Daniel Knight

Basic Info

Current Venture: Turnout.info - event management software for planners
- Helps organize vendor quotes for events
- Uses AI to manage and facilitate quote processes
- Currently building out the product (not live yet)
Previous Role: VC and growth equity investing for 6 years
- Worked at Meritech for 3 years as internal analytics guy
- Built public/private company analytics product for investors
- Created tool to help win deals and impress LPs
Education: CS undergraduate
Career Path: Engineer → VC/Growth Equity → Entrepreneur

Turnout.info: Event planning software that manages vendor quotes
Event Planning Experience: Recently planned 4 events, including technical audiences
Virtual Events: Has experience with 60,000 developer nights with lightning talks

Met for coffee to follow up from Supabase X DreamBase meetup
Daniel revealed pivot story from EdTech (AI LMS for medical education) to event planning software
- Worked on EdTech from December 2023 to August 2024 with co-founder
- "You have to be super capitalized" - realized EdTech market challenges
- Pivoted to events in August after whiteboarding new ideas
Demonstrated Turnout.info platform focusing on vendor management
- Breaking events into "tasks and facts" core structure
- Planning to focus entirely on vendor/venue management ("That's a real business")
- Vendor outreach, listing, contracting, payments workflow
- Using Magic Patterns for rapid UI prototyping
Discussed personal philosophies:
- Daniel: "I used to take a lot of pride in education... I think people are far more important"
- Shared Catholic background but now embraces "rebellious absurdism"
- "The ability to hold tension... to continually be willing to discard one's views"
Gary shared his year-long journey through Gauntlet, Alpha Schools, spiritual awakening
- Explained algorithm shift: "What would make my atheist parents happy?" → "What does God want me to do?"
- Discussed concept of surrendering will to God's guidance
- "Walk by faith, not by sight"
Financial sustainability: Daniel has 1-2 year runway from 6 years in VC/growth equity
Both emphasized character over intelligence in collaborators
- Gary: "Smart people will often fuck you over... it's smart to have character"

Daniel shared valuable event planning wisdom:

"Let the bees buzz": Don't be too prescriptive with programming
"Your job is to engineer serendipity": Create conditions for organic connections
Key principle: "You can only lose your money at the start of an event... you make your money at the end"
Emphasized importance of the post-event mingling time ("two beers in, the garden is down")
Avoid being too direct with event goals (e.g., if hiring, don't explicitly say "apply here")

Event Planning Expertise: Can provide guidance for Applied AI Society events
Software Solutions: Potential user/customer of Turnout.info for event management
Local Network: Connected within Austin tech scene
Shared Background: Chicago connection and similar career transitions
Philosophical Alignment: Both value community building over pure technical achievement
Business Wisdom: Experience from VC world on avoiding capital-intensive businesses

Thoughtful approach to event planning and community building
Strong emphasis on creating organic connections rather than forced networking
Experienced in both virtual and in-person technical events
Introduced Gary to Julien Charton, showing good network connections
Entrepreneurial mindset with practical VC/growth background
Deep thinker wrestling with paradoxes of faith, capitalism, and community
Self-aware about personal runway and building sustainably without cutting corners
Values "problem statements" over visual design - practical builder mindset
Appreciates candor and lack of qualifiers in spiritual discussions

transcript-id	date	one-line-summary
2025-12-04-supabase-dreambase-meetup	2025-12-04	Applied AI networking meetup with event planning insights and community building
2025-12-09-gary-daniel-coffee-faith-philosophy-turnout	2025-12-09	Coffee discussion on faith, philosophy, and building Turnout.info event platform