What a Return!
And we’re back!
After a summer / “I got married!” hiatus, there was no better way to come back together than we did last week! I missed these dinners so much, and last night was the perfect example of why — a community of considerate and committed entrepreneurs came together to help each other, ask insightful questions, and enjoy themselves! Thank you to everyone who joined us!
A particular thank you to Mike Platt from Cooley LLP for letting me hold him hostage on stage and grill him for well over an hour about the best ways to structure companies, handle co-founder equity agreements and what investors will expect legally before funding. Lawyers are expensive, and I am so grateful for the time he gave to our community! If you have more questions for him, please connect with him on LinkedIn or send him an email.
If you weren’t able to join us last night, don’t despair… we’ll be back next month on our normal schedule! And the September Dinner is one you won’t want to miss…
Get Your Ticket for the September 5th Dinner HERE!
We’ll be joined by Rich Maloy of Springtime Ventures and Natty Zola of Matchstick Ventures to discuss the State of the VC in 2024. I think this dinner might even sell out, so get your ticket ASAP!
Thank you again to everyone who joined us last night, and for those of you who plan on coming to future dinners. These dinners remain one of my favorite nights of the month, and I can’t wait to close out the rest of the year with you all!
-Eric!
Team shoutouts:
Megan, who can help with any of your PR or 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;
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).
And just in case you need a reminder after our break… 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 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. We are launching our product on Confluence Marketplace. I am looking for Atlassian consultants and Product Operations experts to help me learn about the Atlassian ecosystem.
My name is Alaina Walsh. I am the CEO of Emails Never Sent. We help individuals who have experienced abuse by providing a safe, anonymous space to express their thoughts and emotions towards their abusers. Our platform allows users to write and post messages addressed to their abusers using their first name or an alias, offering a therapeutic outlet without fear of identification. I currently need help with gathering general feedback and questions to further develop the idea, mission, and site.
My name is Arezou Zarafshan. I am the CEO of Call Emmy. We help busy families with finding help they can trust in 30 minutes or less, from childcare to eldercare and everything in between. I currently need help with warm introductions to people in charge of partnerships at event and sports venues such as the Empower Field, Coors Field, etc.
My name is Chris Oltyan. I am the CEO of Compliable. If complications around management and acquisition of licenses is slowing down your company's growth, we can remove that problem for you. We're exploring two segments right now "MUFOs" and Franchises. MUFO is Multi-Unit Franchise Owner and a Franchise would be like Buccies or Chili's. If you know any people or groups that manage 30 or more properties or someone who works at a corporate franchise office, I'd love an intro. Specifically Chili's or Buccies.
My name is Derek Sakamoto, and I am the Founder/CEO of Parachute. Parachute insures the principal invested in new ventures. Like any startup, we’re always looking to build traction. So if you’re curious about what we’re doing, please ask more.
My name is Elliot Strand. I am the CEO of Page Technologies. We are an environmental analytics platform that utilizes our proprietary solid-state sensor technology to provide actionable data to crop growers and others to increase their profits while decreasing their environmental impact. We were recently awarded an Early-Stage retention grant from OEDIT and are searching for partners and customers to pilot our technology.
My name is Paul Foley. I am getting interested in quantum and mental health startups. If you have friends building these, please make an introduction.
My name is Eric McClure. I am the CEO of Mainn. We are a bootstrapped SaaS platform that makes it easy and affordable for small business communities to market online by sharing digital foot-traffic to their own websites through a community portal embedded on their website. I currently need help with creative fundraising (not VC) and beta testers.
My name is Luz Gonzalez, I'm the Ventures Recruitment Manager for Exponential Impact, one of the only tech startup accelerators in Colorado focused on just Colorado tech startup founders. We are a non-profit, take no equity (we do have a small participation fee), and are focused on helping grow the CO tech ecosystem. We have two programs, a post-mvp accelerator as well as a post-revenue accelerator, the latter is open currently, and are looking for intros to companies that might be a right fit.
My name is Hunter Menton. I am the CEO of TheGrowthLab. We help new leaders thrive by providing individual and group training conent through a unique . We are bootstrapped and forming the company now with an eye to launch in next August. I'm looking for support in forming the company and advice on avoiding pitfalls with building our co-founder agreement.
My name is Jacob Orellana. I am the CTO of ReUnite. We help resale businesses understand their e-commerce performance by providing an analytics reporting service. I currently need help with building my network of entrepreneurs that I can grow with.
My name is James Garofalo. I am the CEO of Lokiten Behavioral Health. We are a digital intensive outpatient mental health clinic that provides a spectrum of outpatient mental health services to include psychiatry/medication management, intensive outpatient programming, and therapy. I'm looking to connect with people/providers in the primary care sector.
