How We Hatched: Cam Doody, Co-Founder and General Partner at Brickyard

Tim Winkler: 00:00:05

Welcome to The Pair Program from hatchpad, the podcast that gives you a front row seat to candid conversations with tech leaders from the startup world. I'm your host, Tim Winkler, the creator of hatchpad. And I'm your other host, Mike Gruen. Join us each episode as we bring together two guests to dissect topics at the intersection of technology, startups, and career growth. Cam, thanks for joining us on The Pair Program today. Um, this is another bonus episode of a mini series that we call How We Hatched. Uh, so today we've got cam duty spending time with us. Uh, we're actually recording live and in person with cam this morning from the brickyard. Uh, we'll dive deeper into what brickyard is shortly, but cam is the co founder and general partner behind brickyard, a first round venture capital firm plus residency based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Uh, he's also the co founder of Bellhop, a fast growing tech company transforming the moving industry. Uh, Cam, first off, I wanted to say thank you for graciously welcoming me into your space. Uh, he's got an awesome space here. Um, I, I literally messaged you, uh, on Friday last week and, uh, mentioned I was in the area. Uh, you extended an offer to have me come on site and, and here we are. It's Monday and recording a podcast together. So it says a lot about you. It says a lot about, uh, uh, the hospitality here and of this city. Uh, and somebody who personally has ties to the Chattanooga area. I'm very excited to, to dig deeper with you on your journey and the, the innovation that you're breeding here and, and the great city of Chattanooga. So thanks for joining us on the

Cam Doody: 00:01:44

pod. Yeah. And this is your first, uh, in person, right? That's correct.

Tim Winkler: 00:01:49

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh,

Cam Doody: 00:01:51

even though, even though we're not, we're not in the same room

Tim Winkler: 00:01:54

Yeah. We didn't quite troubleshoot that yet. Uh, I, I, I'll have my, uh, media team help me figure that out now that, uh, that's a, that's a thing. Uh, but, uh, I, it is great to just, uh, be in this environment. Uh, there's obviously a, a buzz and energy here. Uh, and so, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll get into that. We'll talk more about what, what you're building here. But, uh, I like to kick things off with a, a pretty heavy question off the break. Uh, what did cam duty have for breakfast this morning? No

Cam Doody: 00:02:24

breakfast. Hmm. Not a breakfast guy? No. Negative. Wow. Okay. That's gross. I wouldn't say I'm like. Uh, a strict adherent to intermittent fasting, but I try not to eat breakfast.

Tim Winkler: 00:02:40

Yeah. Yeah. I go back and forth on breakfast. Sometimes I'm, I'm turned off by it. Sometimes I wake up starving. Um, but, uh, you know, I, I, I, it sounds like you have like a morning routine though. I kind of walked in here, you were getting a workout and I'm wondering if that's part of it.

Cam Doody: 00:02:54

Yeah, we, we, uh, so we have a gym here at Brickyard and, um, a lot of us get here in the morning and start the day with a workout, but. Yeah, I guess my breakfast is, uh, I have a protein shake every morning, but. Um, yeah,

Tim Winkler: 00:03:12

it's good stuff. All right. All right. Let's, um, uh, before we dive into what's, what's happening here at Brickyard, I, I just want to kind of turn back the clock a little bit. I always like to hear a little bit more about you, you know, your journey, where, where do you, where did you grow up and, and what kind of led you down this path to entrepreneurship, startups and venture capital. All right.

Cam Doody: 00:03:31

So, all right. I, I graduated, uh, from Auburn university in 2009, like right in the middle of the financial crisis. And, um, You know, I had had, uh, a vision of what the, you know, quote, real world would be like when I got out and, you know, for anybody listening that, that, you know, was around during that time, it was just incredibly bleak. Like, it was just, it felt like everything, nothing was moving, everything was just sort of crab sideways and, um, no one, very few people were hiring. I took, uh, my first job out of college. A lot of my friends took time, uh, after school, like hoping that, you know, whatever would blow over and I just had too much anxiety. I just had to do something. And so my, my brother in law works at a bank in Birmingham and I, I, um, essentially like one step above a teller in a, in a bank branch in a mall parking lot. And I wore a suit to work. Uh, it was like totally a nine to five thing. Um, and it just, it, it was just killing my soul. And, uh, and, and no, no shade to anybody that works at a bank. It just was not for me. Like I, I, I, I felt like I was like a, a trapped animal. And, um, and so I, I sort of became an entrepreneur through like fear of, I, I saw what the corporate life would look like. And I, I saw kind of myself in 10 years, you know, in the office next to me. And I, I knew that that's not what I wanted. And, um, I wanted to kind of take control of my own. You know, financial destiny and, um, the best way I knew how to do that was to start a company. So we, uh, we started thinking about ideas, my, my, uh, one of my best buds, uh, we started meeting a couple of years for a couple of years, every two weeks for, for almost two years, uh, ended up starting bell hops in, uh, 2011. And, uh, and then two years later, we raised our first round of venture capital and, uh, Quit our jobs and, and, um, uh, and then, you know, we were, had been focused on that for, for the, you know, better part of the last decade. Mm-Hmm. So what did you study in school? Uh, supply chain, supply chain management, supply chain.

Tim Winkler: 00:06:09

So, sounds like that, that played a part here in the, in the concept of bellhop. So if you want to maybe just for the listeners, just kind of paint the picture of what BELLHOPS does.

