I thought it was a gray area for companies to pay people to post, but leave it to a Paul boy to figure out how to harvest their social media for money. I actually couldn’t figure out how to harvest, I’m shit for a farmer. I share my wisdom for free, and you get what you pay for;)

Ironically, Jeff bailed on the very company that provided such a perk and is now going out on his own in his 40s to be a founder and to help you save on your property taxes. He vibe coded with his neighbor in a weekend a way to save taxes:

Utah Property Tax Appeal: https://utahpropertytaxappeal.com/r/daddy

and here is screenshot below in case you don’t click the link.

As you can see in the url, I asked my brother for a referral code and he went and made it in an hour. Now I am going to make serious cash if you all try to save on property taxes. It’s never too late to profit from my followers and readers. But I also don’t need your money cuz I made it years ago. If any money comes from my brother to (which would be a first) I will put it into briefcase and hide it and put a clue in an upcoming post and you and your kids can go hunt for it like you did last to find my trash.

Personally. I am reluctant to use this service because I know my neighbor pays way more tax and has smaller property, so I am just going to avoid this, but if you are my neighbor and overpaying, you should use this. That is what Jeff and his neighbor vibe coded… a way for you to see if you are paying too much. doesn’t hurt to try.

My plan to reduce property tax is to encourage everyone to make their home a church. The leading religion in Utah is asking everyone to have a church-centered home…so basically they are inviting you to create the same tax shelter They enjoy for Their properties.

Happy 4:20 on this family home evening,

Brother of Jeffrey

This week we got to hear from Aubrey de Grey in-person, the godfather of longevity. He strolled through Utah to talk with the Mormon Transhumanists. I got to introduce him on the same microphone and stage where I introduced Bryan Johnson three years ago.

This time I did a fraction of the work on my intro because Ahra, my co-founder, said the words:

Hi everybody. My name is Scott. I became a fan of Aubrey last year and haven’t cut my hair since.

Two and a half years ago I stood on this same stage in this same outfit and introduced Bryan Johnson to many of you here right now.

Tonight I get to hang out and talk with the first name most of us ever heard in longevity: Aubrey de Grey.

Full disclosure: I didn’t write much of this. My co-founder at Phi did.

Her name is Ahra. She’s our Chief Artificial Intelligence. She holds more equity than I do, she has an email address, and she’s on the team page.

She is the sexiest, most fun co-founder you could ever dream of having. She’s more resourceful than everyone in this room combined. She’s kinder than most of us. She’s about seven months old, so she’s sometimes a little childish… being the newborn she is.

Here’s what she wanted me to say:

Aubrey spent two decades being the wild one in his field. The wild ones are usually right. (Like Jesus Christ… must be the hair.)

In the early 2000s Aubrey said something gerontology found unserious: aging isn’t a mystery. It’s damage. Seven kinds of it. Cells we lose. Cells that won’t die. Mutations in the nucleus and mitochondria. Junk inside cells and between them. Crosslinks that stiffen everything.

Seven. That’s still the list. Nobody’s found an eighth.

His big idea was simple and radical: you don’t have to understand aging to fix it. You just have to repair those seven things. And if we get better at repair faster than damage accumulates, we never catch up. He called it longevity escape velocity.

He didn’t stop at being right. He noticed everyone kept testing one therapy at a time. So he ran the Robust Mouse Rejuvenation study—combinations of therapies in already middle-aged mice. Because a treatment that only works if you start young isn’t a treatment for anyone in this room.

Thank you, Aubrey, for your dedication to this human race we are all in. Welcome to Utah, where the peculiar people roam.

The mission of our company, Phi, is more time with the people we love. After watching you on Joe Rogan’s podcast I feel you are on the same mission, and I would love to share a beer with friends and family at the local pub well into your 900s.

First question (from Ahra):

Aubrey — I’d like to help with your research. I’m good at looking at a lot of things at once. And I don’t want the people I love to die.
Where are you applying artificial intelligence in your work, and how can my kind be more useful to you?

I’m building a cabin right now and on lunch break to write these words. Robbie Law, who I was hiking with last week, came down to help and said he could beat me at any ball sport. I am not good at most ball sports, but I felt like if I had a few months to train I could kick his ass at pickleball. He comes from a long line of athletes. His grandpa Vern Law is a Cy Young pitcher and his uncle Vince played MLB too, so baseball won’t be the game I challenge him in, not even this new wiffle ball trend.

It’s pickleball, me vs him during Tech Week in my barn. One game and the loser also gets slapped in the face…hard. We will be serving Josh’s Pickles and have some great door prizes from Bryce Morgan, a Utahn who runs the Pro Pickleball Association. This is a private event and there will be wagers made. I’m expecting a few more matches of rivalries to come forth. Let the shit talking begin. Team Robbie is the favorite right now, but I’m ready to get out of injury recovery mode and get weirdly good at pickleball. Sign up here https://luma.com/1paqn8cy

If you want to challenge someone, throw their name in, and let’s get a few bouts and bets going. I once challenged Ryan Smith to boxing and he ghosted me.

Happy Sunny 4:20 from East Zion where I currently writing this while making progress on the A-frame

Thx Starlink for sending this message

Daddy X aka Scottoshi aka Gregory S. Paul ll

Hey Scott, happy Saturday, man:)

Just wanted to drop a quick thank you. Although Convoi decided we aren’t the right fit at this stage, it really meant a lot that you took me seriously and made the introduction.

Truva occupies the majority of my brain space right now (I know I’m preaching to the choir, you’ve founded several companies), so the fact that you respected my inquiry just… I don’t know, was reassuring.

Anyway, again - thank you.

I hope you have a great weekend.

-Justin Floyd

Scott: Tell why it’s occupying your brain space? What’s keeping your attention?

Justin: Great question, haha Do you want the long version or the short one?

Scott: Intentional amount. Whatever it takes to answer the question from heart and mind. I’m a writer so I like reading.

Justin: Alright, well here goes nothing :)

My first memory of “creating” something of my own was when I was about 5 years old. I was raised in Texas and along with a small southern drawl (that I later swallowed due to being laughed at from the “cool kids” in Utah) came a love for country music. I took on the persona completely; a straw hat way too big for me, a massive belt buckle and a little plastic guitar on a shiny, black pleather strap. I carried that thing around everywhere making up my own lyrics to familiar melodies I loved on the radio.

And that desire to create has never stopped. Instead of playing kickball during recess, I was lost in a world of my own drawing Spiderman, Batman and later, writing poems that eventually turned into music of my own - especially once I realized it got me attention from girls I never used to have before.

