Date: 2026-09-22, 5:00 PM EDT Granola: f40fac49-7484-4491-8209-18fb66fddf63
Attendees
- Michael Houck (Rye Valley / Jolt)
- Grig Richters (XWECAN, PR angle)
- Tatem (Jolt / candidnetwork.co)
- Emil Barr (flashpass.school, client)
Summary
Wide-ranging team sync covering three tracks: (1) the new Jolt Agentic Platform MVP (sent to Tatem for testing), (2) client onboarding updates for Adam Gillman and Josh, and (3) the core agenda, Emil’s SF political campaign strategy, where the team agreed to pivot away from the billboard-led approach and instead deploy supporters to SF polling centers on Election Day (November 3rd) as the primary activation.
Decisions
- Election Day polling center strategy adopted. Replace billboard-led approach with coordinated presence at SF polling centers on Election Day. Small groups (3-10 people per site) with consistent branding, targeting local news coverage during existing press attention. Emil connection revealed only post-election (Phase 2). See decision file.
- Jolt Agentic Platform MVP shipped to Tatem for testing. Login via Jolt email; credentials in Slack. Day-1 features: outlier detection algorithm, trending formats/topics by niche, templated draft generation. Modeled on Megaphone version.
- Adam Gillman Slack bot restricted to opted-in channels. After his bot appeared in every Slack channel and triggered team complaints, next deployment will let clients choose specific channels.
- Intake form intentionally high friction. Michael confirms ~45 min for 2/3 completion is expected; signals client investment and makes kickoff calls more strategic (the analysis already surfaced an Adam contradiction: states he dislikes clickbait but his content is clickbaity).
Action Items
- Michael: Share Election Day polling center concept with Emil for sign-off before committing.
- Tatem: Build out Election Day logistics game plan if Emil approves; source participants; brief them ahead of time; Grig to own PR angle.
- Michael: Run point on Election Day operations on the ground (Emil and Tatem will be with Vivek).
- Michael: Push Civic Chain secondary leads this week ($250K target, likely funding source for campaign spend).
- Michael: Finish intake form by Thursday before flying out.
- Tatem: Test Jolt Agentic Platform and report bugs/feedback.
Notable Excerpts
On the Election Day approach vs. billboards:
Core concept: deploy people to SF polling centers on Election Day. Capitalizes on existing press attention rather than trying to generate it. Small groups (3-10 people per site) with consistent branding, signs, shirts. Positioned in favor of Emil’s pro-billionaire-tax-opposition stance. Goal: get interviewed by local news, create impression of an organized movement. Reveal the Emil connection after results come in.
On the Jolt platform tool:
“If it does the same stuff for Jolt [as it does for Megaphone], it’s going to be super valuable and speed up your workflow. The main things it has on day 1 are an outlier detection algorithm, formats that are trending, topics that are trending in certain niches — should save you from having to scroll as much.” (Michael)
On high-friction intake design:
“It’s intentionally high friction. We want to see that they’re invested… it makes the kickoff call more efficient and we can be more strategic. Like, I want us to come [to kickoff] and say: your content on social is very clickbaity, but you explicitly said you don’t like that in your responses. Those are the kind of questions we want to ask.” (Michael)