Cam Doody: 00:06:17

Yeah. So, well, bellhop started as a. Uh, the best idea that we could come up with at the time, we're 24 years old, 25, um, was, uh, it was such a pain in the ass to move into college, uh, as a freshman. And it was funny to us that you had a bunch, like 10, 000 broke athletic college students, you know, like former high school running backs had no money that were like, you know, three doors down from like a hundred pound girl trying to get a futon up three flights of stairs. And, you know, this had, had just kind of become like, you know, mainstream. And we realized we could build a platform to connect those, those, you know, those two parties, um, we may have a captured audience, you know, on every college campus, you know, in the country. And, uh, so we put some flyers out in year one, we were hoping to move like 25, you know, kids that, that first year we ended up having to hire 90 college students. And we moved in like 420. Um, other students in, in three days at Auburn and we were like, Oh my God, we can do this everywhere. And then it was almost immediately clear, like, this is just not a business because it's so spiky, like all your businesses in like three days. And, um, but parents started asking us like, Hey, can, you know, I've got a U Haul like, and I'm moving some stuff to storage. Can you, can you, you know, move us? We started doing that. Um, and, uh, and, and, and then, you know, Bellhop started growing, uh, precipitously and, and we had sort of this higher quality labor force in moving because we had a, a flexible work, workforce management platform that, you know, you could set your own hours, you could work with who you wanted to work with. Um, and, and that was a big differentiator in the moving space, but we didn't have trucks. And, and so our, our customers all started, you know, asking us like, Hey, can you show up with a truck? And so we, uh, we, we opened a, a commercial account with U Haul in the, over the course of like two months became a top 10 customer of U Haul. Um, and, uh, and we would book a move, our bellhops would go pick up the U Haul, do the move, take the U Haul back. And so we were like scaling this national moving company without any assets. And then U Haul was like, Oh my God, we're creating a monster. And, uh, and so they like changed corporate policy because of us. They basically made it to where you had to have a physical credit card on site. And at the time there weren't any like. You know, there weren't any like distributed card, you know, uh, companies. And so it sort of like ground us to a halt. So like that was in June or July of 2015. And we, we, we had like 2, 500 U Hauls booked for moves that were taking place over the next few weeks. And, uh, we, we got a hold of Penske and we're like, we need to talk to the CEO. Like we've got to move 2, 500 trucks to you guys. And, um, and anyway, two days later, the Penske executive team flies in Chattanooga. We figure out how to do it. We offload everything over to Penske. I don't think we had a single customer go without a move. Um, but that was when we realized like we needed to control our own, you know, trucking supply, but we didn't want to own assets and we just didn't know how to do it. We actually started leasing trucks and like 21 year old bellhops are like taking the tops off trucks and wreck wrecking, um, and like the, you know, maintenance was a nightmare. It was just a nightmare. And, uh, and so we, uh. We had this conversation with a guy that had started a final mile logistics company out of Dothan, Alabama that had like 7, 026 of the box trucks. And, uh, we were like, we went to him to ask him like how to like maintain these things and like how to train drivers. And he was like five minutes in, he was like, dude, guys. Why don't you just onboard my drivers as your bellhops and we'll just do the trucking piece. And we were like, okay. Uh, and so we tried it and like, you know, within six months it had taken over all full service moves across every one of our cities. And, uh, And that was the real unlock for bellhops to, to grow where we now had a full service moving operation, uh, with this highly liquid trucking supply, where we could scale all the way up to peak demand. And then the off season, we didn't have trucks just sitting costing us money that were underutilized. And it took the, you know, the capital cost out of expanding into new cities out of the equation. And, and, you know, and that's, that's how we, we really, really, we really went on a tear. But anyway, today, you know, bellhops is. 80 cities, uh, full service, local, long distance, corporate location. Um, you know, we're competing with all the van lines, um, and just a big moving company now.

Tim Winkler: 00:11:20

Wow, that's, that's a really, uh, interesting, like learning experience there. Um, I, I was curious about this too, is, um, yeah, you kind of explain like how you quickly realized that corporate America wasn't, wasn't for you, but, um, did you have anybody in your family or your parents, like, you know, entrepreneurs by trade? Like, is that something that your partner had any, like entrepreneurial background in as well? Or was this something just, you know, fairly new to you

Cam Doody: 00:11:46

altogether? No, my, my parents were in the medical space. My dad's a doctor. Mom's a nurse. Um, my grandfather was an engineer. Uh, my other grandfather was, was an accountant. I mean, none, none on my side. And I don't think, you know, Steven or Matt had entrepreneur parents. I think it was literally, we were all just scared shitless during the financial crisis. Like we needed to like do something different. Um, we we'd seen. You know, quote, like these stable businesses, um, you know, just get rug pulled and, um, we. I don't know. It may have been like the timing of, of being it, you know, a young person in the workforce at that time. It was like, okay, we need to maybe take, you know, uh, responsibility for own destiny here. Yeah. So

Tim Winkler: 00:12:42

I want to jump into, um, a connection that's clearly like, uh, an interesting part to your story and leads up to, um, a lot of what you're doing here at Brickyard, but. Uh, tell me about Lampost group, um, and the part that they played with you all when you were starting up Bellhops.