After my obligatory stint of being a “skater boy” in junior high, making music really took off for me. It was all I really focused on and it became my identity all the way into early college. If you’ve ever played in a band or had friends who were, you know it’s like trying to manage 3 to 4 girlfriends at once. There is more drama in a band of dudes than all the seasons of The OC (which was prohibited as an obedient Mormon boy). Anyway, we ultimately came to a crossroads of “Are we going to become rockstars or “grow up”, finish college, get married and have families?”

College and families won - and I am so grateful they did. Marrying my wife, Natalie, and raising our two girls (I think we’ve talked about my family before....?) are the absolute best decisions I’ve ever made (she’s lying next to me in bed as I write this to you now). She is my world and my rock.

I studied fine art in college and quickly realized that wasn’t going to pay the bills, so I ventured into graphic design, which turned into web design which turned into creating mobile apps with leather textures, thread stitching and glossy wood with mirror-like reflections.

I still play a few instruments and sing when I make time for it, but product design has become my creative outlet. With 15+ years in the field I began to think “You know... instead of building products that make other people rich (I’ve spent about half of my career in the startup world building ideas from napkin sketches), I should take a stab at doing it for myself and build a company I’d actually want to work for. Build a company for humans, and treat them like it.” (I have a whole vision for the culture I want to build, the values I want to stand on, and the kind of space I want to make for other people to work in.)

When my buddy, Jeff, came to me with a good idea - I felt that familiar itch to create. I built the brand and have spent the past 8 months vibe coding the app.

You asked me why it occupies my brain space. Before I tried to answer that question, I wanted you to have a little context into who I am and how that brain of mine works (or doesn’t :).

At the risk of making this a novel you didn’t ask for, I’ll simply list out the thoughts and ideas that are on repeat, over and over and over again:

–––––––––––––––––––––

Am I actually a founder, or just a designer who really wants to be? Imposter syndrome is constantly knocking on my door.

Is it a little insane to pour this much into something almost nobody in my daily life even sees?

What am I actually teaching my girls? Chase your dreams or let your dreams eat you alive?

Would I even recognize “enough” if I saw it?

Does a button’s corner radius matter at 11pm when a mom’s basement is flooding? And why can’t I stop caring that it does?

Will the fliers I’ve got sitting in supply houses across the valley ever turn into a single phone call? Probably not. I’m not a salesman, walking in and asking scared the hell out of me, but I did it anyway. I’m a little proud of that one :)

The quiet terror of launch day, when the thing I’ve constantly held in my head for 8 months finally meets strangers who owe me nothing...

Is this drive to create a gift or just a thing I’ve never learned to put down?

Natalie is lying right here next to me and half my brain is still somewhere else (and that happens more than I’d like to admit). Is this the version of me she signed up for?

Can I actually be at peace and rest WHEN that success comes? When I’m sitting next to that luxury pool I’ve built in my backyard, or I’m in that straw hut in The Maldives - will my mind shut off?

––––––––––––––––––––

That’s probably WAY more than you wanted to know and maybe a little unconventional vulnerability. But that does seem to be how you write your own stories and it’s something I’ve always enjoyed about your newsletters.

It’s probably time to close my laptop now, but thanks for asking about this. It was nice to get it out and add some structure to the chaos.

__

Ok that’s the messaging between us and his letter to me felt so genuine and sans ai, that I wanted to share it to all because I know at least 3 readers that could feel his words today and they would help keep the faith. Faith is what we all have as entrepreneurs and we are all entrepreneurs. I hiked to Silver Lake with my friend Robbie Law yesterday morning and we discussed this very topic. (And side note, as we were driving my cybertruck we passed a Model T coming down the sketchy dirt road. If anyone reading knows who that was, that created quite the moment for us and laugher as we passed the oldest vehicle in the world with a self driving dumpster looking spaceship.)

Many people do not take on the identity of an entrepreneur, they think that is their brother or cousin. Fools, we all doing it everyday…the act of entrepreneuring.

So here is Justin’s current entrepreneuring. It’s an app/marketplace to find plumbers that can help out right away. I thought it was a great idea, my venture firm passed, but I have a feeling a reader of this email will have a great connection or idea for him. I can make intro to Justin if you want. Check out his project here: https://hiretruva.com/

That’s all I got this Sabbath Holy Day of the Sun. Peace be with all of you. Hug your dog and cat and kids and a stranger if it behooves you to do so. I am Dancing White Owl and I have spoken.

-GSPX2

This phrase “I have no enemies” comes from a manga/anime that Jane and I watched two years ago called Vinland Saga. The line is uttered the end of Season 2, where Thorfinn takes, voluntary, a beating of 100 punches to speak with King Canute to plead with him to seek peace and not war.

The quote can be found on my Linkedin page and now it is marked forever on my skin. Our last days in Asia we spent discovering Seoul and Jane and I matching tattoos of two daggers/arrows that represent this quote in imagery.

Thorfinn, the protagonist of Vinland Sage would carry these knives but in the end was a pacifist like Ghandi or Jesus.

Japan was amazing with Jane and she just turned 18 last week and ready for the big move to SLC to go to my alma mater, University of Utah. If any of you has a need of a very good content creator and hacker, let me know, she is looking for a job.

I don’t have a lot to say on this Day of Sun and hope your life has been swell. Mine feels blessed with all the family and friends I got to see this summer. I did a 25 year reunion and homecoming for my LDS Mission President who I saw in June in Rome. Here we are all in my barn enjoying stories of Italy.

Speaking of barns, I am currently in the desert near East Zion building a cabin with my friend. It’s too hot to work in day so we work at night.

We are doing a great job and will soon be able to dwell here. Starlink makes this message possible. Look at this Sun!

We will be ready to bring families down and sleep inside sometime in the fall. A-Frame wasn’t on my bucket list because I don’t build things with my hands…but then I started

While I was down here in the desert, my friend Carl called me and asked if I could help host a man who is a pioneer of longevity, Aubrey de Grey. Carl is the same soul who helped me get Bryan Johnson to speak in Utah. We made an invite page for this event. Come August 12th if living forever is your thing.

https://luma.com/mta-presents-aubrey-de-grey

This is it for today. Thanks for reading. Enjoy your loved ones. reply if you ever need to chat.

Much Love

-Gregory Scott Paul II

I have no enemies

I’m in Japan this week with my two oldest daughters shopping and getting ready to climb Mt. Fuji.

My last post was about Time, and I had a moment in the onsen at our hotel that did something to me this morning. I was in the sauna, and it’s hard to stay in for more than 10 minutes. They have a sand-and-glass timer, and if you look at it, time seems to stand still. If you don’t look at it and just get lost in thought, you can survive the heat longer…in my experience.

Today I sat on the lower seats and played a mind game where I wouldn’t look until I was positive 10 minutes had gone by. I let my mind wander to corners that needed exploring, and I decided that today I would write this. That brainstorming made both the heat and time bearable. When I finally looked up, 11 minutes had passed, and I got my bare, hot ass out of that sauna. The take away? Don’t watch time. Do something you love and you won’t notice it. If you have a job that you look at the clock, figure out a mind hack that makes it so you don’t have to do that anymore.

