I'm a serial entrepreneur who has raised $145M+ and has had multiple exits. I'm now on a mission to support founders with their capital strategy and acquire the capital they need to grow their businesses. Thunder.vc is a tech-enabled investment bank for founders, by founders. 

When it comes to supporting the founders in our Thunder.vc community, here are some free resources that can help you with your capital-raising efforts. 
- $100M Exits newsletter & Podcast 
- Sign up at http://blog.thunder.vc 
- Free list of AI-recommended VCs specific to your business - https://web.thunder.vc/list-of-investors-vcs-for-founders  
- Free tool to source lending partners for your working capital needs - https://lp.thunder.vc/apply-for-working-capital-for-your-startup-company



Securities are offered through Finalis Securities LLC Member FINRA / SIPC. Thunder X Capital, LLC is not a registered broker-dealer, and Finalis Securities LLC and Thunder X Capital, LLC are separate, unaffiliated entities.

Jason Kirby

This is the story most founders never post on LinkedIn. Most founders only focus on the upside.
 
Very few imagine the moment they stop being CEO.

James Rose scaled his first business to millions in revenue rapidly. Everything was going up and to the right...until it wasn't anymore.

Then the market turned.
The business collapsed.

And suddenly, he had to do the unthinkable: become an employee again.
Not because he wanted to. Because he had to. Family to support, lifestyle to maintain, and unsure of what the next big idea would be. 

That transition of losing the company and the identity was harder than the failure itself.

I chose to have James on because he had some amazing insights around this transition. It took him over a decade to get back in the saddle as a founder again, but he's managed just fine. His life wasn't over. 

But he was practically unemployable outside of sales. He was "over qualified"

So he dropped his ego and aspiration for a VP role and took a mid level sales job and grinded. It was tough, but it worked for him.

In this episode of $100M Exits, James breaks down:

- The emotional toll founders don’t talk about
- Why identity gets dangerously tied to the title
- How this moment reshaped how he builds today

I felt this was an important story to share as most founder don't know what's next after a failure. James's story is a ray of hope for the hopeless founder wondering what to do next. 

See the full episode in the article.

4x Exits, $100M+ Raised. Helping founders raise/exit with clarity, control, and conviction.

Watch the full video here This is not a story we discuss often on this podcast, but I felt Jame's story of having to "get a job" after scaling a multi

Open article: From CEO to employee, the pivot no one prepares for by Jason Kirby • 2 min read

From CEO to employee, the pivot no one prepares for

Yesterday I spoke my partner Oliver Low about a founder who just lost 2/3rds of their revenue right before making an acquisition. 

It was a total death to the founder. In their mind, how could they, in good faith (and legally) acquire a company with their stock if they just had a massive hit like that. 

This roll up acquisition strategy was designed by my partner and I to help them clear their pref stack and ensure the founders had a solid paid day for their efforts.

No one expected their anchor client to change management and drop the contract 🤯 

We empathized with the founder, and they ultimately just want to throw in the towel, wind down the company and return the $0.25 on the dollar back to their investors. 

I honestly respected them for that. They've had it hard enough on their journey, to reboot after a hit like that and all their plans crumble before their eyes...could they really put in another 5+ years to turn it around and clear their pref stack...is it even worth it?

Sometimes it's just better to quit...yes...the nasty Q word. We're often don't as founders "never give up" "never quit"

But sometimes, it's economically illogical to keep going from their perspective. 

The company needs a recap to ditch their toxic cap table that's holding them back, raise more cash or sell to someone who has cash to perform the AI roll up strategy. But the founders don't the energy or the desire to put up that fight.

It's a great business otherwise, just the prefstack makes it not worth it. 

It's a reality that more and more founders are running into when they can't grow fast enough to exceed their past valuations or pref stacks. 

If you know founders facing these issues, tag them in the comments and let them know they're not alone. 

I spend my days helping founders navigate these situations. 

For this particular founder, I might acquire the business myself and put in a CEO to execute the roll up strategy. There's always a creative way to solve every problem, but the incentive has to be there to make the juice worth the squeeze...never forget that part.

If your CAC is rising, your only defense is LTV.
Brian Ree built one of the highest-LTV businesses in fashion & sold for $700M

Here’s the playbook that led to a ~$700M outcome:

- Make LTV your North Star (not revenue).
- Improve gross profit per order before scaling traffic.
- Control supply chain via private label.
- Track 52-week cohort spend religiously.
- Use AI to predict product-level expected value.
- Optimize retention before increasing paid spend.

My takeaway from Brian, especially in the world of DTC today, growth doesn’t fix broken unit economics. It magnifies them.

While competitors chased top-line revenue, DailyLook engineered durability.
The result? Stronger margins, better retention, strategic leverage in M&A.

Watch the full episode below.

Watch the full video here Brian Ree’s journey with DailyLook is a reminder that survival precedes scale. When growth stalled and capital dried up, he 

Open article: How Brian Ree Turned a DTC Crisis Into a $700M Exit to Victoria's Secret by Jason Kirby • 2 min read

How Brian Ree Turned a DTC Crisis Into a $700M Exit to Victoria's Secret

When Kris Rudeegraap raised $100M from SoftBank for Sendoso, it didn’t start with a term sheet.

