Date: 2026-10-06, 2:00 PM EDT Source: Granola Captured by: Michael Houck (Me in transcript) Note: Blake Stewart also captured this separately (granola_id: c368c8fd-b103-4f69-9823-7d7eba336b71). This file is the canonical record. Full transcript: Granola (granola_id: 4be284e1-4d3c-4218-8c60-a6f57abd622f) and client corpus at ~/.hermes/profiles/ryevalley/clients/jeff-evans/calls/
Summary
Biweekly content interview for Jeffrey Evans (Mantis VC) LinkedIn account. Covered batch 28 post approvals, content ideation around the Braves/Dodgers matchup and Ted Turner’s media distribution story, the Pogo Insights portfolio launch, Jeffrey’s ongoing fundraise, and a data brokerage trend angle. Discussed making a change in the Janali/Sam Sales situation within 2 weeks. Blake Emal dropped halfway through as expected.
Attendees
- Jeffrey Evans - Mantis VC client (jeffrey@mantisvc.com)
- Blake Stewart - Megaphone AM / content interviewer
- Blake Emal - Megaphone (blake@megaphonestudio.com); dropped midway
- Michael Houck - Rye Valley / context on referral and data brokerage
Decisions Made
- Clippers/Aspiration scandal angle: DECLINED - Jeffrey has too many personal connections to Clippers management (friends with Gillian, who is suspended)
- Pogo Insights post: short-to-medium form, quote-posting on top of their launch post; NOT long-form; longer evergreen Pogo piece can come later
- Janali/Sam Sales: change to be resolved within 2 weeks; Jeffrey needs a conversation with Alex
Action Items
| Owner | Item |
|---|---|
| Jeffrey Evans | Approve batch 28 posts (DeepSeek, A16Z Academy, Elizabeth Holmes documentary) |
| Jeffrey Evans | Send Hogo launch details for LinkedIn amplification |
| Michael Houck / Blake | Draft data brokerage post for Jeffrey’s review and adjustment |
| Jeffrey Evans | Send Q3/Q4 deck (target: end of October) |
| Jeffrey Evans | Have conversation with Alex about making change (Janali/Sam Sales situation) |
Content Ideas Discussed
- Childhood allegiances that stick: Jeffrey grew up in Atlanta, lived in LA 32 years, still roots for Braves/Falcons/Georgia Bulldogs. Angle: early allegiances are the ones that last
- Ted Turner / Braves as America’s team: Turner used line-of-sight dishes (not true satellite) to beam TBS to cable operators who had nothing else to show; started with Dothan, Alabama. Also launched CNN when local news was losing money. Strong visionary/distribution angle, especially timely given Turner’s death this year
- Chipper Jones culture-setter: Won from freshman year of high school through his 30s without a losing season - alongside Smoltz, Glavine, Maddux. Sustained excellence angle
- TigerTax - selling into an undefined category: parallel to undefined AI products today
- Data brokerage trend: Companies like Micro One (now a unicorn) buying startup data corpora (email, Slack, Notion) and reselling to frontier labs, hedge funds, government. Michael referred a design agency friend ($300k payout, $50k referral). Jeffrey’s take: proprietary data is a moat, selling it away is risky. Draft + Jeffrey adjusts
Notable Excerpts
“Things that are ingrained early are the things that stick with us.” - Jeffrey Evans (on childhood sports allegiances)
“Turner was like, hey, we can beam TBS to other cities… This was line of sight, so they would take a dish. [He asked cable companies] ‘If I send my Atlanta TV station to [your market], will you carry it?’ And they’re like, of course, because they have nothing to show.” - Jeffrey Evans (Ted Turner distribution story)
“He also started CNN when local news was losing money. And he’s like, we can make money on 24-hour news. People are like, you’re crazy. But crazy like a fox.” - Jeffrey Evans
“[Proprietary data] is like, ultimately, a wedged moat. So if you’re selling all your data to somebody else, you’ve lost that.” - Jeffrey Evans (on data brokerage risk)
“Pogo, having built the front end of, with knowledge of really like 1 in every 150 purchases in the US… the brand can say, hey, we’ll pay $20 per head for 1,000 interviews… and they can have that back in an hour.” - Jeffrey Evans (on Pogo Insights’ value prop)
“I just got to get this fundraise done. We’re almost done, but it just sucks everything up.” - Jeffrey Evans (on current workload)