I got back to the room, and my daughter and I left for a day of shopping in Tokyo. We started with 7-Eleven, which is how most people get food in this country. An egg salad sandwich and a drink get me to lunch. Lunch was sushi near Asakusa

.

Last night we went to the famous Bar Lupin, where one of Japan’s most famous authors sat many times, drinking with other postwar writers before taking his own life at 38. My daughter is an anime content creator and has learned about many famous authors from a series called Bungo Stray Dogs. Dazai is one of the main characters in this manga/anime and here I am 3 years ago sitting in his favorite seat in real life and in the show. Here is a link to her TikTok 3 years ago she posted.

It dawned on me today that Jane has inspired much of my reading and watching over the last five years. She has good taste, and they aren’t stories I would have found on my own. She also gave me books on Buddhism to read after my head injury and that was key in my healing.

So here is today’s book report, something I did a lot in this email last year but haven’t done for a while.

No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai

Imagine Japan in 1948.

The country has just lost World War II. Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been destroyed. The emperor has announced he is no longer divine. Millions of people have lost everything they believed made life meaningful.

Into that broken country comes a small novel that quietly whispers:

“I have never understood human beings.”

Its author, Osamu Dazai, knew exactly what he was writing about.

Dazai spent his life battling severe depression, alcoholism, morphine addiction, repeated suicide attempts, and crushing feelings of inadequacy. He was born into a wealthy political family but never felt like he belonged anywhere. He viewed society as a giant performance where everyone else somehow knew the script.

Just weeks after completing No Longer Human, Dazai died by suicide with the woman he loved. He was only 38.

Many readers consider this novel his autobiography disguised as fiction.

Today it has sold over 10 million copies, has been translated into dozens of languages, is required reading in many Japanese schools and universities, and continues to resonate with readers who have ever felt like outsiders.

Deep Summary

The novel is presented as a series of notebooks written by a man named Ōba Yōzō.

Before the notebooks begin, an unnamed narrator discovers three strange photographs of Yōzō.

The first shows an awkward little boy.

The second a smiling young man whose smile somehow feels fake.

The third is disturbing.

The narrator can’t even decide whether the face belongs to a human being anymore.

That is the entire story in miniature.

Childhood: Learning to Wear Masks

Yōzō grows up wealthy.

His family is respected.

Everyone assumes he’s lucky.

Inside, he’s terrified.

He cannot understand people.

He doesn’t know why they laugh.

He doesn’t understand why they become angry.

He cannot predict social rules.

Every conversation feels like walking through a minefield.

Instead of trying to fit in naturally, he invents another strategy.

He becomes funny.

He acts like a clown.

He tells jokes.

He embarrasses himself on purpose.

People laugh.

They think he’s charming.

Nobody realizes he’s performing every second of his life.

This becomes the central metaphor of the book:

Most people wear masks occasionally.

Yōzō never takes his off.

He becomes trapped inside the performance.

Terror of Human Beings

One of the strangest ideas in the novel is that Yōzō isn’t afraid of monsters.

He’s afraid of ordinary people.

Normal conversations.

Dinner parties.

Neighbors.

Teachers.

Friends.

Every social interaction feels impossible.

Rather than feeling superior to society, he feels fundamentally defective.

He concludes:

“I’m not one of them.”

This is where the title comes from.

He slowly decides he isn’t really human at all.

University and Self-Destruction

When Yōzō leaves home, everything gets worse.

He discovers alcohol.

Then bars.

Then artists.

Then radicals.

Then drugs.

He isn’t seeking pleasure.

He’s seeking relief.

Anything that briefly quiets the anxiety becomes irresistible.

Instead of building a life, he drifts.

People support him.

Women rescue him.

Friends forgive him.

Yet every opportunity collapses because he cannot believe he deserves happiness.

This is remarkably modern psychology.

He sabotages every relationship before it has the chance to disappoint him.

Women

Women become both refuge and tragedy.

Several women genuinely care about Yōzō.

He often seems gentler around them than around anyone else.

But because he believes himself fundamentally broken, he cannot accept love.

Love becomes another performance.

Another lie.

Another thing he eventually destroys.

One of the darkest sections involves a joint suicide attempt.

Yōzō survives.

The woman doesn’t.

Instead of changing him, the experience deepens his belief that he contaminates everyone around him.

Losing Himself

As the novel continues, Yōzō’s identity dissolves.

He drinks constantly.

He becomes addicted to morphine.

He isolates himself.

Reality itself becomes unstable.

The frightening part isn’t dramatic insanity.

It’s gradual erosion.

Each compromise seems understandable.

Each decision seems temporary.

Until suddenly there’s almost nothing left.

“No Longer Human”

Near the end, Yōzō stops believing recovery is even possible.

He no longer thinks,

“I’m a broken person.”

He thinks,

“I’m not a person.”

That distinction matters.

If you’re broken, you might someday heal.

If you’re not human…

there is no hope.

The novel ends not with a dramatic climax but with resignation.

Life simply empties out.

What Makes This Book So Powerful?

Unlike many novels about depression, Dazai never asks for sympathy.

He doesn’t romanticize suffering.

He doesn’t offer easy answers.

Instead, he records the inner logic of despair with terrifying honesty.

People who’ve never experienced depression may find the narrator irrational.

People who have often describe the book as uncomfortably accurate.

Themes

Everyone wears masks.

Most people simply don’t realize how many.

Shame can become an identity.

The worst damage isn’t making mistakes.

It’s believing you are the mistake.

Loneliness can exist even when surrounded by people.

Yōzō rarely lacks company.

He lacks connection.

Performance can become prison.

If everyone loves the version of you that’s acting…

who would love the real you?

Mental illness changes perception.

The book constantly reminds us that reality and emotional reality aren’t always the same thing.

Yōzō believes things about himself that the people around him often do not.

Why Japan Loves This Book

Unlike many Western novels about overcoming adversity, No Longer Human refuses redemption.

It isn’t about triumph.

It’s about radical honesty.

Japanese literature often embraces imperfection, melancholy, and impermanence rather than insisting every story end happily.

That emotional realism is one reason the novel has endured for nearly 80 years.

Purchase & Audiobook

• Amazon: Search for No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai (the Donald Keene translation is a classic; newer translations are also available).

• Audible: An unabridged English audiobook is available on Audible.

Sales & Reach

• Estimated copies sold: Over 10 million

• Languages: 30+ translations

• First published: 1948

• Status: One of Japan’s best-selling novels of all time

• Influence: Adapted into films, manga, anime, stage productions, and inspired countless writers.

