Michael Houck

Megaphone

We create high-converting LinkedIn, X, and newsletter content for over 50 founders and send it viral with the help of over 400 creators with tens of millions of followers.

Founder

Founding Journey

Helping founders build, grow, and raise capital for their startups.

launch house

An early stage venture fund for companies building the New Silicon Valley. It began as a membership club built around IRL coliving residencies in LA, NYC, Tulum, Aspen, Miami, and Lisbon.

Co-Founder

Airbnb

Product Manager

Uber

Product Analytics, Uber Eats

TherapyNotes, LLC

Software Engineer

85,000+ founders read my free weekly newsletter. Follow me to learn about startups and venture capital.

I didn't know what a startup was until after college. I wasn't lucky with connections or mentors.

But within a few years my startup raised $23 million from a16z + other investors.

Along the way I:
· Cold emailed my way into an early role at Uber Eats
· Got laid off by Airbnb during COVID
· Built an audience of ~100K across LinkedIn and X
· Started a coliving residency for startup founders in Tulum
· Co-founded a venture fund and made over 50+ early stage investments (incl. Figure and Beehiiv)

More recently I've bootstrapped my personal holdco from $0 to $100K MRR in under 2 years. We help founders through content, connections, capital, and services:

· megaphonestudio.com → let my content agency build your newsletter or social media audience
· megaphone.network → partner with big creators in your niche

· join.foundingjourney.com → get my weekly playbooks and advice alongside 75k founders (for free)
· upgrade.foundingjourney.com → get ~100 fundraising case studies from founders I interviewed
· go.foundingjourney.com/fundraising → get connected with investors (including me)

I'm also building a new YouTube channel. Here's a recent video on the history of Silicon Valley: youtu.be/alUQxEldEMM

A weekly newsletter designed to help you build, grow, and raise capital for your startup.

Bandit

Meticulously crafted running singlets, tops, shorts, tights, sweats, hats and socks. Born in Brooklyn, refined by the NYC Running Community.

General Manager

Community-centered running apparel company. 

The Program is a guided marathon training experience powered by Bandit and ASICS. Join the free Virtual Program or apply today for the In-Person Program hosted out the Bandit (Greenpoint) and ASICS (Meatpacking) stores.

Program Community Leader 

Skratch Labs

Skratch Labs is an outdoor company on the cutting edge of athlete nutrition, founded by two pro cycling veterans who started mixing performance drink mixes with simple ingredients for the pros in hardware store buckets over 9 years ago. Since then, we’ve built an amazing following of impassioned athletes and we’re growing fast, but we always need help getting the word out! We believe food and drink is just better when made from scratch and we also believe that no matter where we find ourselves in life, it’s never too late to start from scratch. We use our heads and our hearts in everything we do. Our goal is to help athletes perform better. Our brand and our team stand for being real, being supportive, and being fun.

Athlete Ambassador

Stealth Startup

Health & wellness tech startup. Building the world’s largest platform of wellness tests. https://www.fitnescity.com/

Created & scaled CS, GTM & Operations strategies. Manage new product testing, customer escalations & disputes. Employee #5. Reported to Head of Operations. 

Joined at pre seed stage.

Startup Operations Generalist

Topline Pro

Enterprise-tech startup scaling a generative Artificial Intelligence powered platform to support the growth of service businesses across the US. 

Founding CSM - creating & scaling CS, GTM & Operations strategies. Reported to CEO/Co-Founder. Employee #15. 

Venture backed (Joined company at Seed Stage - BBG Ventures, Bonfire Ventures, TMV Ventures, Y Combinator)

Customer Success Manager

milo

Fintech startup in the mortgage lending space. Creators of the world's first Crypto Mortgage. Employee #22.

Global unique HNW lending - Digital Currency Portfolio Holders (Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC), Foreign Nationals, Non QM Applicants. World’s first crypto mortgage. 

Reported to Founder/CEO. 

Venture backed (Joined company at Series A Stage - M13, Metaprop, QED Investors)

Chief of Staff

Coinbase

Digital currency wallet and platform. Global leadership - Cold Storage Operations (USA, Ireland, Singapore)  

Reported to Global Senior Manager of Operations. 

Publicly traded company (NASDAQ: COIN)

Blockchain Operations Manager - Global Ecosystems

Better

Supported launch/scale of new company business line - Better Real Estate, a national in-house real estate concierge service. 

GTM strategy, CX implementation, market expansion, launch pilots, global leadership operations (Gurgaon, India) and transaction pricing. 

Reported to Director of BRE Strategy & Operations.

Publicly traded company (NASDAQ: BETR)

Strategy & Operations - Better Real Estate

Compliance, escalation management, mortgage operations and vendor coordination. 

Reported to Head of Customer Experience.

Client Success - Better Mortgage

Fintech startup in the mortgage lending space. Client operations (Ally Bank & Amex partnerships). 

Reported to Head of Customer Experience. 

Venture backed (Joined company at Series C stage - AGNC Ventures, Ally Financial, Alumni Ventures, AMEX Ventures, Citi Bank, Goldman Sachs, Kleiner Perkins, Pine Brook Partners)

Customer Experience - Better Mortgage

CB Insights

Market intelligence software to derive insights into the future of global economies.

Reported to Senior Business Development Manager.

Venture backed (Joined company at Series A stage - Pilot Growth Equity)

Business Development

Tesla

North American model 3 launch - US northeast region. 

Reported to NYC Metro Area Manager. 

Publicly traded company (NASDAQ: TSLA)

Uncubed Studios

HR tech startup. An in-house video creator, whose purpose is to capture the true essence of what it meant to work at a company through video. 

Reported to Chief Operating Officer.

Venture backed (Joined company at Seed stage - Rugged Ventures)

Fall Intern

I am passionate about the next generation of the internet, social impact and consumer services. 

Proudly a startup operator across the tech space - firm believer that a company cannot be successful without a successful client base - doesn’t matter how awesome your product is. 

Avid believer in startups that can change how people live, work and consume globally. 🌎🚀

Professional Tech Sector Experiences: 

Adtech
Autotech 
Blockchain Ops
Cryptocurrency
Fintech 
Generative Artificial Intelligence 
SaaS
Wellness tech

taplio

The Battle

Michael Houck

Julian Alston

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