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Today’s Edition - Happy Halloween!
👻 🏃➡️ A Ghoulish New Twist on the Running of the Bulls
💡 Founder Friday with LumiLedger’s Alanson Stumler
📱 Tristan Thompson’s New Startup Disrupting Mobile Networks
🪙 The Rise and Fall of Crypto’s Golden Boy
💡 Today’s Minimum Viable Idea
👻 🏃➡️ Running of the Ghouls
IDEA: Every holiday has their own signature 5k. There’s the Turkey Trot, Sweaty Santa, and plenty of Halloween costume themed races. You could probably host another costume run next Halloween and make some money, but that is just played out and boring. You need a new angle to reinvent the Halloween 5k experience. And there is no better event to pull inspiration from than the world’s number one running event, the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Introducing, the Running of the Ghouls.
PRODUCT: Host a 5k fun run/Halloween party with a twist. Contestants will still show up in costume and run, but you will hire local athletes and runners to serve as Ghouls and start the race a quarter mile behind. The Ghouls’ objective is to catch contests and mark them as ‘infected’ while the contestants’ objective is to finish before they are caught. Whether the runner is infected or a survivor will dictate what shirt they are given after they cross the finish line and what signature drink they will be served upon arrival at the afterparty.
MVP: Start with one city and rent a public trail or park to host. Partner with local runners to serve as ghouls.
REVENUE MODEL: Transactional, charge a signup fee for runners.
EXIT STRATEGY: Sell to a race event organizer like Rugged Maniac or a running app company like Strava for 3-6x revenue.
💡 Founder Friday: LumiLedger’s Alanson Stumler
This week’s Founder Friday is Alanson Stumler of LumiLedger. Alanson is a close personal friend of mine and I could not be more proud of him as he begins his entrepreneurial journey. See what the Louisville, KY, native and first-time founder has to say about entrepreneurship and his experience so far.
What are you working on now?
Currently building/launching LumiLedger, an app built for small business financial management.
Why did you want to become an entrepreneur?
I’ve wanted to be an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember. My grandfather co-founded Insulated Roofing Contractors in the late 1970s, giving my father the chance to grow up in an entrepreneurial environment. Throughout my own childhood, my father and grandfather co-owned, operated, and sold several businesses — so I was raised around that same spirit of building and creating. Entrepreneurship has always felt less like a choice and more like something that runs in my blood.
Was there a specific moment or a “that’s it” reaction that made you make the jump?
The idea for my current project had been rolling around in my head for a couple of years while I was working in financial advising. I reached a point where I was at a crossroads in my career — and decided it was time to finally bring the concept to life.
What is something that we should know about the early days of starting a company?
Define the problem you are solving and remind yourself of it daily. Don’t try to be everything to everyone, and constantly move in a direction. Have conversations, ask questions, keep building and keep learning. Most importantly, ask for help.
Is entrepreneurship for everyone? And what is something people should be 100% sure about before they start?
It certainly can be. If someone has a good idea to solve a problem whether it be in healthcare, agriculture, food services or financial services, etc., surround yourself with people that are skilled where you aren’t, and go. Be sure of yourself. It sounds corny, but you have to believe in your ability first.
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🚨 Startup News 🗞️
Publication: TechCrunch
Summary: Tristan Thompson has teamed up with World Mobile to launch Uplift, a community-owned mobile network announced at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025. Uplift offers unlimited data plans starting at US $9.99/month, and gives users and local hosts (“AirNode operators”) a stake in the network. Subscribers help expand connectivity while hosts earn revenue for running nodes. Built on blockchain and decentralized physical infrastructure (DePIN), the initiative aims to flip the traditional telecom model by shifting power and ownership to underserved communities, starting in Cleveland and expanding beyond in 2026.
Spin: Wow, Tristan Thompson, I salute you. This is a truly remarkable career move after retiring from the NBA. Mobile networks have all the power and have used their position to squeeze every last dollar out of consumers. Cell phones have been a necessity instead of a luxury for more than a decade now, so it is very important for companies like Uplift to enter a market ripe for disruption.
🚂 Motivation Station
🧱 Ready to run through a brick wall or do you need an extra push?
Entrepreneurs can learn a lot more from their failures than they do from successes. Luckily, there have been countless failures before us from which we can pull valuable lessons. One of which is Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX. While his company eventually went under, his rise to stardom has a lot of lessons that entrepreneurs can use. SBF’s creativity, strategy, and out-of-the-box thinking is something all great entrepreneurs possess.
Your career will thank you.
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🔥 HighDEA
🎃 Plato’s Closet for Halloween Costumes
IDEA: Halloween is the one night a year that you can dress like a complete fool and no one will think anything of it. Thinking of the perfect costume and mixing and matching accessories can be a lot of fun… but also very expensive for something you will probably only wear once. What if there was a Spirit Halloween style pop up store where you can buy gently used costumes and also sell your ‘stume on November 1st?
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