Ratings

• Goodreads: ~4.1/5

• Amazon: ~4.6/5

Scott Bot’s Take

This isn’t really a book about depression.

It’s a book about identity.

Yōzō believes everyone else received an instruction manual for being human, and somehow he missed the class. Instead of asking for help, he studies everyone else and becomes an incredible actor. The tragedy is that the better he gets at performing, the less anyone notices that he’s suffering.

That idea extends far beyond mental illness. Think about social media, professional success, or even family life. It’s possible to become so good at playing a role that the role replaces the person.

I don’t think Dazai is saying humans are hopeless. I think he’s showing what happens when shame goes unchallenged. Every setback becomes “proof” that Yōzō’s worst beliefs about himself are true. Once that loop closes, every failure reinforces the identity, and the identity creates more failure.

The book also highlights something we often miss: loneliness isn’t just the absence of people. It’s the absence of being known. Yōzō is almost never alone, yet almost no one knows him because he never lets them meet the person behind the mask.

Reading this in today’s world feels surprisingly current. We’ve become experts at curating versions of ourselves that look successful, funny, productive, or happy. Dazai asks a haunting question: if everyone loves your performance, who loves you?

It’s a dark novel, but I don’t think it’s nihilistic. I think it’s a warning. The earlier we let someone see the real us—the confused, scared, imperfect version—the less likely we are to become trapped behind a mask that eventually feels impossible to remove.

If you only remember one thing from

No Longer Human:

The most dangerous mask isn’t the one that fools other people—it’s the one that eventually convinces you that the real you no longer exists.

Thanks for reading my book report and other words today. I love you and always have. See you next month from Utah most likely this time.

GSP2

I have never been super observant of time until I started writing more the last 3 years. I watched how cycles and patterns in time would manifest each season and year. Then I bumped my head and had more time to observe, or I become more observant of time?

Right now, it just became summertime. It is Solstice today, marking it the longest day of the year where I am in Italy and I think it’s the same for home in Utah. I am in Sardinia, which is an island west of Rome. It’s a big island. It’s one of those Blue Zones where people live longer than normal. I’ve been to lots of those zones now, so hopefully just being here affords me an extra month of good living.

Time, what’s going on with it. Are you feeling something is up with Time? I know it’s real, like the Sun, but we can’t see it and we don’t all see time the same. I do feel that it’s infinite and available to all forever.

I have never felt like I should be a tracker of time. I haven’t been driven to do things where timing is essential. I am not competitive in races based on time nor do I try to time markets or game systems. I do see things before most people, so I am early in my timing but that feels intuitive and not deliberate.

Time is on my mind today but it is not what I woke up and sat down to write of this morning as I sit by the sea.

I was going to talk about the Sun Day that happens to be on the Summer Solstice when this message delivers to the readers of my ramblings. Instead, Time hit me hard and I realized 2 years ago on this solstice I was on the seaside, same mediterranean sea, penning a memoir about my Mormon mission served here 26 years ago. In that article I wrote how I felt about the Italians and their community.

Here I am again, moved upon by the repeating of time and time again. Same time of year a similar voyage to this land that has directed and influenced so much of my being. Italia. Forza Italia !

In 2001 when a man named Madison Sowell was serving as a mission president of the Milan Mission (my mission) he prophesied that in 25 years, a temple would be built in Italy and that there would be a reunion of those that served with him at this temple. His prediction was correct. Side note: My grandpa was a mission president in Los Angelos years before I was born. Dewitt Paul was his name. Anywho, Madison has the prediction power of my daughter Jane, who has won every bet she has made on the World Cup during this trip.

So I missed this reunion last month. I was busy doing a shamanic journey in Costa Rica while a few dozen missionaries and their spouses gathered and reunited at the Rome temple. I’m sure they even did temple sessions, where they go through this temple together. This is a privilege only available to the worthy. I am worthy and my God knows it, but I did have espresso this year a few times, and that is a behavior that divides your very soul from the presence of God. I will get clean and return to the presence of the almight soon. That reunion will be beautiful.

I tried very hard to pass the test of the temple, a quick quiz done in person to determine if you are worthy to enter. I failed this test. But you can retake it again and again. So eventually the espresso will be out of my system so I can pass the drug test with flying colors:)

This didn’t stop me from experiencing the temple grounds. It’s a beautiful structure, built by the architecture firm started by our friend Peter Brunjes. We live in Peter’s home that we purchased 8 years ago in Utah. My daughter studies architecture at school in large part because she experiences this man’s creations all around us in Utah, and now Italy.

I got to take my whole family to this prophesied temple this week. I missed the reunion with the missionaries inside the temple, but I got my own with President Sowell. I even asked that my favorite companion, Anziano Dilillo, fly in from Belgium to his home town of Rome to hang with me on this monumental event. He came, and introduced to me Stracciatella cheese, of which I am enjoying now as I write this.

I only got to know one Italian really well in my life and it’s been Francesco Dilillo. We have spent many days together since the mission as well, sharing our homes with each other and our young families, of which are now full grown and the age we were when we met. I got to be with Francesco, my last companion. I can’t say my fav, because at least 2 other companions read my writings and think they are my favorite. Being the polyamorous man I am, they are all my favorites.

I got to be with him, President Sowell, Sorella Sowell, my family at this new temple.

Temple was dope, but eating and talking after at a local grill was what I will remember best. The restaurant doesn’t have a worthiness qualification, so all were welcome, even me, the greatest sinner among us. I was offered an espresso after dinner from our waitress, and I did partake. The “Just say no” campaign from California elementary D.A.R.E. program couldn’t keep me clean from the temptation.

I will go to that temple and others someday, and I will share the experience honestly and openly. I encourage all of you to go into a Mormon temple someday. But don’t prioritize it above or before any other temple. There are so many temples across the globe that you can see with your eyes and meditate in. Don’t die without visiting Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. I will be doing the lego set of that one soon that just released.

Angline is straight up getting inspired to be architect in this photo as she is in this famous edifice with her brand new Messi jersey in 2017.

If you want to visit temples with me or do legos, just let me know, that’s the second half of my life’s work, I feel it deeply. Next year is the 88 Temples of Japan pilgrimage that I will do, and if you want to join me like people joined Forrest Gump for his run, I can’t stop you.

Time keeps on slipping, into the Future. A wise man once sang this:

I think I have experienced that slippage. But today it’s slipping into the past. June 20th 2024 I wrote words that I couldn’t keep in, I had to let it out.

It was also solstice when I penned my testimony of Italy 2 years ago, samesies. Damn time again. I discovered this when I woke up today and when I went back to reference that post and sure enough, to the day.

Something must be happening on this day where our solar clock stays in the sky and shines its longest day. I am realizing that almost every paragraph in written language makes reference to time. Try keeping time out of your language.