Cam Doody: 00:13:00

Yeah. So Lampost, uh, was this absolutely magic place that happened in 2012 to 2015. And, uh, three best friends, Ted Allen and Barry, who are now our partners in Brickyard, um, and started a, a, uh, a third party logistics company when they were in their early twenties. Uh, They sold the company in 2013 for about a half a billion. They had raised no venture capital. And like in the previous years, they, they had kind of gotten bored in the operation and they were starting to take the profits out of the business and investing in early stage companies. But the thing was, they invest in you, you had to move to Chattanooga and build out on their floor. And so we were one of like 10 companies. That they invested in over like three or four year period and seven of those companies are, you know, well north of a hundred million dollar businesses now. And it was like, there was just something really wildly weird in the water where it wasn't an accelerator. It was, there was no, like, like it wasn't like a 10 week program. There was actually no program whatsoever. It was just like, if you're ready to do this, like you got to go all in and give it everything you've got. And we were building alongside all these other teams that, you know, that we saw were just working super hard to push us and everybody like loved each other, but we wanted to dunk on each other every day. And, uh, and so it was just this sort of magic period. And, um, once they sold the business, they kind of wound down making those investments because their cash flow in the business. You know, had, had shut off and, um, they were kind of fried and wanted to take some time off. And almost immediately after, like, we knew we were going to do it again eventually, but we were all busy building our own companies. And when COVID happened, you know, we, we, we, we knew that the timing was right to do it again. And that's what Brickyard is today. So

Tim Winkler: 00:15:02

I've, I've never really experienced anything like Brickyard. And, you know, when we were talking earlier, um, you know, I kind of told you a little bit about my story of like starting in a garage and then transition into a, a WeWork space and, um, you know, obviously folks and startup ecosystems know what accelerators are incubator programs, um, when you are talking to founders, um, Uh, how do you explain Brickyard to them? Like, how do you break it down? Like, uh, in its simplest form.

Cam Doody: 00:15:32

So I guess the, the key part about Brickyard is, is it's just a bunch of filters and I think from a high level, you know, what Brickyard is, is, is, is sort of a middle finger to the current state status of venture capital in that, you know, the narrative over the last like six, seven, eight years has been this like, sort of like posh. You know, work life balance sort of like when money was free, like there was just no seriousness in the space, you know, like when you have to breathe for every breath where you have to pay for every breath of air that you're taking, like life gets a lot more serious and like, so, you know, the last 10 years being zero zero interest rate phenomenon, like there was just a, a lack of, of, um, You know, diligence and intentionality and like that just bled into the, you know, the, the, and there was so much money that it, it, it attracted celebrities and like all of a sudden. Being a founder, what used to be just like something that people felt sorry for you about, you know, like, Oh, good luck with that. You know, 10 years ago, like it wasn't a sexy thing. Like now it's like Forbes 30 under 30 and like this vanity game, the status game, you want like pro athletes in your cap table, like it's cool. It's a resume builder. It's like you want to, you know, it's just a totally different world. And what's come with that is just a horrible golf swing. Where the purity of intention around founders wanting to build has just gone out the window. It's like, I'd say probably 80 or 90 percent of every founder raising today is doing it for the wrong reasons. They're not doing it because they know that this is going to be a decade of trench warfare and they just have a problem that they have to solve. Like that's what it should be. It's, they're doing it for, for other reasons. And so Brickyard is like this layer of filters, like the first two minutes that we, that we have with any founder, you know, when I'm sitting in this call box, talking to a new team that, you know, we got a deck, it was interesting. It's like, Hey, before we dig in, like pump to meet you. But like, let me tell you about Brickyard. This is not for everybody. This is a super intense thing. It's going to require a ton of sacrifice. It's not going to be easy to do. Like you're going to have to move here for a minimum of a year, but really, you know, you're coming here. Uh, if we get to the point where we write a check, you have to come here until, you know, you get to your series A, like that's our handshake. Like, you come here to radically focus and work your ass off. Um, and our promise to you is like, we're going to surround you with a bunch of other founders that are that exact type, that are in it for the right reasons, and they are taking it seriously, um, and they're, you know, they're, they're, uh, You know, they're, they're sort of a, a founder type we, that we back. So we back, you know, companies across categories, but all our founders are like dogs, they're just dogs. And, uh, and so when you say that in the beginning of the meeting, you know, half of the meetings that we take, we pull the rip cord and I, you know, we, we shut the interview down like five or 10 minutes into the meeting because one or two, two reasons. You know, one like legitimate reasons, like, Hey, I have kids in school and I live in Boston, like, dude, there's no way that, you know, my wife's never let me do this or whatever. And it's like, respect completely understand. And then there are founders that are just like, they get sort of defensive and you can tell like you're threatening their sort of Zerp era, like idea of being, you know, a startup founder, networking and flying around the country and parties and, and, uh, You know, but both are like, you know, reasons why we, we call it, we cut them short and, you know, and then you, the other half of teams are like, okay, yes. Like, whoa, this is all right. Let's let's talk, you know? And then, so you start off with that filter and then, you know, every other part of the process, like once you get through diligence, you, you know, if we get to the point where we're, we think we're interested in making investment. We fly the team in to Chattanooga and we spend an entire day with them in person and you have to do that and, uh, our other founders get to meet the teams and, you know, our founders do reference checks and all the teams and, um. And, you know, so we're sort of just building this tribe of, you know, we want to be the most difficult founder community to get into in the world and if, you know, sort of vetted across the, the, you know, the, the metric of like, how serious are you about this, you know? And, um, yeah, so we write between three and 400, 000 checks. Um, and, uh, and we're trying to layer everything up into, you know, how to build like a real deep community of founders that are putting in the work to get to product market fit. And, you know, I guess the last thing I'll say is like, our core belief is you don't get to product market fit by trying to work smart. Like you get to product market fit by obsessing over a problem, like radical hours in focusing on the problem, working your ass off, um, and being able to like pick up on those like subtle signals that tell you what direction product market fit is in, you know, and, uh, and, and so focus and work, you know, that's how you get to a series A and that's, you know, we're, we're sort of self creating a place that self selects for the types of founders that believe that. Yeah, it's

