event organizers with unique ways to engage participants, attract visitors to their web sites and monetize engagement. If you are seeking a great way to host photos/videos for an event (or know of others who are) please contact me.
My Name is Tore Nilsen. I'm the CEO and founder of iBOS. We are using AI to build tailored business software at 10-100x faster than normal with a special focus on moving legacy business systems to the cloud. We work a lot with CRM and ERP systems and have 20 years of experience in the governance, risk and compliance software market. We have our customer base in Europe and are looking for networking to find out how to do marketing and sales here in US.
My name is Hunter Menton, I'm the CEO of TheGrowthLab. We help new and emerging leaders thrive by providing them a platform to better understand their strengths, blind spots, learn key skills, test, reflect, fail, and GROW. We are testing our content with emerging leaders first, looking to start the platform build over the next few months.
My name is Dick Polipnick. I am the CEO of Clinicdesk. We help owner/operator healthcare clinics manage their business with clinic management software. I currently need help with identifying which vertical in healthcare to focus on first and am looking for introductions to small clinic owners for customer interviews.
My name is Leslie Chicoine. I'm the CEO of SunChaser. We make on-call suck less. SunChaser is a Slack integration with PagerDuty that boosts on-call visibility for the whole company, stops on-call surprises, and empowers individuals to manage their own schedules. And it takes only minutes to set up. I’m looking for beta testers, and feedback on what to build next.
My name is Sam Syed. I am the CEO of EVchargeME, a peer-to-peer EV charging network. Think of us as the AirBnB of EV charging. We are launching our beta at the end of the month and I'm looking for people interested in testing the app.
My Name is Sarah Antolini and I’m the CEO of Roar, a women’s health platform providing education, community, events, and products to women in menopause. We are building our market place and are I’m looking for engineers who have experience in drop-ship to help our team build.
My name is Henry Lai. I'm the CEO of Populist. We help news and advocacy organizations create embeddable politics content generated from our election, politician, and legislation civic data. We're starting a pre-seed raise in the coming months and are looking for introductions to potential investors.
My name is Jacqueline Claudia. I'm a seasoned executive and multi-time startup CEO currently exploring new opportunities. Throughout my career, I've helped organizations in various industries optimize their operations and achieve their strategic goals through innovative leadership and effective problem-solving. I'm passionate about making a positive impact and am considering an executive director role at a non-profit. To complement this, I'm also exploring fractional executive positions and consulting opportunities. I'm looking to connect with professionals who can offer insights into balancing mission-driven work with financial stability, as well as those who might benefit from my expertise in a consulting or advisory capacity.
My name is Rani Powers. I am the CEO of Pluto Bio. Our B2B SaaS platform helps scientists at pharma companies bring new therapies to market faster by enabling them apply different algorithms and AI to better understand biological data, without needing to code. I currently need advice on how to convert the many LinkedIn conversations we're having with prospects into signed partnership contracts and revenue.
My name is Tamas. I am the CEO of Ate - your mindful wellness companion. We support people in building lifelong healthy habits around food, movement, self-care, and sleep. By helping them understand their current habits, strengths and weaknesses, encouraging experimentation with new behaviors, and enabling them to build resilience around their wellness routines so they can adapt as life changes around them. I currently need help with a unique legal situation where we need to transfer ownership of some shares.
My name is Tom Keller. I'm the cofounder of Kellaia. We're building a statewide behavioral telehealth platform. We need help hiring a semi-retired psychiatrist and a semi-retired psychologist. They'll be assisting a team of 20 counselors, case managers, and peer support specialists.
My name is Elliot Strand. I am the CEO of PAGE Technologies. We help growers optimize their use of fertilizer by offering an affordable, instant chemical analysis platform. I currently need help with go-to-market strategy in parallel markets beyond our beachhead market of indoor agriculture.
My name is James Moran. I am the CEO of Sociable Insurance. We help social media creators protect their online presence and income by providing account monitoring and earnings interruption insurance. I currently need help connecting with influencer agencies and beta testers!
My name is Marcella Hall. I'm CEO of MascotYou AI. Our AI uses digital content to help visualize changes in personality and wellness to proactively manage mental health. We're looking for angel investors interested in the wellness or AI spaces.
My name is Karen Frame. I am the CEO and founder of Makeena. We're a B2B SaaS platform focused on helping people lead healthier lives on a cleaner planet through an app that rewards consumers after buying products that meet their dietary needs or lifestyle preferences. We just received a lead on our $3M term sheet for our Series Seed investment and are looking for local VCs to fill the round.
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 at our next dinner on October 3rd. Grab your ticket RIGHT NOW!