Date: 2026-09-01 Time: 2:30 PM EDT Attendees: Blake Stewart (Founding Journey), Nikki (Round Barn Labs, Toronto) Note creator: Blake Stewart
Summary
Catch-up between Blake Stewart and Nikki at Round Barn Labs (RBL), an affiliate management agency. Focus on new B2B SaaS brands joining RBL that could sponsor Founding Journey, plus overview of the Hard Calls rebrand.
New RBL B2B SaaS Clients
- Fin AI is the first confirmed fit for Founding Journey - on PartnerStack, going live in a few weeks; account manager is Sam (not Kirby)
- Several more B2B SaaS brands in signing process expected by Q4
- RBL is strategically shifting BD focus toward more B2B SaaS brands
Affiliate Networks
- Founding Journey is on: PartnerStack, Impact, Awin, CJ
- Most RBL clients are on Impact and PartnerStack
- Atrios (flat fee per meeting booked) flagged by Blake as an interesting model; Nikki to look into it
Talkspace SMB Opportunity
- B2B mental health benefit (similar to BetterHelp for companies 25-100 employees)
- Two offer options: $1,000 per SMB sign-up OR ~$220 per CPL
- Blake open to both options; Nikki to loop in Sandy (Talkspace AM, also AM for Fin AI) with one-pager
- Founding Journey has run Strawberry (B2C therapy) before, so category is not foreign
Hard Calls Rebrand
- Founding Journey moving from twice-weekly to once-weekly sends
- Rebranding to “Hard Calls” - focus on decision-making within entrepreneurship
- Broadening audience from VC-backed founders only to include bootstrapped founders
- Core pillars remain: B2B SaaS tools, HR, AI tools; B2C selectively (therapy, personal CRMs, productivity)
- Fashion and beauty not a fit; travel not covered
- Deck is being updated; Blake cannot share current version yet
Decisions
- No immediate partnership booked; timeline target is October or November once Reo’s experiment phase is complete (separate context: this note is re Founding Journey / RBL, not Reo)
- Blake to wait for Nikki to loop in Sandy at Talkspace before making a decision on the offer structure
Action Items
- Nikki: loop Blake in with Sandy at Talkspace + share the one-pager
- Nikki: connect Blake with Sam (Fin AI AM) once Fin AI goes live on PartnerStack
- Nikki: share updated RBL client list as new brands come on board
- Nikki: sign up for Founding Journey newsletter at foundingjourney.com
- Blake S: share updated media kit / deck with Nikki once the deck is updated
Notable Transcript Excerpts
Blake on the rebrand audience expansion:
“We used to really focus on just VC-backed founders. There’s more bootstrap founders as well. We’re hoping to kind of cast a wider net.”
On B2C content criteria:
“Things that’ll help founders still with their day-to-day… like anything that helps with their productivity. We did like personal CRMs.” Fashion / beauty / travel excluded.