Tim Winkler: 00:21:18

a really interesting, like, uh, philosophy and I think, you know, you're spot on in the sense that I think the startup founder, um, over the years has almost gotten a little soft, but it's, it's almost a result of. It's become just almost a gimmicky thing, like, oh, yeah, I'm going to start something up and and next thing, you know, is, you know, they've burnt. Through savings and it's two years later and it's, they're, they're just not that committed to it. And, but, you know, it's cool to say I started something up. So it's like, you're almost reinforcing, like, look, we don't, we don't want you to blow through your shit like that. We want you to, to be heads down and do it for the right reasons and get to that next milestone. And in order to do that, this is kind of what it takes. And I, I don't think many, many folks, you know, have a framework when they start something up. And so you all. Kind of put in, in place this almost like a work ethic framework of what it takes to get from. Point A to point B, um, or from C to series A. Uh, and I think, um, you know, one of the things when I was doing some research on you all, and you have like a, an R type, um, on your website, and so I was going to rattle off the, your R type, so it's non obvious vision, heads down, CEO can sell, pack animals, 50 hour weeks, ain't it? Delusionally optimistic, zero vanity, starving for knowledge, Um, so I think, uh, you know, you all put a lot of time into figuring out like who is, you know, our type. Um, and I like the vetting process here and the concept of like, you know, one major loop. Or I'm sorry, hoop to jump through is like relocating here, right? Moving to Chattanooga for, for, uh, a year minimum commitment, you know, uh, or to get to your series a, whatever that takes, what that timeline looks like. Um, yeah, that's going to scare most a lot of people off. Uh, so I really. Uh, I think that that's a, a fantastic theme. Where do folks kind of come from? Um, uh, you know, it sounds like maybe all across the country, but are there certain like verticals that you dial into or, uh, is my first part of the question? The second would be, you know, I know it's not, um, an accelerator incubator, but how do, from like a services or in kind services perspective, like how are other folks adding value for one another and the community?

Cam Doody: 00:23:43

Yeah. All right. Well, uh, so where, where our teams come from is really all over the world. Um, we've, we've backed six international teams and then the rest obviously domestic, but from all the usual suspects, New York, New Jersey, Boston, Austin, SF, a bunch from SF, a bunch from New York. Um, You know, uh, Malta, Cairo, Belgium, Greece, uh, you know, the, the international piece, it was actually, we, we have the most interest from international immigrant founders, but it's, it's a difficult lift because our immigration policy in the U S which is unbelievable. Like you've got these massively ambitious people that want to come to here and build in the U S economy. And like, we're just making it so hard for them to do that. So. That's really hard for us to do now. Um, but, uh, so that's where they're coming from. Um, you know, a lot of our teams come out of, uh, Y Combinator actually. So nine of our teams are YC teams. And it's not that like we place that on a pedestal necessarily. Although I'd say YC is the best accelerator there is, bar none. I mean, nothing comes close. Um, but we're sort of Brickyard is like sort of this, if you know, you know, thing. And so we naturally grow in existing networks and, um, and so, and we, you know, if you've ever heard of the trough of sorrow graph where you've got the, you know, the, the peak of disillusionment and then the trough of sorrow and then the wiggles of false hope and then product market fit, um, YC is like the best there is at getting you to like, you know, that peak of disillusionment. And, uh, but almost every team that comes out of YC or any accelerator or any team that raises a first round is you fall back to earth and you, you hit rock bottom in the trough, no one had focused on this like two or three year period to PMF. And that's what Brickyard's for. So we're like a post accelerator. Like execution house. And, uh, and so we have no programming, there's no demo day, like there's no standing meetings that we have with our teams, but we're here every day. So me, my co founder, Matt Patterson, uh, Ted Allen, uh, Ted Allen, Alan Davis, very large. Those are the five partners in Brickyard. We're all operators. We're here every day. Um, but it's just like an open 24 seven office hours and, and so, you know, we can tell when a team is like struggling with something and we usually let the teams come to us before we preempt anything. Um, you know, we're designed to be the first, you know, investor that a team comes to when, when something's really wrong and, um, and that's really helpful because I think so many founders go, you know, months without reaching out and like letting down their guard that everything isn't perfect to their cap, you know, to their, you know, to their cap table, you know, that's just distributed where you're not actually seeing these people in person. Um, we can catch, we can capture that early, but it is try to keep it totally tactical. We try to stay entirely out of the strategy, you know, at this stage, you know, our founders know have, you know, orders of magnitude, more context than we have on what, how this might play out towards PMF. And so we really don't like to meddle in strategy. It's just tactical. It's like hiring a first engineer, setting up an org structure, um, setting up a recruiting structure set, you know, uh, Really the blocking and tackling of like how to, how to get this right. And then it's like the intangibles around what we think really matter with teams, which is, you know, co founders communication. So we really push our founders to eat together every day and, um, and just communicate, so it's little stuff like that. So that's, that's what we're providing is, but it's not in some like structured way, because thing is, is this all breaks down if our founders feel like we're looking over their shoulder. Sure.