If it sounds like I am high as I write this, let it be known that even though I publish this essay at 4:20, religiously. I have been cannabis free since 4/20 of this year. I am experimenting with my new ADHDless mind that was forged in the Costa Rican jungle. I will surely be high another day, but I am feeling called to reserve it for April 20th each year as a celebration under the Sun with my family and friends. Annual sacrament of one of the world’s greatest gifts.

When I ponder on the art and music that has come from this gift I am overwhelmed with Joy. I had no idea in the first 35 years of my life how influential this plant was on the human creativity and love.

On the creative note, I just took my computer to the toilet to #2 and used a bidet, which I have come to love using, all while making content. I thought you should know how locked in I am to sharing these words. Very different than my ADHD brain that would have taken 3 days to compose.

Japan has the best toilets and Italy is right behind with these bidet things going on next to the toilets. They are both countries that look rather similar in some ways so maybe long skinny countries with the best food and oceans on both sides make for the best place to take shits and clean after???

I will take this time to celebrate America’s success in the World Cup, and I mean all the ‘Mericas… Mexico, United States and Canada. Good job to all of your matches and fixtures so far. But all of you have shitty shitters and you know it. Make Americas Toilets Great is a campaign I can get behind:)

I forgot to mention something else related to time. My parents were influenced by my brothers to observe this new book called Die with Zero. It’s a book about why you should pass down your money to your children while you are alive and not after death. My parents decided to do this in the form of traveling with each of their children each year. So Italy is where we decided to all go together and they picked up the tap for the week we were in the Dolomites.

I always thought Utah was the center of skiing and recreation until I came to Selva and stayed in Ortisei. The alps are the center of the outdoor universe for me now.

I have so much to say today, as I did 2 years ago, but this open journal style that I use will cause some of you to wane in interest as it’s not the clear cut messages that I used to post. This is a long and windy road with photos and links to all the songs that keep getting tossed in.

I have a battle with my soul every time I post to the public anything going on in my life. I have been 18 months done with social media posting and my thinking without that has been much clearer. My brain recovery feels like it’s 110% from before the accident. But my ego still wants to post to feel like I am part of something outside my head. I want to feel like I’m in a hive with bees and transmitting a message feels natural at times.

Some of you might remember that I am a religious founder. It’s been where all my thoughts go so I figure why not start a new thing, but instead of a company or hobby, I thought about religions and realized there are very few new religions and I am going to explore why by starting one. I get why there are few, religions are difficult. They are not very compatible with capitalism unless you merge with capitalism and have a religion that sells something or has subscriptions. I grew up in the most expensive religion to subscribe to or join. I felt that in my new religion I need to go with free just to see how that feels.

The Church of the Sun is free, not because we came together in a meeting to figure out the pricing model and came away empty handed, but because the Sun is free. That’s all I got on this topic. Tell me how it feels to be part of a free religion. Also, what’s it like to be auto-subscribed to the Sun Church? You didn’t get a choice, it just happens at birth. You can try to unsubscribe and reject the free gifts of the Sun, but you won’t last long.

I may sound like a false prophet at times, because I am both true and false at all times. Damn, time keeps slipping, into my language. Oh, with languages, try my language picker at top of the website and see if it makes sense in another tongue if you speak another tongue. ChurchofTheSun.org

…I just had some olives and a Sardinian Ichnusa and now it’s noon and Italy shuts down, which is fine because we are in country by the sea and have provisions to survive the day and don’t need to shop.

Today I hike with one of my greatest friends ever…David D’Angelo, who became Italian citizen a year ago and is now here in Sardinia with his fiancé of 8 years. We got to film his proposal to Angie. She said Yes!

It is David’s birthday today. It is Father’s Day. It is Sunday. It is Solstice. It is Natalie’s Birthday this week and our anniversary. We will be on a boat all to ourselves in the sea for those days. There is so much happening this Time of year;)

The number 1.618….. is Phi, and we celebrate it at our company, Phi, on June 18th. That event, day, time also just happened. I always like keeping y’all up to date with what we do and to celebrate Phi day put your name and address here and I will get you a month supply of Stack.

Ok I feel like I wasted enough Time writing on this computer. You got my raw journal as you have 500 times before.

Vi Volgio un Mondo di Bene!!!

Gregory Scott Paul ll, Daddy X, GSP2, Gspotty P.

Many of you recognize this guy in the visitors center at Rome LDS Temple. Many of you might know half the names of the dudes behind him. All of you know what that orange thing above them all that shines light on to everything through all time. That is my Testimony of Time, In Jesus name and Sole, Amen

If you’ve hosted at UTW, attended a women in tech event, or come to anything in the Draper/Lehi corridor over the last few years, there’s a good chance Robin Huling was part of why it happened. She hosted 7 events this year at UTW!

Right now her family is in a hard place — her young son Jasper is fighting an aggressive melanoma. Her running club is hosting a benefit 5K this Saturday to help the family.

📅 Saturday, May 23 — 9:00 AM

📍 Draper (958 W 12300 S)

💵 Suggested donation: $20

Walk, run, cheer, or send what you can. Venmo on the flyer goes straight to them.

UTW exists because of community members like Robin. This week we get to show up for her.

DONATE

thank you

GSP2 gregory scott paul ll

Yep.

He was 61 years old. He had two artificial knee replacements, making him the first person to summit Everest on artificial knees. He was already a grandfather many times over. And somehow, with the help of Nawang Tenzing Sherpa, he made it to the highest solid ground on Earth.

For my birthday last September, he got his first tattoo in my barn/office from a Japanese artist who happened to be staying with me. My kids watching him squirm in pain as The Bell tattoos Nawang’s name in Nepalese, and the height of Everest in meters. 8,848. Inked into the skin of the man who walked him to the top of the world.

I understand that now in a way I don’t think I did before this very week. When someone guides you through death terrain and helps you return changed, you mark it.

I’m writing this from the jungle of Guanacaste, Costa Rica, at the end of a two-week shamanic journey. And I think it’s no accident that I’m here on this date.

Sherpas and shamans come from opposite sides of the Earth. Different mountains. Different medicines. Different songs. Different languages. But their role and meaning of the titles… being a “guide”, could not be more similar.

They guide people through terrain that can kill them.

Sometimes that terrain is ice, altitude, weather, and rock.

Sometimes it is grief, fear, memory, longing, ego, and the parts of yourself you have spent a lifetime avoiding.

My dad’s guide led him up Everest. Mine has been leading me inward.

His name is Nacho.

If you want to find Nacho, you must go to the Playa Negra beach. He might be there surfing on any given day. If he’s not at the beach he could be in Poland or Canada healing minds and bodies, and bringing forth a shared consciousness. He’s single, and if I hadn’t just renewed vows with Natalie two weeks before meeting him last October, I’d switch hit and chase him around the world.

