buildingcommunity

(I hope you don't hate it)

5/22/25

We live in a very busy world. The noise is loud.

It's hard to stay "top of mind". Too frequently a great conversation can quickly drift into the abyss. A great person will enter and exit your orbit in a flash. It's just how the world works. A very small percentage of people we interact with are able to be maintained, fostered, invested in. And that's okay. In work, we're all victims of this -- and guilty of this.

But my goal here is to help founders harness that extended community. To pull in more people who can help you succeed. Connecting back to our OGs -- "it takes a village".

There's two pieces to this.

1) Staying on the radar -- having an easy way to float back into peoples headspace (monthly updates on your business)

2) Breaking the noise -- breaking from the boring / stale status quo (e.g. templated investor updates), pulling people into the journey (sharing something that's authentic and interesting and rich in "story")

If you do a good job doing this, it can help you in many ways.

You’re on the radar of people who have shown interest in what you’re building.
You’re showing momentum and traction on an ongoing basis. People see the progress and like to align with winners.
People will forward the email and connect you to new people.

List Building

Start with a haul of your contacts (calendar, email history, spreadsheets, LinkedIn, cell phone) -- linking back to conversations that were pleasant and enjoyable (optimizing for energy). Add nice people that have been encouraging and helpful. Cast a wide net.

Then once a month go through your calendar and sent emails. Manually add people to your investor newsletter that you had a pleasant meeting with in the previous month.

Be liberal with this. You never know who can help you, and who might know the perfect person for you. This is not limited to “angel investors”, this is a very broad scope.

These are the people you're pulling into the story of your business (and they'll likely invest too!).

Style + Tone

Emails should be in plain text, directly from you, with all contacts in BCC. There should be an opt out option. And the style can go in two directions --

From the heart, vulnerable, open, blog post style, fun, friendly, authentic
Structured and professional

I personally like the first style. It’s unique, interesting, differentiated, personal. I think this is what people really want. The world is so stale and structured and formal. Building a business is so scrappy and hard and fun and painful. It’s ripe for good storytelling, and I think a very powerful way to differentiate yourself. Tell a good story.

I find the second option to be a bit stale. The over professionalized investor update that they teach you at YC / Tech Stars makes everyone look the same. It lacks differentiation and I think the over professionalization / standardization shows. I’m less likely to read it.

But you should pick the style that resonates with your vibe, brand, and personality. Both work. The key is that you’re doing this consistently and building a foundation over an extended period of time.

For more casual updates, I like this format:

2-3 sentences — sharing your optimism about the business, framing the month
4-5 bullet points of the biggest wins in the month
2-3 paragraphs, free writing / reflection, contextualizing the bullets
Pointed asks

Talk about your craziest day last month. Good, bad, fun, ugly, chaos. Tell me a good story! Make it interesting for people to read.

And send it on the 1st. There's a certain signal with that. It shows you're on top of your shit. Do that consistently for multiple months and people will take note.

9/17/25 (Update)

For those founders that I've pitched this to -- the feedback has been extremely positive. They've flagged value added responses each month, from a range of different people -- including those around investment.

Some tips that have been double clicked on --

-- It's an initial lift to get contacts organized, but should be less than an hour each month thereafter

-- cast a wide net, and add new people every month (via sent emails + calendar meetings)

-- the more casual the better

-- pointed CTA's in the emails that direct value you're looking for

-- plain text / BCC / directly from founder

I've added some specific examples at the bottom for inspiration and stylistic inspiration.

Examples

Early Stage CPG

Hi Justin,

I hope you had a great weekend! August was a busy and energizing month. While much of the work happened behind the scenes, it set the stage for what’s next. We made meaningful progress on our Phase 1 retail expansion and have already begun mapping out Phase 2. Not a lot of big headlines to share yet, but the foundation we’re building now will directly fuel the opportunities ahead.

Here are a few highlights from August

Target Meetings - Update: Our 3 days at Target HQ were extremely successful! We are in close contact with their dairy merchandising team and have started planning a 2026 (likely Q2 or Q3) set in select Target stores in California (25-50 locations). The relationship we are building here is strong; their team is eager to support our growth and be the first to champion our innovation in the conventional channel. Our job is crystal clear: to continue showing strong velocities in the natural channel, keep up the momentum on social media, and keep the Target team updated on our month-to-month wins.

Award: We are a 2025 Shelfie Award winner! MILKish took home the 2025 Best Plant Based Alternative prize from StartupCPG’s yearly award show. Winning this award is validation that the world is ready for better-for-you, better-for-the-planet alternatives.

Packaging: Below is a mock up of what our new packaging will look like. We made some tweaks to emphasize our best performing claims, bring more personality to the branding, and incorporate consumer feedback into our packaging. Early reactions from retailers and distributors have been overwhelmingly positive, reinforcing our confidence that this packaging will strengthen both on-shelf appeal and sell-through.

Fundraising: We were selected to attend an exclusive event in New York (December 11th) that brings together 50+ top VCs in the industry with 150 brands raising pre-seed to seed. At this event, we will have the opportunity to not only showcase/sample MILKish, but we will also meet 1:1 with various VCs.

As always, thank you for tagging along for the journey! You are receiving these monthly updates because I am extremely grateful for your support. Let’s keep building on this momentum!

Best,

If you’d like to be removed from this mailing list, please reply STOP in all caps or click "unsubscribe" below.

Early Stage Tech

Hey now — It’s Sam and Sanjit from LayUp.

We ended June facing doubt — losing a major client and questioning our path forward. But it turns out that clarity is born from chaos. July reminded us that when you bet on yourself and stay faithful, new doors always swing wide open.

In one word: Relentless

Wins This Month

Signed a new MLB client deploying six figures — returned 18% ROI in July alone
Partnered with Paris Smith (former CEO of Pinnacle) to drive enterprise business development and strategy,
Refined our sales systems and positioning with help from mentors (thank you Andrew!)
Started a waitlist for our fall model rollout
Finalized NFL model architecture; replication underway for college football and basketball
Laid the foundation to deploy models in real-time across all sports and markets
Expanded our sports betting network — from lawyers to partners to friends. Shoutout Jesse, Zack, Joe, Niki, Adam, and Kelly!
Increased professionalism 10x

What’s Ahead

August is for automating and closing. We’ll be closing sales by day and running engineering sprints by night. Our football models are nearly live — and we’re locking in early-access seats for college basketball.

And we’re taking a gap year!!! Sam is moving to Austin to join Sanjit in building LayUp side-by-side — and plugging into the Christian and fitness communities there. We are pumped to be back working with each other to grow the company and our friendship.

What We’re Wrestling With

How do we standardize systems so we’re acquirable at any moment?
How do we build real community while keeping execution speed high in a new city?
And most importantly: What’s the best BBQ spot in Austin?

Gratitude & Glimpse

Thank you for being part of the journey. We’re learning as we go — but we’re going fast and with conviction. Here’s to another month of growth and we hope to talk soon!

Sam + Sanjit

P.S. -- If you want us to remove you from our monthly update list, please let us know and we can take you off.