Tim Winkler: 00:27:53

Yeah, it's, it's like, uh, just really creating the environment to be productive, um, is what I pick up on. And, and also, uh, yeah, an energy, you know, one of the things that I've always struggled with as an entrepreneur is. You know, I, I put in my work and then I go back home and I, you know, I'm talking to my wife or, you know, having a conversation with a friend and nobody can really relate to what I've been through that day or that week, that month, and. Uh, the power of having, uh, a sounding board, uh, that can talk you through something. It's almost like a peer therapist, right? It's like, you know, you've been through it. I've been through it. You know, you kind of made a reference of like going to war, you know, there's, there's a, there's a common, uh, bond there that you are creating for these folks that you won't find. Otherwise, you really have to seek it out and even trying to seek it out, like maybe a meetup group or something, you know, maybe it's once a month and it's like, you know, you don't know who's going to be there. It's kind of awkward energy. This is like it's there and you're kind of in it full

Cam Doody: 00:29:03

time. Yeah. And I guess the part that I didn't cover is like 95 percent of the value of Brickyard is the community of founders. It's not partners. It's like. You know, it's, everybody knows that everybody's company is a dumpster fire here. Yeah. And yet, and that's good because in most, in most accelerators and networking groups, you're like posturing, right? You're killing it. You know, like everybody here knows. Like this shit is so unfathomably hard and like, you have teams that have like killer weeks where they close like a giant contract or a big candidate or what? And then you've got teams that are like at a dead end, they feel like, you know, and everybody sort of lifts each other up. And so it's like, you know, one week you may be on top of the mountain, but the next week you're back down in the valley and somebody else is on top of the mountain, pulling you up it. And, and that's really, that's what we felt at Lampost. And, uh, that's, that's it like to your point, like your wife doesn't understand what you're going through. Your husband doesn't understand what you're going through. Your, your, your, your best friends don't understand. Your parents don't understand. No one understands the pressure of being a venture backed founder other than other venture backed founders, you know, and, and so being around, uh, uh, you know, in a building where there are nothing but venture backed founders, um, You know, that's just a massive help. And I mentioned to you before this podcast, you know, we carved off a 10th of our carry in the fund. And we issue units of that carry, uh, to all of our founders when they come in. So our teams literally have material upside in each other winning. Wow. Um, and, and that was just, you know, it's a symbolic thing, but it's also like a real material thing, but it's, it's like. We're all in this together. We're all in the trough of sorrow. We're all in this knife fight that we're just trying to iterate every day and go as fast as we possibly can. And so our founders like, you know, sort of feel accountable to each other in a way.

Tim Winkler: 00:31:10

Sure. Yeah. It's, it's something that I've never, I've never seen before or heard of before. It, um, I love how everybody's kind of got skin in the game. It's, it's almost like a. It's almost like an employee owned company, right? Where it's like, everybody is really working towards keeping, you know, putting everybody up, bringing folks up if they're down and, and being a support system. Uh, it's really creative, uh, so kudos on, on, on that concept. Uh, and then, you know, while we're on the topic, you also have, uh, a brick house. What's the, what's the brick house about?

Cam Doody: 00:31:45

Yeah, well, I mean, all these teams are coming here from other places and. Uh, you know, most are getting leases and apartments, you know, within a walking distance brickyard. Um, some buying houses, but we, we wanted to make it as easy as possible to get here. And so we bought this, it just fell in our lap, like this giant sort of like mansion right next to brickyard. Um, it was a seven bedroom home with a rooftop and a pool. And like, it was just insane. And, but we were having this issue where founders were like, I can't like come in town to like do a tour with, you know, on a property so I can sign a lease. And like, it was just hard. So we started putting, you know, founders up, you know, in hotels. You know, for multiple days, like it was just like, all right, we got to find like a solution to this. So we ended up, you know, buying this, this, this house right next to brickyard, adding four bedrooms, like taking out the bonus room. And like, you know, we, we added four beds to the 11 bedroom house. That's like, kind of like a dorm. And, uh, We furnished it and it's just, you know, it's really for founders who either want to live in like a hacker house, uh, or it's for founders that like just need a place to land for like a couple months as they, you know, go get a longer term lease or, you know, um, and that sort of just expanded the campus to where, you know, we've got. You know, two, two places for our founders to hang. So you hang in brickyard and then like after hours, I can, they can go and like kind of blow off some steam, you know, whatever, yeah, you're,

Tim Winkler: 00:33:25

you're just like a media team away from a reality TV show as well at this point.

Cam Doody: 00:33:31

Yeah, no. Uh, here's some people that have done something similar like that in venture and it just didn't turn out. I mean, yeah, no, we're trying to keep things, we're really trying to stay under the radar. Like the success of Brickyard can really only happen if we remain this, if you know, you know, kind of thing. For sure.

Tim Winkler: 00:33:58

I I'm curious, like, um, you know, the failure rate in startups, you know, it's, it's very, very high stat. Um, have you had folks come through here that just, you know, you part ways because you just, it's not working out or how, how does that work? Well, one

Cam Doody: 00:34:16

thing you bring up a great point. So when we offer terms to a team, you know, we offer safe, you know, typically do safe notes, but then we, we, we have this document called the handshake and the handshake is like basically like. An acknowledgment of like, I understand what Brickyard is and what it stands for, and I am, uh, I am opting in to this like finite community, and I'm taking a spot of somebody else that could come into this place, but like, these are the things that Brickyard values, and I am, you know, I'm coming in with the full intention of operating under, like, with this mindset of like, You know, hours in radical focus, like staying away from the, the, you know, the softness that you see, you know, in the rest of the space, um, you know, there's a level of intensity and, and, and, you know, but we say, look, our job is not, we are not responsible to holding you accountable, but we are accountable to the rest of our companies that we've backed, uh, In surrounding them with founders that, that match their intensity. And so if you fall below the low watermark that's set by the rest of the community, we'll ask you to leave. And, uh, we won't ask for your money back for our money back. Um, but like we we're accountable to the community. And, and so this is, and they have to sign that document. And like the last line is like, you know, if you're not a hundred percent in fully in, please do not take our money. And, and so it's this sort of like self selection of like, okay, like I'm coming here to get to a series a period and I'm accountable to the other founders in the building. Um, to, to, to, you know, to, to raise the bar, um, and, uh, yeah, so, yeah, that's, that's how I