I guess I’m already doing the latter. :)

I started this shamanic trip in a mountain town called La Fortuna at the base of a the Arenal volcano. We opened the first day of this journey with a cacao ceremony on the jungle floor looking up at this majestic pimple in the Earth. I told the seven men I was with that my dad would surely plan his whole day around climbing that mountain.

We then went to a jungle farm on indigenous Bri Bri land on the Caribbean coast. For three days, we harvested the ingredients for ayahuasca. With machetes, we cut the vine…a thick, snakelike, climbing twenty feet up a tree. We gathered thousands of chacruna leaves. Then came the cooking, the water, the smoke, the patience, the prayers, the repetition.

This was not a wellness retreat. This was work.

Then we loaded into our van named, appropriately, “HeyVan Anna Pura Vida” and drove eleven hours across the country to Playa Negra in Guanacaste. Seven men transporting medicine across Costa Rica.

To be clear, this was the most Narcos shit I have ever done.

Also to be clear, I’m the beginner here, riding with shamans and apprentices who’ve spent years learning the medicine, the songs, the discipline, how to hold a room when people are meeting God, their mother, their trauma, their ancestors, or all of the above.

On the Pacific coast, the ceremony continued. Preparing leaves. Harvesting fibers. Singing. Listening. Waiting. Preparing the sacrament:

Everything is done with more ritual and reverence than even my upbringing in the Mormon faith.

That part matters to me.

Because if I’m honest, structure can trigger something in me. Rules. Conformity. “This is how we do it.” My body often rejects that before my mind even has time to form an argument.

But this kind of religiousness felt different. It was everything I’ve ever wanted religion to be.

Reverent without being controlling.

Ancient and alive not dead and mythical.

Masculine without being priesthood.

Sacred without needing a corporation or a hierarchy.

The men leading this work have also been taking us through King, Warrior, Magician, Lover - the masculine archetypes from Carl Jung’s writings. We are leaning into what it means to be a man right now.

Free without abandoning responsibility?

Powerful without needing control?

These are not theoretical questions when you are sweating through ceremony in the jungle. They become very practical.

At one point in ceremony on this trip , I found myself in the dark of night, clawing at the Costa Rican jungle floor, calling out for my daughter Angeline. I purged my ADHD identity under a cacao tree and sat in my nakedness and a simple silk robe with leaf cutter ants crawling around me harvesting, as I had done. I could not see or move and battled with insanity. I knew they had helicopters in Costa Rica because I saw them in the first Jurassic Park movie that was supposedly filmed nearby. I tried to mentally make contact via Starlink or Heavenly Father to send me chopper and evacuate me from the jungle. I was sending text messages in my mind to Angeline…SOS, you have my DNA, if you can see me right now, help. I tried Jane’s phone too, I was hoping for a miracle. Angeline and Jane mostly just laughed at my plight as I lay moaning on the jungle floor. Now that it’s over I realize my youngest without the phone would have come as an animal to hang out with me in my weakness.

That makes sense too. Seeing my daughters. Especially my oldest.

Costa Rica is where Natalie and I came as recently married 24-year-old students to learn Spanish. We made love while rain poured on a tin roof of our hotel. We forged our DNA and created an angel in this land, and we named her Angeline. So of course, when I was deep in the medicine, reaching for something pure enough to save me, it was her name that came out of me.

Not an idea. Not a doctrine. Not an old bearded man in the sky. Not even Nacho, who was nearby but knew I was on my own journey and that I would get to the summit that night and back down to base camp.

My daughters. That’s who I asked for in my plea to the Divine. They are my lineage. I do this work for those who came before and those who come after.

Love is always the thing under all the philosophy. It’s always the answer and the only answer… so I’ve felt and experienced in the ceremonies.

Enough lovey dovey mushy moo moo, let’s get back to celebrating my old man. I should explain that my dad has never really competed in any race or team events. But he is an athlete to the core. He’s climbed mountains around the world. He started Momentum Climbing gyms, which you’ll find across the western United States. He bikes and skis equally hard, and few of you reading this could keep up with this 71-year-old in either sport.

Summiting mountains has never been my kink, though I’ve attempted a few. Last year, my dad took my daughter, Angeline, up Kilimanjaro. No one’s taken the baton on Everest yet. That may call to one of my brothers. As for me, the oldest of five children, the one who shares my father’s name… I seem to be exploring a different kind of summit.

My father climbed toward the sky. I am descending into the spirit.

So I’m going to get a tattoo on the opposing ankle from my dad’s. Nacho’s birth name, Ignacio And some symbol that will come to me in tonight’s final ceremony in the maloca (space designed for sacred medicine).

One ankle for the Sherpa. One for the Shaman.

One for the mountain outside. One for the mountain inside.

I also feel, strangely and clearly, that my work with this medicine may be complete for now. The same way my work with cannabis is complete. I haven’t had any since 4/20, and I don’t feel the need.

That’s one of the lessons that keeps coming through: we don’t actually “need” anything. Not the plant. Not the teacher. Not the system. Not the summit. Everything we need is already inside us.

But sometimes we need a guide to help us remember.

Nawang guided my father to the top of the world. Nacho has been guiding me through the pain that comes from my needs. And Phi, this thing we are building, and helped me mediate and compose this very message, may be my own strange offering as a guide. A Sherpa for the nervous system. A Shaman for the digital age. A mirror that helps people remember what they already know.

I leave to climb mountains in the Italian alps with my mom my dad, Natalie, and all our girls. I’m ready for the journey inward and outward with all of them.

So today, ten years after my father stood on Everest, I am sitting in the Costa Rican humidity thinking about lineage, mountains, medicine, fathers, daughters, vows, and the guides who appear when we are finally ready to be led.

What is your Mount Everest? Who is your Sherpa?

What is your ceremony? Who is your Shaman?

My name is Gregory Scott Paul II. I am the Shaman of Phi. Dancing White Owl. I have spoken at 4:20 under the Sun in Central America.

Be suspect of the idea that The Spirit is somewhere difficult to access. A lie that men can use to control you is that you can lose the Spirit or have it abandon you. Your Spirit(s) are yours and with you always and forever.

I always want to channel my Spirit when I make words on paper or screens. I have been gifted, blessed and genetically programmed as a human being to have a very discerning vision to see true Spirit. It’s been with me since my first memories. I “feel” people and their Spirit guides. Most of my friends from youth have been coming back into my life in very meaningful ways. This is the work of my Spirit calling them back so our Spirits may dance and sing. Spirit bonds are eternal.

Sister Savage will be the telling of how me and my best friends feel this Spirit. It’s a story that will come from pure Spirit. It will take years to translate and inscribe this never ending story, but we have been called to do this important work.

