Date: 2026-10-12 (2:16 PM EDT, ~5 min) Attendees: Michael Houck (michael@ryevalley.co), Emil Barr (not on the Granola participant list; identified from the title and transcript) Granola: https://notes.granola.ai/d/4ee8f4b1-5bb2-4a63-8d5f-fccd522efe38
Context: quick debrief right after the Mode Mobile call. GovGrid and Civic Chain are Emil’s businesses; not Rye Valley decisions.
Summary
- GovGrid outreach: the ~30 broker emails have not gone out through the new inbox infrastructure yet. Michael committed to sending this afternoon/evening; fallback is 2-3 Gmail accounts. One broker call tomorrow, 2-4 more expected this week; off-hours slots read as a good fit signal.
- Pipeline expectations: roughly half won’t be interested, some will push a data-first corporate process, ~1 in 4 may come back with a real pilot ask. Key filter: who will do a custom arrangement vs who forces a standard corporate data process. First-call contacts (including Hunter) lack decision authority, so volume of calls matters; likely re-engage Hunter.
- Civic Chain: Carl (Deloitte) passes on the current round (check size and secondary size well below Deloitte’s range) but liked the business and wants in on the A. Crypto/blockchain investors confirmed as the right archetype. Michael to have Hermes research his network for overlooked fits.
- Priority (Emil): broker data sales come first over the small Civic Chain raise. Product/infra readiness gates everything: buyers without a working delivery path are a dead end.
- Michael mentioned joining an ex-Anthropic founder’s new round (personal investing).
Decisions
- Emil’s call (client-engagement, not Rye Valley): GovGrid broker sales are the top priority ahead of the Civic Chain raise. Not given a separate decision page.
Action items
- Michael: send the ~30 GovGrid outreach emails today via inbox infra, Gmail fallback if it fails
- Michael: book 2-4 more data broker calls this week (Emil flags times that don’t work)
- Michael: have Hermes deep-research his network for crypto/blockchain investors for Civic Chain
Notable transcript excerpts
Emil on the pipeline:
“It’s a numbers game. Like half of them aren’t going to be interested… and then maybe 1 in 4 will actually come to us with like, hey, we want this.”
On the real filter:
“The main thing is going to be like who’s willing to do a custom thing with us versus who’s going to try to put us through a process that they have set up for corporate data.”
Emil on readiness:
“If we don’t have a product, like, it’s great if we have buyers, but if we don’t have a product… then like it doesn’t matter if we have people interested.”
Full transcript in Granola: https://notes.granola.ai/d/4ee8f4b1-5bb2-4a63-8d5f-fccd522efe38