Tim Winkler: 00:36:20

mean, I think there's also this, this, you gotta feel this level of, of pressure, uh, you know, to commit to something, right? It can't just be like, I just sign and we'll see what happens. Like, it sounds like, you know, there's a level of. You know, it's not just from you, but it's also like, there's other, there's other companies here that are similar. Like, you know, we're all kind of like, in this together mentality, or I also kind of like the idea of, like, you know, there's other companies that want to be here. Like, if you don't want to be here, like, you don't have to be here. And so I, I do like this, um, so you call it the handshake.

Cam Doody: 00:36:59

Yeah. Yeah. It's a handshake. Yeah. I mean, there's no binding terms. There's no callback. It's just like, this is what you're signing up for. You know? So,

Tim Winkler: 00:37:10

you know, uh, uh, there's also the, the, the reality that, you know, folks can experience burnout. Right. Um, that's a real thing. Um, what are the, some of the things that you do? To, to create, uh, uh, a an an environment that still, you can still feel like, you know, look, uh, there, there is some time for rest. There is some time to unplug. Um, how, how do you, how do you encourage a little bit of this balance, right? Obviously it's a grind, um, but what, what do you do around here to make it fun? I kind of, yeah, I saw like a pickleball tournament, uh, on a whiteboard, uh, in the, in the main space. But what else is going on? You know,

Cam Doody: 00:37:50

I, I, I, I find myself like in these, like, we have such a, like culture of self selection, like where we were like very upfront about what Brickyard is, you know, and I feel like I'm like kind of falling into that. But the truth is, like, our founders have to have fun. Like, if you're not having fun in, in, in building your company, you're, you're already dead. And so. You know, once, once we do a deal with the team, like we, we really try to, to, to make this like a high energy, super positive environment where everybody is like getting, you know, they're getting, everybody's putting in an incredible amount of work here, but they've got, you know, they've got the community to blow off steam with, and then they've got sort of, you know, um, this, this sort of like ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss Internal like social calendar, uh, that's totally driven by our community, um, and funded by us in many ways, but we have a gym. Um, that's, you know, every day we've got found every, you know, the, the morning is super busy in the gym. Um, we've got, uh. Locker rooms, showers, cold, plunge sauna, steam room. Um, The, there's a pool on the top of Brick House. Um, you know, we've got a pickleball, uh, court out front that, you know, we run a, a monthly tournament where Matt and I like set up a bracket and it's just, you just have to get your, your matches done within the month. And so it's just, it gets people like, you know, it, it, it gives you a, a, a medium to kind of pull, pull your head up and, and breathe for a bit. Um. And yeah, and, and, and we just encourage like everybody to have a blast, you know, this is fun. Like this is, if you don't have momentum, you're never going to have it.

Tim Winkler: 00:39:46

Right. Sure. It also seems like that's an area that. You know, uh, sky's the limit there. You get, there's a lot that you all could build, bake into the, into this like residency where it's like, you know, retreats with one another. Like I, I know the, the, the value of company wide retreats anyways, right. As a distributed team, it's, it's super valuable, but, um, you know, planning stuff like, you know, a ski trip with all the, all of the founders to go out sometime.

Cam Doody: 00:40:15

We have, uh, like last weekend we went to the Bama UT game and took like 12 of our founders. My partner Alan has this like Taylor Swift level, like tour bus that all our founders have full access to. Like you can book it anytime. We have a full time driver. It's fully comped. Um, and so, you know, teams take it for off sites, teams take it to Nashville, teams take it to games that, you know, You're exactly right. Like we have to create those outlets to where our, our founders can like, get out of, you know, the, their, their head from time to time. Uh, we do, uh, something called the Ceasefire every year. That's, that's our, it's, that's our founder retreat. And we, uh, we, we book this farm on the back of lookout. It's, it's on the, the brow, looking off the mountain. It's just beautiful. All our founders and a lot of our alumni come in for it. And it's just like, uh, you know, we shoot skeet, we got fires and we've got like music and you know, it's just a time to come together. That's

Tim Winkler: 00:41:19

really neat. Um, I, I want to make sure I, I highlight, um, you know, the greater community that is, that is Chattanooga, Tennessee too. Um, and so, you know, community building something I'm, I'm very passionate about. We're, we're building an online community with hatchpad. You know, you're, you're building this founder community. What, what is the, what's happening in Chattanooga, Tennessee right now? Like, um, as, as a founder that may be coming here from outside, uh, internationally, um, what is it that you think is really unique about this city and, and, and what's happening in the city right

