Date: 2026-08-19 Time: 1:00 PM ET Attendees: Michael Houck, Blake Stewart, Maurice (Doctours, maurice@doctours.com), Meag Baker (Doctours, meag@doctours.com)
Summary
Discovery call for Doctours launch video. Doctours targeting Oct 26 launch week ahead of a seed round starting November. Michael walked through Megaphone’s three engagement tiers, the creator network playbook, and video team credentials. No scope or budget commitment made; next step is Meag sending scripts/treatments so Michael can run an internal creative session.
Context
- Doctours target launch: week of October 26, seed round begins November
- Primary audience: investors and recruits (virality secondary)
- Five scripts/treatments already drafted by Meag; two frontrunners:
- Actor-forward, superhero-esque concept
- CEO Grol’s personal story (brother’s medical emergency as origin of Doctours)
- Emotional through-line: fear, anxiety, isolation of navigating healthcare (auditory hook: hospital dialogue - “wake up,” insurance panic, “how much will this cost?”)
- Tonal reference: Sarah McLachlan ASPCA ads, but fear instead of sadness
- Core message: you don’t have to be limited to a 5-zip-code radius or US-only care
- Note: Doctours status per clients.yaml - still active through Stripe subscription end date (taking content in-house, date TBD)
Megaphone Scope Presented
Three tiers offered:
- Edit and light scripting only
- Full package: scripting, editing, strategy, copy, launch coordination
- Full package plus creator campaign (amplification at scale)
Launch playbook details:
- Originated from Andreessen guidance on Michael’s Series A; expanded since
- Coordinates employees, investors, extended network, family on launch day
- Pre-launch comms 2 days out; real-time channel coordination when post goes live
- Creator network: ~500 creators across startup/tech niches
- Creators engaged at post-live moment, compensated only if they act within 1 hour
- Video team: lead editor is Gary Tan’s personal editor, handles all YC video work
- Can film on-site SF, NY, or LA; have delivered launch videos in 5 days at 1M+ views
Michael’s success story shared: prior startup client used launch to drive revenue, then converted entirely to organic social after seeing results.
Decisions
No formal scope or budget commitment made. Agreed on next steps only.
Action Items
- Meag: Send scripts and treatments to Michael (with visual and audio reference examples appended)
- Michael: Review scripts, run internal creative session, send back creative direction options by end of week or weekend (Aug 21-23)
Notable Transcript Excerpts
On primary goal and direction:
“Our main audience for this are investors and recruits, but we’re not opposed to posting to other forms of social media to also help support virality.” (Meag)
On emotional approach:
“If Sarah McLachlan is with sadness, we wanted to emulate this with fear. Fear of a person’s health and then change it to: you don’t have to be isolated just to a five-radius zip code.” (Meag)
On what investors want to see:
“Investors are not going to be interested in the rundown of the product. What they want to see is: can you mobilize a movement? When we raised our Series A, we had people getting tattoos of our logo.” (Michael)
On breadth of creative angles:
“Some of the best ideas are the ones that when you first think of them, you either think this is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard, or it could be the best idea.” (Michael)
On common launch video mistakes:
“One of the biggest mistakes we see is that people are like, ‘I just want it to be a big deal.’ You guys have a distinct audience you want to go for - investors as the primary audience. We like to see that because that gives us direction.” (Michael)
Full transcript: Granola meeting 0be30c91-4e4c-470b-a824-d07570f3301b