Good Afternoon!

If you’re getting this email, you already know me. For those who need a refresher, I co-founded Lightstream in 2014 to invent cloud-native, browser-based livestreaming studios and technology. Our investors and mentors were the who’s who of Chicago and the Midwest, our customers were 10s of thousands of creators and the largest companies in the world, and our strength was our team. Techstars accelerated us early and later I would become one of their 200 or so global All-Star Mentors. In the last few years, I joined the YPO where I’m often sharing space with so many other talented leaders and entrepreneurs. All of this has gifted me huge overlapping circles of accomplished friends and colleagues along with unique access to brilliant founders around the world. And if you know me well, then you know I love to create meaningful connections between all the people I’m grateful to know: my Inner Outer Circle.

I aim to keep these emails infrequent, though there will be a few exceptions in the early days while I share a few I’ve been excited about. I only plan to share the startups and founders that stand out the most. Sometimes I’ll share to see if you are interested in meeting, mentoring, or introducing them to someone you know. Other times, I may form an SPV and play a more hands-on role with the founders, investors, and opportunity.

Thanks for reading. I trust you will enjoy the connections and stories among these various circles.

With gratitude and respect,
Stuart Pino (formerly Grubbs)
_{My wife and I took my maternal grandparents’ last name at our wedding. David O. Pino was a brilliant engineer & artist. Agnes Pino was a profound combination of ambitious, driven, and kind. Both were life-long entrepreneurs married for 70+ years. They remain a huge inspiration in our lives.}

P.S. A quick update on Lightstream. We were acquired in 2021 by Videndum. I remained CEO for another few years. As of 2024, I am working on founding new projects, doing some angel investing, being an LP at Long Jump Capital, and mentoring promising founders.

Globowl is an internationally-inspired baby and toddler food company introducing babies to big flavors, safe textures and common allergens when they are starting solids to help prevent picky eating and texture aversions, while mitigating food allergies. Read more…

Erica is a star. As a founder, yes, but also quite literally as the latest contestant on Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars where she is currently in the final five (and I have on good authority appears in all 10 episodes)! I’ve had the pleasure of working with Erica since her time at Techstars. A second-time founder and a mom on a mission, she is perfectly suited to bring her vision to the lives of so many parents looking for better options.

Most recently, I attended a 200-person watch party for the first episode of Food Stars hosted for Erica by 1871. All the attendees were scarfing down some tacos and these awesome chunky dips. She announced before the premiere that all those dips we loved were actually the baby food! Ha. Genius.

But hear more straight from her in this pitch video:

We caught up yesterday in person and here are some highlights:

Full disclosure: I wrote Erica a $25K check last year.

Erica has obviously crushed business development and partnerships since then through major retail expansions, large partnerships, and massive media exposure now being in the finals of a popular television show will boost awareness in a big way.

She needs more operating capital for production for all this growth and these store tests.

I was able to convince her to reopen the round that I put in money at: a valuation cap of just $6M.

Let me know if you’d like to chat, mentor, introduce someone, or invest! I’ll be setting up a dinner with Erica first week of August for anyone interested.

Thank you for reading!
Stu

P.P.S All feedback is wanted. Short, longer, more or less detail. Send it all. Just getting started!