Cam Doody: 00:41:59

now? I, I think Chattanooga is in the next 10 years will be, it'll be the hottest city in the, in the country to, to, to, to move to, um, you know, it is, it's, it's the boulder of the, of the South in terms of outdoor access. Except we have two Denver's we've got Nashville, which is an hour and a half or hour 45 away and then we've got Atlanta, which is an hour and a half away. And then you've got Knoxville and Birmingham within 2 hours. So, um, and Chattanooga by far and away has the best outdoor access for rock climbing and hang gliding and paddle boarding and, you know, river sports and mountain biking and hiking and like. You know, I think there's like a hundred waterfalls within 20 minutes of Brickyard, you know, and, uh, in, in post COVID people are really valuing quality of life. And it's like, it doesn't matter if you make 2 million a year, if you know, you're spending 30 hours a week sitting in traffic and, you know, you're, it costs X amount to live in a shoe box kind of thing. And, you know, um, so our view is, you know, this is going to be the best place to live. In the country, best place to raise a family. Um, and, uh, we're just seeing, I mean, the amount of development that's happening in the city is just wild. I mean, our riverfront is about to get, uh, something like 15 billion worth of, of, uh, investment over the coming like six, seven years. Um, it's just, we've been here for, for 10 years, uh, over 10 years and, and. When we moved here, there was this like air, we knew there was something special. It was the same like vibe, like you get here and you talk to like a cop, or you talk to like a barista, and everybody kind of has this like shared pride. And Chattanooga's been able to like keep this really authentic flair, um, and uh, Where everybody's just rowing in the same direction. So our local politics are like, just surprisingly, you know, in tune with the private sector. Everybody's just sort of like, we all know what we're trying to do. And it's, we're not trying to be Atlanta. We're not trying to be Nashville. We are, we're trying to, you know, we're trying to be a great place, not, not a place and, um, and, you know, we've made investment, you know, on the tech side, you know, we've got 10 gig municipal fiber, you know, in a smart grid. So we've got a fast center in the country. We're the first city to adopt that. Um, and, uh, we're now, you know, we've got, the city is, is getting behind a quantum network where we're going to get a quantum computer in Chattanooga, uh, and, uh, some places, uh, around the city are going to get nodes where they can tap into this quantum computer, um, hopefully Brickyard gets one, um. And so we're making the big bets. Uh, but we're also like, the way I think about cities is they used to be B2B businesses and now they're B2C businesses. So before, like the way you grew your city was you like went and got like Delta Airlines or you went and got Amazon or you went and got whatever. Um, and then that growth kind of spurred the growth of these, like of suburbia. And now, you know, you don't have to be tied to. A city where your employer is, and so you can live wherever you want. And, and so now, you know, the, the, the consumer is going to make the decision on where to live based on how nice of a place is it to live. Right. And so you got to get the features of the product, right. You know, and so it's, it's, it's cities are now going to be held accountable to like getting like the little product features, right. And so the, the, the cities that build those like really fantastic products are going to be the cities that, you know, really thrive in this next era.

Tim Winkler: 00:46:00

I love how you describe that. Um, and, and, you know, as somebody who has personal ties here as well, my, my wife and I have a home here and we, we fell in love with it traveling through here, uh, a couple of years ago. And as somebody who's, you know, been in, uh, the startup ecosystem for over 10 years and, you know, been exploring different startup cities outside of, you know, major coastal hubs, um, like areas like, like Boulder or areas like Raleigh, um, you know, you start to pick up on a certain kind of like energy and. You know, when you first get into an area, maybe you see, you know, a couple of folks like walk around with their startup shirts on and their swag. And, uh, you know, it's, it's something that's, it's neat. It's, you know, maybe there's co working spaces. There's something really unique here. Um, and. You know, I, we were talking earlier, it's kind of like for someone that's looking for almost like a, a town feel within the, within a city, like a body, right? Like, that's, that's what I experienced when I'm here. And it just feels like opportunity is so ripe for, for, for the taking, uh, where you don't always feel that in larger cities. It's overwhelming, but everything from like, you know, going to get your haircut, you know, the. Yeah. The barber just started this thing up, you know, moved from Nashville here to, to kick his thing off or going down, going to, to, to have a burger at a, at a tap house and seeing the mayor sitting at the bar. If there's things that you start to pick up on that, it just feels like. It's something I've never experienced before. And as an entrepreneur, I get very excited about it, even though, I mean, you saw it 10 years ago when you were here. Um, there's just so much more opportunity that's still in these early stages. And so being, being here physically. I think creates another energy that reinforces as a founder and entrepreneur that, you know, you can build here. You can get something off the ground, even though you're not like your customers aren't here, but that rubs off on you. And I think that's something that is, is you miss when you're buried in this. Overwhelming energy of, of what might be not to knock on SF or, or, you know, I'm in DC or ADC or New York. Um, you can feel so small. You can feel really like, uh, big here, even though you're a small entrepreneur.

Cam Doody: 00:48:19

Just think about it this way, you know, like we are going to have a massive influx of people over the next 10 years because we've built a product. That's great. Right. Um, you know, We will become a really great city if we can stay true to, like, when we meet people that have moved here, it's like, we are so pumped, like one of the biggest weapons that Chattanooga has is such a welcoming city for people that are doing big things. Like, whereas a lot of other cities in the South are like very arms length, like, you know, you got to pay your time before you can like have a seat at the table kind of place. Chattanooga. You know, if you want to get involved, if you're doing something great and you want to get involved, there's like a welcome wagon, a de facto welcome wagon of, of like sort of city leaders that like are on a text thread. And it's like this CEO from this company's in town. Can anybody take them to lunch today? Or can anybody, you know, zip them around downtown? And it's literally like this machine that just works. And, um, we, we really have the ability to roll out this informal. Um, and our message is like, look, we know you want to be here and we know that, that this is a great place. Like, obviously you want to be here. Chattanooga is incredible, but like our ask of you is that you are not a taker. Like, Ooh, I want some of that. That's nice. I want some of that. Right? Like we want builders here. We want people who are coming here that want to be a part of building this place. And when you have a chance to like welcome somebody on those terms, it's like, there will be no barriers to entry, but our ask is you come here, you recognize like what has made this place special and you just start swimming in the same direction with us. Yeah. And, and that's super empowering. Uh, and, and, and, and I think that's another big reason why Chattanooga is, is gonna build something really, really special. Yeah, that's