My name is Joe Scharf. I am CEO of DBSnapper. We are building a platform engineering tool that allows Developers and DevOps to use real-world de-identified production data in their coding and testing activities. We automate the process of subsetting, snapshotting, sanitizing, and sharing data with Development and DevOps Teams. I currently need help with enterprise sales: Evaluating and recommending changes to my enterprise sales strategy and execution. My goal is to establish a baseline sales capability that I can use to run experiments that identify the best way to sell into my target market.
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 in the near future.
My name is Joshua Abalos. I am the CEO of Shyne Network. We are aware that the current process apartments use to handle move out paint and cleans fails to meet the demands of modern property management. We help asset owners and property managers streamline and automate this process resulting in increased NOI. I currently need help with legal as we prepare to take the next step to fundraise.
My name is Kyle Shannon. I am the CEO of Storyvine, an automated video storytelling platform, and the co-founder of the AI Salon, a community of AI Optimists exploring generative AI. I seeking people interested in the intersection of storytelling and technology, and anyone curious about AI and how it is going to transform what we do and how we do it.
My name is Henry Lai. I'm the CEO of Populist. We help news and advocacy organizations expand and engage audiences with 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 Mark Abrams. I am the CEO of Circle Cards. We help humans give likes in the physical (real) world, and increase feelings of connection, with trackable pass-it-forward cards that show acknowledgment/appreciation. I currently need help deciding between organizing as a non-profit or public benefit corp.
My name is Marshall Hayes. I am the CEO of Pick Me Up. We make a party game like Cards Against Humanity, but with Pickup Lines. I currently need help with long-term partnerships with Influencers or celebrities.
My name is Mike Shanley. I am the CEO of AidKonekt Data. We are a B2B bootstrapped SaaS platform that allows humanitarian aid organizations to identify funding opportunities in the $38 billion USAID market. We are launching a new Concierge Service market research data product that leverages the data infrastructure we built, but still requires a couple days of human time to prepare each requested reports. I'm interested in connecting with firms offering higher-end data products that include human development components and are not fully automated.
My name is Monica Norder and I am the CEO of Trumee. We are focused on the mid-career job candidate and the employer hiring this talent. The problem is that quality candidates are not being seen and the employers are overwhelmed by applicant volume. And we believe AI solutions are not accurately screening. My ask is for referrals to anyone in the recruiting or talent acquisition field for brief customer discovery interviews.
My name is Nathan Gray, one of the Founders of Meshcomm Engineering. We are solving the problem of limited or no connectivity for applications in agriculture and environmental monitoring. We are focused on customer discovery and I'm looking for connections to folks who work in agriculture or environmental remediation or anything adjacent to these industries.
My name is Sergey. I am the CEO of Three Sigma. We help insurance companies make smarter pricing decisions with AI. We recently raised a round that will help us scale and I'd love to hear any input/experience on running a remote first company.
My name is Sam Monson. I am the CEO of We Hate Exercise. We offer a 12-week online program to help people consistently exercise who are struggling to be successful going it alone. We are looking to fundraise exclusively from mission-aligned non-profits who have a venture philanthropy fund, and I would love advice about this process and introductions to people in the venture philanthropy world.
My name is Tim Beck. I am the CEO of SAASTEPS. We help businesses automate revenue flawlessly with our 100% declarative to administer Revenue Acceleration Management suite. We do this by seamlessly connecting seven revenue solution into one simple to implement solution suite. I am currently seeking people to provide their candid and organic 3rd party review of what we invented and made Patent-Pending.
My name is Topher Marie. I am the CEO of Authonomy. We help enterprises with legacy or complex identity infrastructure -- think old Active Directory or Oracle -- keep their organizations secure. I would love to be connected to anyone who works or has worked in these sorts of environments; not to pitch, but to learn more about their particular problems and how they're solving them now.
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 will be assisting a team of 20 counselors, case managers, and peer support specialists.
My name is Zachary Snader. I am the CEO of WiLDKiND. We help emerging sports audiences with limited gaming options related to their sport by creating games just for them. I currently need help with structuring a Patreon launch.
My name is Michael Pottern. I am the Founder of Denver Zen Den, where ancient wisdom meets modern technology. We use innovative technologies that affect brainwaves and the nervous system to support reducing anxiety, better sleep, improved focus, and shifting depression. I’m looking to form strategic partnerships with organizations and individuals who share our passion for wellness and innovative therapies. Can anyone introduce me to potential collaborators in the health and wellness industry or with businesses that would like to utilize these modalities for their teams?
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 September 5th. Grab your ticket RIGHT NOW!