Date: 2026-10-09 (1:30 PM EDT) Attendees: Michael Houck (michael@ryevalley.co), Emil Barr - Candid Network (emil@candidnetwork.co) Granola: https://notes.granola.ai/d/2ada1fb0-8696-41aa-890f-efe1e64036c5
Summary
Weekly GovGrid status sync. AI infrastructure is fully in place (Hermes + delegate agents). Sending infrastructure is blocked on a Namecheap fraud flag tied to Rye Valley’s payment method. Gmail fallback planned if unresolved today. Outreach underway to potential pilot data buyers (labs + brokers); strategy shifted to lead vague before revealing the state-agency context.
Decisions Made
- Broker outreach: spray and pray. Widen beyond known contacts immediately rather than waiting for warm intros.
- GovGrid framing: lead vague. Do not open with “state agency.” Pitch as “100-person org with lots of process and email data,” let them engage, then reveal the context. Lesson drawn from MicroOne where leading with state agency killed interest early.
- Michael takes the Mercor conversation. Emil to intro Michael; Michael handles it from there.
Action Items
| Owner | Action |
|---|---|
| Emil | Resolve Namecheap fraud flag today; spin up Gmail inboxes as fallback if not resolved |
| Emil | Intro Michael to the Mercor contact |
| Emil | Share ops email login to Michael; consider (low priority) a dashboard |
| Emil | Update on Anthropic, Scale, Handshake, OpenAI, and other pilot buyer outreach as anything concrete comes through |
| Michael | Take the Mercor broker conversation once Emil sends the intro |
Notable Transcript Excerpts
On the Namecheap sending blocker:
“I can’t use the inboxes that we set up until that is resolved. So that should be resolved today, fingers crossed… if not, can we just make some Google inboxes and send it? I mean, this is like 20 emails.”
On the MicroOne framing lesson:
“What I think we learned from MicroOne is… leading with ‘state agency’ killed interest early. Better approach: lead vague - ‘100-person org, lots of process/email data’ - let them engage, then reveal full context.”
On broker outreach pace:
“I’m shocked that these brokers don’t [bite] because they’re so hungry right now… I just don’t know anyone at them as well as I know the big labs, but I think you’re right that we should just sort of spray and pray a little bit.”
On core KPIs:
“I think our core KPIs are number of PRs sent per week and number of like pilot convos we’ve had until ultimately we get like a sale.”
Full transcript in Granola: https://notes.granola.ai/d/2ada1fb0-8696-41aa-890f-efe1e64036c5