It started with a coffee.

SoftBank came inbound in late 2021.

Within days, that coffee turned into partner pitches.

Two weeks later, he was told:

“Block your entire calendar. We’ll tell you the day before Masa is ready.”
No private jet to Japan, like he was told, just a Zoom grid with a dozen SoftBank partners and Masa Son at the center.

Masa wasn’t casual.

He knew the numbers.

He asked pointed questions about growth velocity.
He grilled the US partners about how big this could get.

Then: silence.

A couple weeks later, Kris got the term sheet.

But the wire? Delayed for months...MONTHS because of international transfer reviews.

But once that $100M was real, expectations changed overnight.

Not subtly. Overnight.
At the time, Sendoso was around ~$50M ARR.

They had already raised roughly $65M prior.

With $165M+ in preferred capital stacked, the thinking wasn’t defensive.
It was:

“How fast can we double again?”

So what did they do?
They hired. Aggressively.

Kris said they ramped up to roughly 30 recruiters just to fuel hiring across go-to-market.
SDRs. AEs. Marketing. Post-sales support.

Because in 2021, the math felt simple:
More heads = more revenue.

Top-down target said “double.” Bottoms-up math didn’t get them there. So they changed the inputs. Turn on the hiring flywheel.

In hindsight, that wasn’t irrational, but tt was consistent with the rest of the market raising stacks of cash.

But then 2022 hit.

And the same company, with the same strategy, suddenly had to pivot. Growth at all costs pivoted to conserve and generate profit. He hired all those people and before they could generate a dollar of revenue, he had to lay them all off 😬 

The board conversations change when capital isn’t cheap anymore.
Which leads to two uncomfortable truths:

1️⃣ Mega-rounds distort decision-making
When you have $100M in the bank, the pressure to justify it shapes behavior. You optimize for scale, not resilience.

2️⃣ Capital amplifies strategy, it doesn’t fix it. If your go-to-market motion works, capital accelerates it. If it’s fragile, capital magnifies the fragility.

I talk to founders everyday wanting to raise capital, but they often don't realize the burden that comes with it. 

But kudos to Kris, he took the medicine, built an advisory board of over 100 experts, and navigated the storm to acheive amazing results being a leader in his category. 

If you want to hear the full story, check out my latest podcast on $100M Exits.

Watch the full video here Raising $100M doesn’t solve your problems; it magnifies them. Kris shares what founders rarely talk about: the operational w

Open article: How Sendoso Raised $100M From SoftBank by Jason Kirby • 2 min read

What color box are you in? 

If you're not in the green at the very least...I don't think we can be friends. 

I'm in the redbox  🦞 

This also explains the mega valuations we're seeing in AI. Real revenue is being generated at a scale and speed never seen before, and we're barely scratching the surface.

Helping brands that use Shopify+Klaviyo 2X their email and SMS revenue with 1:1 personalized graphics. Founder/CEO. Follow me to make money with email.

“Email marketing is dead.” That’s what they say. But if your emails aren’t making money, it’s not because email is dead... its because they’re boring.

I’m Lou Mintzer, CEO of Grid & Pixel. We help 7-9 figure Shopify brands scale with 1:1 creatives that autoplay in 99% of inboxes. We bring email and SMS campaigns to life with eye-catching, personalized graphics.

We’ve partnered with Shopify, Klaviyo, Omnisend, and Sendlane to keep things drop-dead simple, allowing you to spend less time tweaking templates and more time driving revenue. With 5 stars, 100+ reviews, and features by Shopify and Klaviyo, we’re proving that personalized content doesn’t just look better—it performs better.

Before Grid & Pixel, I spent 12 years as Chief Product Officer at Homesnap, leading the development of the award-winning real estate app before selling it to CoStar Group for $250M in 2020 and rebranding it to Homes.com.

I’m also an Advisor to the First Street Foundation and moonlight as a Venture Partner at NextGen Venture Partners, where I love working with entrepreneurs and helping to identify and support big ideas.

But enough about me—let’s talk about you.

If you’re a Shopify brand looking to drive reliable, repeatable revenue with flows that actually convert, get started today by installing the app for free:

https://apps.shopify.com/gridandpixel

Or, if you’re a marketing agency that wants to do more with less, take on more clients, or provide an increased level of service, check out our partner program:

https://gridandpixel.com/partners

Or just send me a DM - break your routine and harness serendipity!

Because the only thing that’s truly dead is boring content.

Lou Mintzer 🦅

𝗗𝗮𝘆 1 𝗮𝘁 eTail™ 𝗪𝗲𝘀𝘁.

Solid room. Thoughtful operators. Great conversations all around.

These conversations remind me why I love e-commerce.

If personalization depends on someone remembering to do the right thing, it won’t scale.

That idea keeps coming back.

Not more campaigns.
Better systems.

Built in. Not bolted on.

Grateful for the dialogue, the pushback, the new connections, and the shared obsession with building things that actually work.

Strong start.

Back at it today.

