Most of the time, I’m connecting people, running events, or backing founders. But my friend Eric Weis asked me to sit down on his Chaos to Clarity podcast, and I said yes because Eric has been in the trenches with me for a long time. He’s seen the messy middle of community building, not just the glossy parts.
Years ago, both of us were living on caffeine and co-working passes. Back then I thought a startup community was a place - four walls, a badge, a hallway where you could bump into five founders before lunch. EvoNexus felt like the center of gravity in 2013. I assumed every city had that kind of density.
They don’t!
What I learned then (and keep relearning) is that what really moves a city forward isn’t free desk space. It’s connection with context. It’s someone standing between two people and saying, “You two need to meet, and here’s why.” That’s the heartbeat for me. Faster, truer connections that save founders months of wandering.
On Eric’s show, we talked about how that turned me into an investor almost by accident. Before I ever wrote a check, I was building talent marketplaces - basically scouting potential and routing it to opportunity. Angel investing felt like the same muscle: find the people who are going to bend reality a little, and back them early. Sometimes before they even know what the next thing is. (Cody Barbo is a good example. I knew I wanted to bet on him before Trust & Will had a name.)
Interlock grew out of that instinct, and Rising Tide Partners is the next version: not just a pile of capital, but a circle of humans who make each other better - education, intros, mentorship, the “I’ve been there, here’s the shortcut” stuff that changes the slope of the line. I’ve never been interested in “value-add” as a pitch deck phrase. I want it to be obvious in the first conversation.
Eric and I also did a mini state-of-the-union on San Diego. Here’s where I land:
Founders are the ‘main character’ of their own universe. Not the organizations, not the programs, not the sponsors. Founders!
We need density again. Zoom kept us alive, but it didn’t make us faster. Learning accelerates in person. I miss the days when you could walk a single block and run into ten teams building wildly different things and all of them trading notes.
Curation beats scale. I’ve lost interest in “big tent” mixers where everyone leaves with a stack of business cards and no momentum. Give me ten climate founders at one table with two investors who actually write climate checks, and I’ll show you a better night for everyone.
I’m seeing signs of this coming back - pop-up build days, founder-led dinners, neighborhood meetups that feel like a tribe forming. That’s the energy we should pour gas on. If you’re a founder and you’re craving that: start it! Grab a table for twelve. Name the theme. Text me and Eric and say, “Help me fill these seats with the right people.” We will.
I left the recording feeling grateful and grounded. Community, for me, isn’t a side project to investing; it’s the operating system underneath it. When one of us wins, more of us win - that only works if we keep showing up for each other in real, specific ways.
If you want to hear the whole conversation, it’s here: Chaos to Clarity with Eric Weis.
I share more of the early days, the tiger-team stories from aerospace, why I still think like a talent scout, and what I’m excited to build next with Rising Tide.
Thanks for listening, and for building alongside me.
— Neal
Can't wait to hear this one! Gotta get you on Mind The Machine pod! How about at Startup Week?