Hey everyone! I'm Chris Baron, the Community Manager here at the CLT Startup House. For the last 16 years I worked in nonprofit, spending my time with college students helping them figure out who they are and what they're capable of. Community building, personal development, culture from scratch, that was my whole world and I loved every bit of it. Now I'm here at 1717 Cleveland Ave doing work that doesn't feel that different, except the people here are building companies instead of figuring out their futures, and sometimes it's both.

Last Wednesday we opened up the house for the first House Jam and I watched something I've seen a thousand times before, just in a different building. Two people who had never met were talking about what one of them was working on and the other person just lit up with question after question, not polite ones but hungry ones, the kind that come from someone who genuinely can't help themselves. That's what founders do. They ask questions nobody else thought to ask, they see something that isn't there yet and can't leave it alone, and when you get a room full of those people together it gets loud fast. Over 50 people showed up that night and every conversation I walked past felt exactly like that.

We didn't open with a keynote. Everyone broke into groups, found a corner of the house, and just started talking through ideas, problems, and half baked theories, and some people were already building something together by the time we called everyone back for show and tell.

A few founders got up and shared what they were working on. Problems that have been sitting unsolved for years, tools that should exist but don't, the kind of stuff where you hear it and think yeah, obviously, why hasn't anyone done this.

Drew closed it out by demoing a chore app and game he built with his own kids. His family was at dinner talking about features they wanted, he turned on Otter to record the conversation, fed the transcript to Claude Code, and by the time they were done hanging out the thing was built. "There is no greater time to go live than right now," he said. "Everyone should be building stuff."

CLT Startup House and Charlotte Tech & Startup Friends are teaming up for a mini vibe coding hackathon. Show up, build something in a couple hours, then show it off. Pizza included. Solo or with a team, doesn't matter. If you've never seen what's possible in an hour with the right tools, this is the night to find out.

GDG Charlotte is hosting an evening right here at the house with two Googlers who work directly in startup accelerator programs and strategic partnerships. If you're building something and want to understand what Google looks for, how their accelerator programs work, and what's coming for Google Play, this is the room to be in. Free event, 5 to 7pm, 40 people already signed up.

Day passes are live! Drop in for a day, work alongside people who see the world the way you do, and find out if this feels like your people. $25 for a day pass or $100 for five.

We still have a few dedicated desks available if you want a permanent spot in the room where it's all happening. Spots are limited on purpose.

Grab a day pass → booking.cltstartuphouse.com/day-pass

Onward & Upward 🤘
Chris

P.s. Forward this to a founder, builder, or operator in Charlotte who should know about us. The best communities are built by the people in them.