Great connecting with:
Jamie Domenici, Dan Caldwell, Max Lishansky, Teddy M., Angélica Hughes, Dan Russotto, Frances Levison, Alex Klein

#eTailPalmSprings #eTail

Boring emails are dead. I help Shopify+Klaviyo brands make more money with thumb-stopping content.

𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗺 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀, 𝗙𝗲𝗯𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘆 24–25.

I’ll be speaking at eTail™ West as part of Klaviyo Visionaries, sharing how to build systems where personalization happens by default, not because someone remembered to hit send.

Looking forward to being in the room with the teams at Klaviyo and Swym for this one.

I hope you can join me! Check out the agenda here: 👉
https://lnkd.in/eRW8-3rt

𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 $12 𝗮 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗼 $25 𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻.

Rejected by Harvard.
Rejected by 30 jobs.
Rejected by KFC while 23 other people got hired.

At one point he was making $12 a month teaching English.

That part matters.

Because when he discovered the internet in the mid-90s, he didn’t have credentials, pedigree, or investor backing. What he had was conviction that China would eventually sell to the world online.

Most people heard “too early.”
He heard “not yet.”

He gathered 17 friends in an apartment and built anyway. Investors said no. Again and again. The market said China wasn’t ready. He kept building.

Fifteen years later, Alibaba went public in the largest IPO in history.

This story isn’t about rejection being romantic.
Rejection is painful. It’s inconvenient. It’s expensive.

It’s about staying in the game long enough for timing to catch up to your thesis.

Harvard said no.
KFC said no.
Investors said no.

The market eventually said yes.

Sometimes the difference between $12 a month and a generational company isn’t talent.

It’s endurance.

𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱. It’s 1:1.

And most brands still treat it like Times Square.

Big header.
Big promo.
Big “LAST CHANCE.”

Sent to everyone.

Here’s the problem.

Your customer doesn’t open email thinking,
“Show me an ad.”

They open it thinking,
“What’s in this for me?”

Monday reminder:

Retention isn’t about volume.
It’s about relevance.

The brands that win this week won’t send more emails.

They’ll send better ones.

Messages triggered by real behavior.
Creative tailored to real moments.
Flows that fire automatically when something actually happens.

Not noise.

Not blasts.

Systems.

Because when email feels personal,
it converts personal.

This is what we build inside Grid & Pixel.

Real brands.
Real lifecycle systems.
Built for Klaviyo.

If your Monday plan is just “send something,” it might be time to upgrade the system.
👉 Check the first comment.

Less grunt work.
More repeat revenue.
Start for $1.

In Palm Springs for eTail™ West this week. 𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗲𝘄 𝗱𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗽 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀.

There’s a lot of noise in ecommerce right now. New tools, new trends, constant takes. But the operators who are building, testing, and actually shipping feel as strong as ever.

That part gives me confidence.

Grateful to work in an industry that moves fast, rewards creativity, and forces you to keep learning.

I love ecom.

#eTailPalmSprings #eTail

This isn’t for everyone. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮, 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂.

This is for Shopify brands who are tired of inconsistent email revenue.

Here’s the mistake we see across ecommerce.

Most brands market to:
• Solution aware
• Product aware
• Most aware

That’s where competition is loudest.
That’s where discounts live.
That’s where everyone is fighting for the same click.

But scale rarely happens there.

There are five awareness levels:
Unaware.
Problem aware.
Solution aware.
Product aware.
Most aware.

Most brands skip problem aware completely.

And that’s expensive.

Across 3,000+ Shopify brands using Grid & Pixel, the biggest lift in email performance doesn’t come from sending more campaigns.

It comes from structuring flows and lifecycle messaging around awareness level.

Welcome flows that educate.
Post-purchase flows that deepen belief.
Campaigns that meet the customer where they are.

Not louder.
More aligned.

When Klaviyo is structured properly, email stops feeling reactive.

It starts compounding.

Serious operators build systems.
Everyone else chases spikes.

Question for you:

Which awareness level is your email actually speaking to right now?

𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝘀𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲…
without even realizing it.

All because of one avoidable mistake:

They don’t measure the machine.

Most teams jump straight into campaign mode.

New creative.
New subject line.
New promo.

Hit send.
Hope.

But here’s the truth:

If you’re not tracking deliverability, split testing flows, and optimizing capture…

You’re not running lifecycle.

You’re guessing.

And guessing doesn’t scale.

The fix isn’t “send more.”

It’s infrastructure:

• Live deliverability scoring
• Flow split tests running 24/7
• Popups converting above 10%
• Segments warming before the send
• Automation that compounds weekly

That’s it.

No chaos.
No scramble.
Just a system.

This is how we build retention inside Grid & Pixel.

AI-powered email designs.
Flows that plug directly into Klaviyo.
Campaigns structured before the rush hits.

If you want to feel what a real system looks like…

We made it simple.

$1 for your first month.

Low risk.
Real execution.

👇 Check the first comment for the install link or book a demo.

Your campaigns should already be ready.
Let’s chat: https://lnkd.in/eyTFYtz5

This is What Happens When 
𝗔𝗜 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗸

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