Tyler Tran: Thea Venture Partnership and Political Awakening

Context

Call between Gary Sheng (in Vegas) and Tyler Tran (in Georgia) discussing Tyler's startup idea "Thea," his political radicalization due to Trump administration policies, transition to Roc Nation, and Gary's exploration of bivocational ministry to fund church planting.

Personal Updates

Gary's Family Situation

• In Vegas with aunt and uncle visiting from China
• Aunt's mother just passed away, forcing them to cancel their American vacation
• Gary picking them up from airport in a few hours

Tyler's Political Awakening

Immigration Raids Impact

• Tyler: "Mexican American family has a one of her friends husband. Got picked up on the street for four months now, and no one knows where he is"
• "The wife and kid doesn't know where the... Where the dad is for four months now"
• Vietnamese nail salons raided in Georgia
• Mexican labor shortage causing 3x price increases for home services

Political Transformation

• "This is making me turn, like, far left... I'm, like, being radicalized right now"
• Donating to political causes for first time
• Attending rallies, including upcoming one at stadium
• "You need to fight radical with radical. You cannot fight with passive like Chuck Schumer and Cory Booker"

Christianity and Politics

• Tyler's harsh critique: "I cannot be in a place of just fake ass Christians. Hypocrites... You're going to pray so that people are fed. Didn't Jesus tell you to invite people to your table and give them supper?"
• "Christianity is the most like, one of the most hypocritical religions. Because Christianity is driving MAGA"
• Witnessing Vietnamese church members praying after voting for policies that separated families

Polling Insight

• Innovative polling question: "Who do you think your neighbor would vote for?" instead of "Who would you vote for?"
• Revealed overwhelming Trump support due to embarrassment factor in direct polling

Career Transition

Leaving NBA T2

• "It wasn't challenging me enough... it's not what I want to do"
• Used as "launching pad to the next one"

Joining Roc Nation

• Starting November 4, 2025 as VP of FP&A
• Former NBA boss became CFO of Roc Nation and recruited Tyler
• Path to CFO when boss transitions to COO role
• "Going back to music"

MBA Progress

• Remote MBA at University of Illinois
• Currently taking "AI in Business" course
• Restarted after wedding planning break

Thea: The Startup Vision

Problem Statement

Tyler: "Venue owners and event organizers... when they have 20, 30, 40 events on sale. They don't have a good grasp of all the money that's coming in"

Core Issues:

1. No centralized sales management across multiple events
2. No cash flow forecasting ability
3. Manual processes or complete guesswork
4. "Every venue operates that way... They run their business from week to week"

Solution: Thea Platform

Name Origin

• "THEIA is a Greek Titan... for the Greek Titan of foresight, vision and prosperity"

Key Features:

1. Sales Management: Centralize all event sales in one platform
2. Cash Forecasting: Translate ticket sales to cash deposits predictions
3. Predictive Analytics: "If this event starts and the capacity is 4,000... I predict... the first two weeks of on sale is gonna be this spike"
4. Dynamic Updates: "Every day it will update every hour... based on the sales"
5. Data Network Effects: "The more shows you put on here, the more data we have to better inform you"

Competitive Advantage:

• Tyler: "This technology just doesn't exist"
• "There's no competitor in this space"
• "Quantitative people don't go into this industry"

Market Opportunity

Target Market:

• Music venues (Tyler's existing network)
• "Think about all the music venues out there"
• Venues that are "not well capitalized" and "sensitive to the cash going in and out"

Go-to-Market Strategy:

• Tyler: "I have a whole network. As our go to market strategy, we can literally test it with people I know"
• "I already have a good client base that we can reach out to"

Business Model:

• Subscription-based: "It's a subscription that I think is sticky"
• "Once a venue has it, It will be very costly for them to get rid of us"
• Platform becomes their "ticket analytics infrastructure"

Partnership Proposal

Roles:

• Tyler: "I think the CEO role should be yours, and I'll be the COO"
• "You will be the mind behind the tech... a tech company should be headed up by a tech minded person"
• Gary: "Your role eventually will just be out there giving talks... and go to market"

Funding Strategy:

• Tyler: "I can also fundraise. Like, I have folks who would be very interested"
• Preference for angel investors: "Probably the last thing I want, though, is to take VC money"
• On VCs: "You'll lose control pretty quickly... You'll be working for your eventual capital firm"

Exit Strategy:

• "We don't have to build a whole business out of it, but we can if we want to"
• "We could sell to, like, a ticket provider. Right. Like Ticketmaster will acquire us"
• Timeline: "This could be like three, five year thing"

Gary's Bivocational Ministry Vision

Financial Independence for Ministry

• Gary: "If I want to eventually start a church... I'd rather self fund most of that"
• "There's this concept of being bivocational, where one of your vocations is pastoral"
• "I'm not trying to be a grifter pastor that's just asking tons of money from middle class grandmas"

Connection to Music Industry

• "It's not like I don't like music or events and stuff. I clearly did that for a while. Part of it was with you"
• Sees Thea as aligned with past experience and interests

Exit Strategy for Ministry

• "This could make a lot of sense for something to work on that does exit out... with an eye towards exiting to Live Nation or whatever"
• "All of us can then do whatever. Focus on raising families"

Next Steps

Immediate Actions

• Follow-up meeting scheduled for October 22 at 4pm ET
• Gary to create "a little booklet that helps me understand the problem... and the underlying philosophy"
• Tyler: "We can be founders... we need to decide roles"

Development Plan

• Build prototype (Tyler mentions already having one)
• Test with Tyler's venue network
• Explore angel investor funding
• Consider bootstrap/consulting hybrid model initially

Key Quotes

On Political Situation:

• Tyler: "America right now is such an embarrassment battlefield"
• "Elections can be rigged these days... It's scary. You can't really believe anything you see anymore"
• "I'm actually donating to political causes that I believe in now, I used to never"

On Venue Industry:

• "Quantitative people don't go into this industry"
• "They just kind of guess, 'Well, if I have 5 shows on sale, I'll probably get like 50k next week'"
• "This is why it's such a risky business because they run their business from week to week"

On Partnership:

• Tyler: "This is a product that we can build and sell pretty quickly"
• "Our go to market strategy is already figured out. We just need the product"
• Gary: "This is totally an idea that only comes from someone that... has been working with so many of these venues"

On Faith and Work:

• Gary: "I've been questioning whether I want my faith to be involved in politics... it gets really corrupted pretty easily"
• Tyler: "Christianity lost even more points with me... What are you all praying for right now? You should be embarrassed of yourselves"

Analysis

This conversation captures Tyler at a political turning point, becoming radicalized by witnessing direct impacts of Trump administration policies on his neighbors. His startup idea Thea represents years of industry experience identifying a critical gap in venue operations. The partnership with Gary offers mutual benefit - Tyler gets technical leadership while Gary finds a bivocational path to fund ministry without depending on congregational support. Tyler's critique of Christian hypocrisy regarding immigration creates interesting tension with Gary's faith journey, yet both seek authentic expression of values through their work. The Thea concept appears genuinely innovative with clear market need, existing network advantages, and realistic exit strategy.