Date: 2026-09-03 (3:30 PM EDT) Attendees: Michael Houck, Josh Kaplan (jkap204@gmail.com)
Summary
Reference call. Michael is evaluating whether to bring Jacob Kaplan on in some capacity (advisor or cofounder role). Josh Kaplan, who was a co-founder at Launch House alongside Jacob, provided candid context. Much of the conversation was marked off the record by Michael.
Jacob’s strengths: strong with people, reading rooms, good at selling a vision once he has it, sales-driven (recruiting, fundraising, partnerships, team motivation). Mellowed since Launch House days; Superpower’s success is real. Reputation is solid.
Concerns from Launch House era (off the record): follow-through issues (stalled priorities without pressure), judgment calls around boundaries with members, pattern of attaching to others’ ideas vs. generating his own vision. At Comsur (prior venture-backed company): similar pattern around the Series A. Josh’s read: would have hired Jacob as first employee, not cofounder.
Advisory vs. cofounder framing: as advisor, Michael retains steering ability and can terminate if needed. Signaling value of Jacob’s involvement is real; he will put in time.
Michael pitched Josh on Tatum / JOLT short-form video agency (zero to 30k followers for an AI founder in one quarter).
Decisions
- None finalized. Michael gathering references before deciding on Jacob’s involvement.
Action items
- Michael: send Mac (from Comsur) a note to see if he is open to a reference call with Josh
- Michael: facilitate intro between Josh and Max from Superpower if Josh’s outreach stalls
- Michael: set up intro thread between Josh and Tatum (JOLT short-form video agency)
Notable excerpts
On Jacob’s people skills:
“He’s good with people. He’s good with reading a room. He’s good with orienting around a goal. And then once he has a vision, he’s good at talking about that vision. He was never the vision guy among us. But he was able to take that and run with it once he had it.”
On follow-through pattern:
“Classic Brett and Jacob - every month I ping our group chat and they’re like, ‘yeah we’ll do it’ or ‘we’re gonna get together this weekend’ and it just never happens.”
On advisory vs. cofounder:
“If it’s advisory, ultimately you’re able to steer the ship where you want it to go. And could even terminate if you needed to. The cons are more so on the ‘the more he gets involved’ side. The pros are signaling.”
On first employee framing:
“He will add value. If he’s gonna get involved, he will put his time in. He’s not gonna just sit there and do nothing… If he would have been our first employee instead of a cofounder.”
Full transcript available in Granola (id: c281db6b-dff4-496f-b61f-203cca4f114d). Off-the-record content is not reproduced in the excerpt above.