Date: 2026-09-30 (7:13 PM EDT) Attendees: Michael Houck, Emil Barr Granola: https://notes.granola.ai/d/c9204864-cd8b-4965-8751-c18c6159a2d6
Summary
Emil called to share two moves: (1) pausing personal branding spend at Megaphone due to the gov-tech project being undiscussable publicly and generating low internet interest, and (2) pitching a new gov data business he wants to build with Michael’s involvement.
The gov data model: use FOIA requests plus lawsuit threats (hiring a law firm per state) to force state agencies to hand over their data archives, then sell that data to frontier AI labs. The pitch framing is “Scale AI for government.” Emil is self-funding an Ohio proof of concept and is open to raising later only if needed.
Michael and Emil discussed how to structure Rye Valley’s continued involvement - retaining the $10K/month Megaphone engagement for ongoing work, layering a commission element on top for brokering intros and joining calls, with equity also on the table depending on involvement level.
Decisions
- **Megaphone retainer continues at $10K/month** (or revised to $5K/month with commission on top - to be confirmed)
- Personal branding work paused - Emil stepping back from personal brand spend; can’t discuss gov work publicly, no meaningful audience interest right now
- Gov data venture is the new priority - Ohio is the first target; Emil self-funding a couple hundred thousand to prove the model
- Commission structure to be added on top of retainer for deal introductions and call participation
Action items
- Michael: propose revised retainer and commission structure (cover $5K or $10K ongoing + commission on gov data intros)
- Emil: decide involvement level by Friday (retainer-only vs. agent-building vs. equity partnership), then jam Friday afternoon
- Michael: make intro to Ali (start a thread, potentially three-way call)
Notable excerpts
On why pausing personal brand:
“It’s just not worth me continuing to spend $20,000 a month of my own money on, I think… we can’t really talk about the gov stuff we’re doing.”
On the FOIA model:
“The business itself is actually just like fairly simple… it’s just basically beating over government officials over the head with FOIA requests and lawsuit threats until they kind of turn around and just say, here, what do you want to stop harassing our staff with FOIA requests? And then we just say, oh, we just want an IT export of all your data from these dates.”
On gov data being a premium asset:
“It’s a harder-to-source asset than corporate data, so commands a premium.” (paraphrased from AI summary)
On legal standing:
“The Supreme Court basically said the government can’t copyright public records like its own data.”
On revenue potential:
“If we can sell 10 states at, you know, $2, $3 million a pop, that’s a pretty quick $30 million to make in like 12 months.”
On FlashPass context:
“Going from $0 to $1 million a month will keep them [VCs] happy for the next couple of months.”
(Full transcript in Granola)