Q2 2022

Startup updates, awesome links, tv recommendations, and pics.

Jul 01, 2022

Updates 🗞️

These past months have been more about working behind the scenes and strategizing our next steps for the long term at Buildergroop and less about showing quick, shiny results as we did in the first quarter.

We incorporated Buildergroop as a Delaware C Corp, purchased a business address in NYC, signed engagement letters with 2 great lawyers, and are working with Stripe to set up a business bank account which is proving to be quite difficult as minors. We launched our Perks Program (Password: BuildergroopIsAwesome), which currently has $29k in discounts and credits from amazing software companies and co-working spaces around the globe. We have 3 launches ready to be pushed next quarter that should all contribute greatly to our community. The team landed on two promising revenue models which would financially support us, our community’s startups, and whichever individual or firm we end up striking a deal with. Next quarter should be an awesome one, packed with new launches, angel and VC involvement, and community growth… fingers crossed 🤞🏼

My photography community, Photography Lounge, is growing consistently and healthfully per usual thanks to my incredible team led by Cederik Leeuwe. A brilliant photographer, TV cameraman + editor, educator, and not surprisingly, community manager. Discord did a case study on the community last week covering how we engage our members, you can read it here if you want.

Snaps is still on hold with development, but things are starting to pick up now. While my co-founder, Hannes, is busy with his other business, we’ve decided to welcome a new member to our team. Guillaume Moigneu, the VP of Product at Platform: a Parisian company with 300+ employees and $50M in funding. Not only are we excited to work with him thanks to his extensive experience in business and development at Platform, but Guillaume is also a super talented photographer! Check out his work here.

In the past months, I’ve started managing two new communities. John Coogan’s and Romulus Europe’s. John Coogan creates content on YouTube covering business/tech topics, reaching nearly 200k subscribers in just a year. He’s also a seasoned entrepreneur, having raised a whopping $140M for his two companies, Soylent and Lucy. Romulus Europe is a team of writers and video creators focused on producing non-pretentious content for Europeans. You can check out their video essays here.

Finally, I’ve recently gotten news that I’ve been accepted into The Knowledge Society. I also qualified for the ability to submit a project application for a full-ride scholarship, which I’ve decided to go for. The goal is to solve a local or global problem using emerging technologies (blockchain, biotech, space tech, gene editing, etc). This’ll be interesting for me as I’m not historically a technical person - I’ve avoided all things STEM since the first time I explored those topics, and there’s a reason for that. My project will be utilizing artificial intelligence and I have 13 days to complete it, so wish me luck! I’ll share more in next quarter’s newsletter if all goes well - it’ll be a fantastic learning opportunity.