JamPad 2.0
A Plethora of Rollouts Where Announced Last Night @ JP7
3 months ago, JamPad had ~ 12 founders in the group. Today, I opened the JamPad Discord, and realize the group has now garnered > 30 top-tier founders building incredible companies in AZ. JP’s goal to turn Arizona’s hottest cities (Tempe, Arcadia, Scottsdale) into hotbeds scattered with techies is off and running. Here are just a few of the companies in the group that are ready for major breakouts (raising giant rounds & shipping at scale to customers) in the next 12 months:
Sous
With this advent, it’s time we begin leveraging the nodes of the network, talent, energy, and density we’ve cumulated over the first 7 months of JamPad, and start turning the flywheel even faster. Below is all the infra JamPad will be shipping in the coming months for JP 2.0, which we announced last night at JP7:
The Board
Yup, that’s right; JamPad will have a board of me (AL) + 3 other of the most talented, well-networked, and most involved founders in the group. They’ll also be spectated by tier (more on this below). The role of JP’s board is the following:
Get to know every single founder on a deep level. Once assigning a founder their tier, it allows JP’s board to personally intro founders to our network of investors, engineers, seasoned startup vets who’ve had/been part of > $1B exits, customer pipelines, and more. Board members and founders will meet 1v1, ~ 1x/month, to ensure maximum value-add is being achieved for them on the ground through JP.
The implementation of bylaws will be a huge addition to the group. Everyone is pretty clear on what it takes to get into JP. However, now there will be a minimum founders need to input (likely quarterly) to stay in JP. The reason we’re doing this is to increase the speed of the flywheel, keep the nodes fresh, and make sure founders aren’t just extracting, but also inputting to the group. Note; we’re very serious about quality. If a founder just doesn’t meet their threshold in JP consistently, they will be kicked out. Plain and simple.
Tiers
When founders are added to JP Discord or go to an event, it’s confusing who toy should be speaking to. Thus, we’ve decided to make that blatantly obvious. Everyone will be able to use the internal tools JP is building to connect with people in their tier, as well as leverage the board to facilitate connections. Below are the new tiers for JamPad founders:
L1: raised < $50k raised, pre-MVP, pre-launch, and maybe still formulating the founding team.
L2: $250k-$1M raised, post-launch, on track for PMF, solid team in place, and just waiting for the last domino to fall for liftoff.
L3: first major, multi-million dollar round, scaling customers/team rapidly, and now a runaway freight train.
Value
Let’s cut right to the chase; more steak is coming for founders:
JP hacker-houses (likely quarterly), to get the electrons (as Mychal Culpepper so eccentrically states) bouncing and products getting built. These will be Airbnb-style retreats for founders, likely weekend long.
Cafe pollination in Tempe, Arcadia, and Scottsdale will take its next step. Now with JPCalendar, all founders will have a live look as to who’s where & when. Henry, LGO, Sipps, Cartel, Press, Schmooze, and more will continue to fill up with techies as part of the changing of the guard underway in AZ.
JamPad Syndicate is coming. All those early-stage, ultra-talented founders looking to break into the bay? Problem solved. More on this to come.
The value of JP is not so much the monthly event, but what occurs in the 4 weeks between. Thus, the monthly JP will transform into magnet & grassroots events. All major announcements, the intro to new founders, group jam sesh, and more will be made there.
Final Thoughts
Not much to add here. Expect al these to rollout slowly but surely in the coming 60-90 days. It’s a very special time to be on the ground floor in AZ, and to be what the startup world considers “outsiders”, because those are the people that change things. With that, it’s time to get back to building.
AL, JP & Sinatra