Tim Winkler: 00:50:18

it's awesome, man. I'm really excited. I stumbled across you guys and, uh, you know, just kind of being here just, you know, for for an hour. You know, there's there's something special happening here. Uh, I'm excited to to, you know, continue to to come back when I'm in the area and just kind of keep seeing how how the brickyard is evolving a couple last minute quick hit questions on on on brickyard. And then we'll transition into our final segment. The 5 second scramble. Uh, but what is, uh, yeah, what's the head count on, on founders, uh, in here today and, and what's kind of like max occupancy on, on, uh, space here.

Cam Doody: 00:50:57

So we, we've, we, we self funded our first 16 companies. We just didn't know if we're going to be able to bring in top tier founders, like get them to move and all that. It was immediately clear, like we were going, we were able to do that. Um, and so we, we raised a 20 million fund, uh, that we're titling fund one, but it's really our second fund, first fund that we raised. And, uh, we've out of those two funds, we've, we've backed 28 companies. We're writing about 10 checks a year between three and 400 K. Um, and, uh, You know, with the pilot fund, there was no time constraint with fund one, it's like a minimum one year commitment, but you're really like signing up to like, look, we're coming here to get to series a, um, our daily census and brickyard like we've got, you know, but what we're, what we're pushing for every day is to get to like, between 80 and 90, like we want a, a space that is vibrating off the foundation. And it's all founders and early team members of venture backed businesses. And when you can do that, like you just create a pressure cooker in the best way where it's like, you've got the pressure, but you also have like the empathy of like everybody in the building knows what you're going through. And, uh, we will be there, uh, within the next year and a half.

Tim Winkler: 00:52:19

Awesome, man. That's exciting stuff. Um, well, I, uh, I'm pumped to keep, keep tracking the story and, uh, you know, you're, you're good at, uh, you know, putting some posts up on LinkedIn. So I keep tracking those and, uh, and seeing where things stand. Um, uh, I'm going to transition us into this, this last segment called the five second scramble. So I'm just going to ask you a couple of rapid fire questions. Um, yeah, try to try to answer them in five seconds. Won't, won't air horn you off. Uh, if you go over, um, you're, you're ready to roll. Let's go. All right, let's do it. Uh, explain, uh, Brickyard to me as if I were a five year old. Uh,

Cam Doody: 00:52:57

it's a, it's a hacker house on steroids. What

Tim Winkler: 00:53:02

would you say is the biggest problem that you're solving for founders who commit to Brickyard?

Cam Doody: 00:53:09

Radical focus and, uh, and, and work ethic.

Tim Winkler: 00:53:14

What's your favorite part about the culture here?

Cam Doody: 00:53:18

Uh, the just deep empathy and understanding that everybody has in the building.

Tim Winkler: 00:53:26

What can folks be most excited about with Brickyard going into 2024?

Cam Doody: 00:53:32

I think we're going to be backing some of the best founders in the world. What is a

Tim Winkler: 00:53:38

charity or corporate philanthropy that's near and dear to you?

Cam Doody: 00:53:43

Uh, Chattanooga Prep, it's a, it's a charter school started by my, my partner, Ted.

Tim Winkler: 00:53:50

What are you most afraid of? Uh,

Cam Doody: 00:53:54

the national

Tim Winkler: 00:53:55

debt. I think that resonates with a lot of folks. If you could live abroad for one season out of the year, where, where would you live and what season?

Cam Doody: 00:54:08

Uh, I'd live in Montana from June to October.

Tim Winkler: 00:54:14

Strong. What's the worst fashion trend that you've ever followed? Oh, gosh.

Cam Doody: 00:54:22

Oh, gosh. I'm not really into fashion. That

Tim Winkler: 00:54:29

might be your answer then. What, what, uh, was your dream job as a kid?

Cam Doody: 00:54:36

I wanted to be a marine biologist or naturalist.

Tim Winkler: 00:54:41

And then we'll close with, if you're going to a dinner party, what's. Who's one historical figure and one athlete that you'd like to sit down with and dine with?

Cam Doody: 00:54:54

Uh, I'd love to meet, I'd love to have met Chuck Yeager, uh, the pilot that broke the sound barrier. I'm a pilot and I just worship that guy. Uh, and then, uh, athlete, I'd say, uh, gosh, I mean, Michael Jordan, I

Tim Winkler: 00:55:13

guess. Yeah, that's, that's a safe answer for sure. Cool. Uh, Cam, uh, appreciate you telling us your story and the, the story of, of Brickyard and what you guys are doing here. Um, super pumped for it. I think it's an amazing, uh, piece to the ecosystem here in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Um, you're, you're a, uh, an awesome entrepreneur. I think somebody that a lot of folks can learn from, um, and, uh, confident what you're doing here is going to help breed a whole nother wave of, of founders and amazing companies solving big world problems. So we're rooting for you guys and thanks for hanging out with us on the pod.

Cam Doody: 00:55:53

Thanks, man. I loved it. And look forward to seeing you in Chattanooga. Appreciate it.