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ID:
2025-12-09-gary-daniel-coffee-faith-philosophy-turnout
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Coffee Meeting Summary: Faith, EdTech Pivots, and Event Planning Philosophy

Overview​

Gary and Daniel met for coffee following their initial connection at the Supabase X DreamBase meetup. The conversation explored Daniel's pivot from EdTech to event planning software, both men's philosophical and spiritual journeys, and a demo of Turnout.info with focus on vendor management for events.

Key Topics Discussed​

Daniel's Journey from Education Focus to People-Centric Building​

  • Core Evolution: "I used to take a lot of pride in education and I used to think intelligence and the ability to build things was a core marker. I think as I've evolved, I think people are far more important and there's an element of gathering and an element of showing up and being present."
  • Event Planning Origins: Did an event startup in college (freshman/sophomore years) but "never really understood it" - just felt drawn to it
  • Recent Pivot Timeline:
    • December 2023: Shook hands with co-founder to build AI LMS
    • April 2024: Built first passive AI LMS, discovered multiple competitors
    • April-August 2024: Niched into medical education technology (MedEdTech)
    • August 2024: "Threw our hands up" and pivoted to events after whiteboarding
  • EdTech Challenges: "You have to be super capitalized... You're not the only one to have the idea of like, you know what really sucks? Like the old Kluge SaaS."
  • Education Philosophy: "Fundamentally education is a civic problem where you have to have like truly patient and long-term capital to a tune that I've never heard of, to the tune of like 20 to 30 years, which to me is government."

Turnout.info Platform Demo & Strategy​

  • Core Architecture: Breaking events into "tasks and facts" - though planning to remove task management entirely
  • Strategic Focus: Pivoting to pure vendor and venue management
    • Vendor listing and discovery
    • Vendor outreach automation
    • Quote comparison and normalization ("the classic sales spreadsheet")
    • Contracting and payments workflow
  • Technical Approach:
    • Using Magic Patterns for rapid UI prototyping ("I'm not good at design")
    • Working from "problem statements" rather than visual concepts
    • "I have to make something until it sucks. That's how my brain works."
  • Business Model: Gary asked, "Does it help you find the venue?" Daniel: "On the money. That is where we're going to go."

Gary's Spiritual Journey & Algorithm Shift​

  • Previous Algorithm: "What would make my atheist parents happy? From China... What would give me clout to my peers that went to Duke?"
  • New Algorithm: "What does God want me to do?"
  • Surrendering Will: "A big concept of circles that I implement related to faith is surrendering your own will... I don't care about my own will."
  • Walking by Faith: "God can put certain big ideas on your heart... Sometimes he's like, walk through this door. And you're gonna find out later, maybe, why I asked you to walk through this door."
  • On Guidance: "I used to get... I'm trying to rely a lot less on just like an abundance of input. Because I think that a lot of it came from insecurity."
  • Year's Journey Summary: Gauntlet → Alpha Schools → Industrial Scientist (fell through) → Homeless in Austin → Spiritual deepening → Applied AI exploration

Daniel's Philosophical Framework​

  • Religious Background: "Born and raised Catholic. Culturally Catholic now I guess. I'll go to Christmas mass."
  • Current Philosophy: "If I were to summarize my own spiritual beliefs in a synthesized framework... Absurdism can be cowardly. I haven't found a good argument against it."
  • Core Principle: "The ability to hold tension. I think is the core of a very healthy rebellious absurdism. The ability to embrace... To continually be willing to discard one's views."
  • On Paradox: "I feel that paradox is going to introduce cascading failure. But that is the tension one must hold on their mind."
  • Business vs. Faith Tension: "How does one operate in a system that advocates for the individual self and agent... That is the paradox in wrestling with that. Easier for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven?"

Character Over Intelligence in Collaboration​

  • Gary's Evolution: "I'm taking more seriously the people I collaborate with over feeling like I have to understand everything that we're gonna do."
  • Trust & Character: "Smart people will often fuck you over. And do very not smart things in my view. Because I think it's smart to have character."
  • Investor Mindset: "I think there's a reason why a lot of good investors will invest in people. Over like necessarily a specific idea that they're working on at the time."

Financial Sustainability & Building Philosophy​

  • Daniel's Runway: "I worked for six years for investment firms. So I've built up a nest egg. Hopefully got one to two careers in it."
  • Building Without Pressure: Allows him to "build the best possible thing" without having to "cut corners" or seek short-term revenue
  • On Desperation: "The desperation to pay the bills. To get short-term revenue over... Do the thing that actually will be a..."

Key Quotes & Insights​

  • Daniel on Education vs. Community: "I used to take a lot of pride in education... I think people are far more important and there's an element of gathering and an element of showing up and being present as a real motor."

  • Gary on Algorithm Change: "My algorithm used to be... what would make my atheist parents happy?... And now it's like, what does God want me to do?"

  • Daniel on Tension: "The ability to hold tension. I think is the core of a very healthy rebellious absurdism."

  • Gary on Character: "Smart people will often fuck you over... I think it's smart to have character."

  • Daniel on EdTech: "Education is a civic problem where you have to have truly patient and long-term capital... 20 to 30 years, which to me is government."

  • Gary on Faith & Tech: "The AI age has also basically thrown every previous plan out the window for a lot of people. So you almost have no choice but to just wake up every day and just do your best."

Action Items / Takeaways​

  • Daniel will send Gary a survey about Turnout.info product direction
  • Gary expressed interest in using Turnout.info for Applied AI Society events
  • Both exploring collaboration at intersection of community building and practical technology
  • Mutual recognition of character and values alignment over pure technical capability
  • Shared understanding that sustainable building requires proper runway and patience

Philosophical & Spiritual Context​

The conversation revealed two builders wrestling with the tension between worldly success and deeper meaning. Daniel, from his Catholic background, embraces absurdism while acknowledging the paradox of operating in capitalist systems while holding spiritual values. Gary, recently deepened in Christian faith, is learning to surrender personal will to divine guidance while building in the tech world. Both recognize that the current AI revolution has "thrown every previous plan out the window," requiring daily faith and adaptability rather than rigid planning.