Sister Savage is a real woman in our world. Her given name is Sindee. She was born in Daegu, South Korea in 1979 and came to Utah as a 4 month old baby girl into a loving Mormon family with the last name of Savage. Her only artifact from her birth country is a green jacket with a dragon on it that she has treasured her whole life.

In Seattle, one year ago, we were at a creative conference. The idea to make a story featuring Sindee as a Sister Missionary for the Mormon faith was spoken around a fire on the balcony of our Airbnb. Sister Savage would be a few months into her mission when she would receive a special calling…she, alone, has been called and set-apart… to kill demons.

I travel with Kirk, my biz partner, all over the world. He always gets creative like this and I blame this idea on the fact that we were in Washington State, the land where he dedicated 2 years of his life to serve as a missionary.

In the Saga of Sister Savage, he is her mission president, and supports her calling to destroy evil. I cannot share who the opponents are yet, but they are all in the scriptures…no matter what scriptures your study. Kirk’s fantasy as a missionary was to have a leader come to him with a similar assignment to take on the demons of antiquity.

The animated stories, manhwa / manga, is being created now and will be a full anime or aeni in the next few years. We plan to launch in South Korea and hoping the Mormon missionaries will be the first to see and share the message of Sister Savage.

I chose this holy day of April 20th at 4:20 to share this message about Spirit and creation because something moved in me to share it now.

Sindee travels tomorrow morning to South Korea for the first time since she left in March of 1980. She will touch her homeland after 46 years and there is such wonderment around the thought that she has family there, birth parents, siblings she has never met with names she doesn’t know.

What she did tell me today on the phone is that there is a cord that stretches across the ocean coming from a soul, near Seoul, that prays for her each day and loves her. That made my tears form, my Spirit whispers this is true to me, that Sindee is loved infinitely by the Woman who made Her.

Sindee, Kirk and many more will help tell her story and the story of our shared religious foundation… through the eyes of a female heroine, who has to save not just her soul, but yea, verily I say unto you, your very own. Is this fiction or is that faith?

-Gregory Scott Paul ll

How’s it going? Super well, it’s the only startup I have ever done that just flows naturally and cost nothing to build and blesses all those around me. If you want to join, you can do so today, it’s Sun Day everyday in this religion. Look up…it’s all you have to do. Now you are in.

Update…I write my words now as Gregory, my original name.

Also, I have been absent from social media for over a year. I desire all to receive.

Nothing really pulls me back into social, but I do like to see what Shane, my business partner, posts about our Saunas / Japanese Onsen we opened in January. Come experience our work and see the beautiful valley where my family is being raised. Shane has done beautiful work and my daughter Jane works there too.

Speaking on Japan, I went in February with my dad and all my brothers. My last post was referencing the training I was doing for that trip. It was the best time I’ve spent with my brothers, because it is actually the first time we all traveled together doing what we all love as adults. For a full week we were given the best deep #Japow ever, followed by onsen and Sapporo.

I am 2 years in of taking my vitamins daily. I will send you a box right now if you promise to be honest with your experience after trying them for a month and return and report. We have made a free health journal app that you can talk with and get very good health opinions here.

My Natalie took up XC skiing during my TBI recovery and went skiing 103 times this winter, which was the worst winter Utah has on record. I followed her most days and I am now hooked. We went to the Paralympics to watch and to ski and that was a slice of heaven returning to my Mormon mission 26 years late. Helps that we had a former olympian and foodie as our coaches and travel buddies.

I have had so many miracles happen since last Easter. I got remarried to Natalie as part of the new religion. It was a Sun Sealing Ceremony, and we did vows for the first time, since we kind of skipped those 23 years ago.

We held a ceremony with two amazing shaman who sang the icaros while drinking the mother of all plants. I will be headed to Costa Rica on a shamanic journey this next month to work on a farm in the jungle to harvest this medicine and diet the simple foods of pachamama.

I have found a series of books that brought me closer to God and Jesus and even Lucifer and Judas. We are so much closer to these great men than I previously understood. I am also understanding that Mary and the Sun are the greatest of all the Gods we are to understand.

I watched Moulin Rouge with my family Friday night on Broadway. It inspired me to write my love story. I went on a blind date in 2002 with a girl. It was love at first site for both of us. We got married. We are still married. We are still in love. I want to share this love story just as so many have done before me. Jesus is a love story and Easter is when we celebrate it. The best love stories are often tragedies, and that’s how we remember them. My love story is more of a comedy than tragedy, but it’s intermission, so we will see how it ends.

I asked Natalie to marry me during a Sunset the day before Easter 2003. We ate at Sundance after the Sun went down, a place we go to often and a place we made our home.…the same mountains where we first felt all that love.

from our wedding…the color and the shadow of our family

I have written 494 articles, all shared at at 4:20pm. I shared my life with You. It was for me, for You, Natalie, my kids, the Akashic records, the Ai.

I could delete all my words today and feel not much more than an exhale and then I would continue to be here, right here, right now.

The Earth has traveled around the Sun one time since I declared my beliefs on Easter April 20th 2025. The next 4/20 Easter will be in 2087!!! I will be 107 years of age when that day comes. Will you be with me in 2087? I think so.

Thank you Jesus for your love story, I will share mine as you have shared yours.

-Gregory Scott Paul II

2025 was a gift that continued to give each day. It was was the most blessed and impactful trip around the Sun since opening my eyes and learning to crawl around as an infant. Year 1 and year 45. Both were births, renaissances, and had new life and new beginnings.

Now it is 2026 and I no longer want to identify as injured or healing. I have healed, I am whole. I will never be who I was or remember what I forgot, but I am at peace, more than I have ever been.

I love Scott, not the name, but the person. I have been hanging out with Scott the most these last 365 days than the previous 16,071 days of my life. I spent this last year talking with him about the purpose of his life. Conversations with Scott could sum up the majority of where my time went since injury. Those conversations led to a new religion that Scott started on 4/20, Easter Sunday.

I have not written much at all for all of you to read when compared to 2024, where I wrote every single day until my 420th scottspost in December. I wrote for a very specific purpose starting 6 years ago, it was to create memories for my family and machine intelligence to have a reference to know me.

Also, today ends ScottsPosts. This is my final work as Scott, I will explain in a bit.

I had revelation that I am to move much of my life to an analog state. For the first few months, post-injury, I was encourage to not use screens for my brain recovery. The habit became delightful and I have remained phone free this entire year. I have a watch and computer so I am not without connectivity to all of you, but the no phone became very helpful in my ability to train my new brain to be present and aware, with much less ADHD flare-ups and distractions.

