Why Founders are Moving to Chattanooga, Tennessee to Lock-in | Cam Doody at Brickyard

The Peel with Turner Novak

Cam Doody is the Co-founder and General Partner of Brickyard, the venture capital firm moving founders to Chattanooga, Tennessee to lock-in with no distractions until they find product market fit.

Brickyard is one of the most unique venture firms you’ll ever come across, and we get into how it how it was inspired by a 16x fund based in Chattanooga, why Cam and his co-founders started it during ZIRP, and why they hope everyone copies their model.

We also get into Cam’s startup Bellhops, which he started in 2011 and has since grown into the third largest moving company in the US. We talk running a local services business, why 5-star review systems don’t work, and how U-Haul almost killed Bellhops overnight back in 2016.

Thanks to Nader Khalil, Matt Harb, Austin Beveridge, and Spencer Levitt for their help brainstorming topics for Cam!

Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro

(03:33) Chattanooga: Dirty manufacturing city to high tech

(05:23) Brickyard’s precursor, the Lamp Post Group (a 16x fund)

(09:46) How ZIRP screwed up early stage investing

(13:49) What is Brickayrd?

(21:14) Getting Brickyard off the ground in 2021

(26:25) 100+ year old rug warehouse + maintenance nightmares

(33:13) Cam wants everyone to copy Brickyard

(36:31) Why economic development startup programs don’t work

(38:59) YC teams doing Brickyard to escape the Trough of Sorrow

(44:07) How Brickyard companies raise Series As

(46:10) Nvidia acquiring Brev

(52:18) How to deal with a co-founder breakup

(55:45) Starting Bellhop to build a better moving company

(1:02:27) How U-Haul almost killed them overnight

(1:06:54) Marketing tactics for a local services business

(1:12:05) Why 5-star review systems don’t work

(1:18:16) How Cam’s view of VC’s changed after becoming one

(1:20:37) Ways VC’s actually add value

(1:25:05) The thesis for Bitcoin

(1:39:21) Cam’s annual remote desert island vacation

Referenced

Check out Brickyard: https://www.justlaybrick.com/

The Trough of Sorrow: https://andrewchen.com/after-the-techcrunch-bump-life-in-the-trough-of-sorrow/

Bellhops: https://www.getbellhops.com/

Follow Cam

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/camdoody

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cam-doody-b489a124

Follow Turner

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak

Subscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/