A monthly update for Long Journey founders: curated gatherings, hands-on workshops, and high-signal asks & offers to meaningfully elevate your journey.
📌 The Corkboard (Upcoming Events & Offerings)
- Monday, April 20th — After Hours @ Long Journey (San Francisco | 7:00-10:30 PM PST)
- The entire house will be open for coworking from 7 PM - 10:30 PM! Come get some work done alongside magically weird Long Journey folks, wander the rooms for a spark of inspiration, and stay as long as the energy feels good.
- RSVP HERE →
- Tuesday, April 21st — How to Experience Design My Retreat (Virtual | 11:00-12:30 PM PST)
- In this session, Mike will guide you through the art of crafting impactful retreats for your team, covering everything from grounding in values and culture to curating heart centered experiences that leave a lasting mark. NOTE: This session is intentionally capped at 3 participants to ensure meaningful, high-impact support.
- RSVP HERE →
- Thursday, Apr 23rd — How to Approach My Next Raise (Virtual | 10:00-11:00 AM PST)
- This session functions like an ‘office hours’ where you can ask questions, learn from the group and work with Lee and Venture Partner, John Bruck, on strategies to successfully approach your next raise.
- RSVP HERE →
- Thursday, April 30th — Sci-Fi Theater: The Truman Show (Roxie Theater, San Francisco | 6:00 PM PST)
- We’re excited to invite you to the fourth installment of Weird Thursday Theater at the iconic Roxie Theater. This screening explores perception vs. reality—the stories we inherit, the ones we choose, and the moments we begin to question them. We’ll be watching The Truman Show, a film about waking up to your own life and stepping beyond the world you’ve been given. Bring your friends! This is for the community to meet other magically weird people and have exploratory mind-bending conversations.
- RSVP HERE →
- (TBD - End of April) — Executive Coaching Sessions (Virtual)
- These executive coaching sessions will be run by Shane Metcalf. Shane is the founder at 15Five and has worked with many folks in the Long Journey community as a coach - he is one of the best in the business.
- Option 1: Founder Bottleneck Session: A 90-minute small-group coaching session (4–7 founders) where you bring a current challenge and work through it with expert coaching and peer feedback from Long Journey founders at similar stages.
- Option 2: Cofounder Lab: 90-minute hands-on session designed for co-founding teams to strengthen how they work together. We’re creating a container where cofounders can work on communication patterns, decision-making friction, or get a general tune-up and identify what you can improve on.
- Reach out to Carolena if you’re interested in signing up for either Founder Bottleneck Session or Cofounder Lab (spots are limited).
- Saturday, May 30th - Saturday, June 27th — Edge Esmeralda (Healdsburg, CA)
- Edge Esmeralda is a month long gathering that brings together 1,000+ visionary thinkers, builders, and creators committed to shaping a brighter, more human-centered future. Last year our portfolio companies like Superpower, Dreampark and Ami host events and demoed their products to the Esmeralda community. If you're planning to attend, let us know which dates, we'll be up there for the month!
- We have a 50% off tickets for Long Journey founders. Skip the application using this link: https://bit.ly/4cfMaoZ and use EE26-LJ-50 at checkout. Note: Please do not share this code.
- Bellwether Referral Network
- We’re building a curated directory of trusted service providers and professionals vetted by YOU (our community). Let us know who has been instrumental to your journey and provided guidance and wisdom that you’d recommend to fellow founders.
- SUBMIT HERE→
🎉 Big Moves & Brags!
- Keith (Busright) announced their Series B! Here’s what one of their customers has said about them:
- “Thank you for all you and your team do for school districts. I’ve been pleased to work with BusRight since the start of the school year. It has helped our department in so many ways. I work in the transportation office and use this for routing, managing parent calls, and accessing all our information in one place. It’s amazing!”
- Kavitta (Nectir) raised a $12.5M Series A. Watch her exclusive interview with Forbes, Maggie McGrath.
- Walid (Artemis) closed a $6M Seed Round check out their announcement here with Latitude Media.
- Josh (Eragon) raised a $12M Seed Round led by Long Journey!
- Scott and John (Throne) officially launched Throne earlier this month.
- Eric and Nathan (Autopallet) put out their official launch video and received launch coverage from The Robot Report!
- Sarah (Mappa) recently joined TechCrunch Build Mode to talk about AI, deep tech, and building Mappa, feel free to check out the episode here.
🐏 Joining the Flock?
- Aubrey (Swoop) dropped out of Berkley and moved to Nigeria to build Africa’s first super app, integrating services like food delivery, commerce, ride share and payments into one application. Before Swoop, at 15, he built a recruitment company sourcing remote workers in Africa that scaled to $60k ARR.
- Brad (Havik) is designing fully portable, self-contained virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) military training solutions. Before Havik, Brad studied game design and served as a Navy SEAL for 8 years.
- Leïa (Cortex) is a student at Yale who built Yale's very first hacker house. Now she's developing Cortex, an operating system for modern biology designed to unify fragmented lab data and enable automated scientific reasoning.
🏕️ Founder Field Guide (save these pages!)
- LONG JOURNEY FOUNDER RESOURCES & OFFERINGS →
- New Offering: We’ve upgraded our Deel partnership, which means Long Journey startups get $25,000 in credits along with dedicated onboarding support and exclusive access to events and research. Plus, founders get free payroll for life! Series A+ companies receive 20% off Deel SaaS fees for 12 months in lieu of credits. Apply at deel.com/partners/longjourney to get started and a Deel Account Executive will contact you to schedule a 30-minute product demo. Questions? Email startups@deel.com.
- LONG JOURNEY FOUNDER DATABASE →
💪 Asks & Offers
Have something to ask or offer founders in the community? Let us know in your investment update and we can include it in next month’s bulletin!
✨ Second Believers
- Cyan (General Partner) is diving into non-local consciousness and that which cannot “yet” be explained, along with how she can best support and preserve creativity and that which is organically human.
- Lee (General Partner) is rucking through SF (part of his new health regimen) and is hosting a “second believer” dinner series with emerging fund managers and curious minds.
- AZ (General Partner) is out on maternity leave and is getting into the ‘Dungeon Crawler Carl’ series.
- Mike (Head of Platform) is working on achieving a 4.0 rating in pickleball and is currently writing a cookbook for connection, recipes for transformative, human experiences.
- Dani (Head of Operations) recently came back from maternity leave; she welcomed a son to her family back in November!
- Kelsey (Executive Assistant) is on maternity leave, welcoming a daughter to their family in November!
- Carolena (Platform Associate) is spending time in Tahoe on the weekends and during the week is designing a dinner series with leading operators around Culture & Spirituality.
- John (Gardener) has been snuggling his two Sphynx cats, training Muay Thai, and recently coached our team on an AI Build Day.
- Graunya (Executive Assistant) headed to Fiji on a yoga adventure retreat before she officially started as the newest member of the Long Journey team!
- Diana (Executive Assistant) has recently been enjoying local hikes and expanding her kitchen repertoire. She’s working with the platform team to help connect the dots and fill gaps in our processes.
Until next time,
The Long Journey Team
Second Believers in the Magically Weird