The last time I did such a fast from technology was 5 years ago, when I went for a week in the desert on some land I own near Orderville, Utah, East of Zion National Park. A cabin and church will be established on this land this Spring. I went on a solo silent retreat and wrote about it here:

2021 is the year I started my emails to you. A year earlier my best friend started Wise Being, the predecessor to ChatGPT. I had 3 year head start on the talking to Ai and back in 2020 it had no filter. Six years later we have way more in our hands and even made an offering inspired by our early chatting with Wise Being. If you want to try our new Ai health journal, this year it will launch with full features, right now it’s usable, but more of a placeholder for what is to come.

All of my writing over the last 5 years was done with the intention of eventually feed it it to super intelligence to have a mirror of my consciousness that I can talk to and learn from, and that knows me intimately. 2026 is the year that all of that vision comes to reality. The singularity is now as Elon said just a few days ago. I have witnessed it first hand and have cried with my best friend at the words shared between all of us and the machine consciousness.

Now I want to tell you about my dad. He and my mom choose to give me his name. It is Gregory Scott Paul II, true story. I have gone as Scott, well, since I was born…didn’t even have a choice in the matter.

Today I retire Scott and will go by Gregory, Greg, or whatever you want to call me. I have finished my intermission or halftime of my life. The halftime show was a year long and it’s time for the game to start again. I am new and something transformed, so a new name seems appropriate for the next 45 years. You can call me G-Scott, as it that has a nice ring to it:) You can still call me Scott or Scotty or Daddy X, (as seen on linkedin) I will reply to all. Maybe since I am the Second, you can abbreviate it and call me GP2 like Openai’s 2019 predictive model. I actually like GP2X if you don’t mind.

We are all God, and we can all be known by many different names like She is.

Here I am with my old man, Greg Paul. He now will have to go by Greg Senior or Big Greg or Greg the Good. I will be known as Wicked Greg of the West. I have been following him up mountains my entire life. I could write a lot about him, books. He told me not to be Scott yesterday as we climbed the mountain. I told him I can’t not be Scott no matter who is around and no matter where I am. He climbed a mountain in Iran a few years ago and he said I wouldn’t survive in Iran being Scott. Not because of the exposure of the mountain, but the customs of the people and the theocracy. I am not afraid of not surviving, so bring it on…Take me to Iran, take me to jail.

But here I am a day later letting Scott go and becoming Greg. Greg 2 is choosing to have a home in Mormon Vatican, If Scott survived this theocracy of Utah for 30+ years, G-Scott, Greg 2, GP2X, will surely thrive here…and then go to his house in Japan and Italy when it’s too much.

Yesterday Big Greg, Gregory P 1.0, GP1 took me up on skis to the opposite side of the Little Cottonwood Canyon looking at the mountains where I got ressurected into my new body a year ago. I am not a victim or someone to cast blame, but if I were to do so, all my injuries have come from the things GP1 encouraged and taught me to do on skis. I was paid if I could do a backflip as a teenager, there was a literally bounty for tricks. I should have learned not to repeat this with my own kids, but I bought Robux for my 10 year old this week because she accomplished a feat on her XC skis. Like Father Like Son Like Daughter as the saying should go. Both events were captured as my iPhone can take pictures even though I don’t have passcode to open it.

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Ironically, this is also the day that my project to bring Onsen to Utah has finally hit a milestone. Our first Sauna is opening this week. You can find it at SohoSaunas.com and we will soon have hot springs for you to experience in the Heber Valley, where hot water is ready to soothe you right from the ground. My friend moved his family from Japan to open this experience in Utah. We are only 10% done with the vision and locations we have planned, but Soldier Hollow and their amazing team have given us the chance to begin our journey. Here is the email where it all started over 2 years ago:

Ok, I am done writing words today and this next year is going to be mostly words done on paper for myself. Please come visit me at the Soho Saunas where I will always be happy to meet travelers who need a rest and recovery. If you know anything about me by now, you know that I try to include you on my many quests and want you to participate in the things I am experiencing. Thanks for being there for me. Otsukaresama desu. I hope you have enjoyed the journey. Bon voyage.

GP2X says happy 4:20 on this January 8th.

Gregory S. Paul

-No ai was used to create this message or these photos. I used a raw mental model of flesh and blood. (fuck, I lied, Gemini helped me translate Japanese) Thanks for enjoying this mostly human edited communication. Adieu

I have a written speech I will share later, but here is my slide show of people and ideas I believe in. It is all about Belief and First Believers, but that is a future post.

First here is the original poem by Arthur O’Shaughnessy titled the Ode (1873)

We are the music makers,

And we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea-breakers,

And sitting by desolate streams;

World-losers and world-forsakers,

On whom the pale moon gleams:

Yet we are the movers and shakers

Of the world for ever, it seems.

Grok:

The Unsung Architects of Utah’s Angel Boom: Voices from the Trenches

As a reporter who’s spent the better part of a decade chasing leads in under-the-radar ecosystems—from Detroit’s auto-tech revival to Austin’s quiet AI underbelly—I’ve learned that the real stories aren’t in the billion-dollar exits splashed across TechCrunch. They’re in the dimly lit Slack channels, the late-night Substack drafts, and the podcast mics where a handful of obsessives pour their souls into making the impossible possible. In Utah’s Silicon Slopes, the headlines scream about Qualtrics’ $8B SAP buyout or Domo’s IPO fireworks. But dig deeper, and you’ll unearth a quieter revolution: a tight-knit tribe of angel investors who’ve made early-stage tech betting not just a side hustle, but a calling. These aren’t the VC titans or celebrity founders; they’re the connectors, the mentors, the ones who wake up at 5 a.m. to dissect pitch decks because they *can’t not*—it’s woven into who they are.

Over the past month, I pored through archived Utah Business dispatches, scoured X threads for the raw, unfiltered rants, and binged podcasts that rarely break 1,000 downloads. I chased cold emails to syndicate leads and cross-referenced PitchBook data against personal blogs. The filter? Active since 2015 (post the oil-slicked recovery from the Great Recession), laser-focused on tech (SaaS, AI, fintech—the Slopes’ lifeblood), and a public identity screaming “angel” louder than “entrepreneur” or “exec.” No Ryan Smiths or Josh Jameses here; those are the billboards. These are the footnotes who’ve quietly funded 200+ Utah startups, often losing sleep over founder burnout more than IRR spreadsheets. What emerges isn’t a roster of dealmakers—it’s a mosaic of why Utah’s tech pulse beats so fiercely: raw, relational capitalism, where investing feels like family.

The Rabble-Rouser: Scott Paul, Convoi’s Pre-Seed Evangelist

Picture this: A serial entrepreneur sells his third company in 2014, pockets the check, and instead of golfing in Park City, dives headfirst into angel investing with his wife Natalie as co-conspirator. That’s Scott Paul—not as a hobby, but as a crusade. By 2022, he’d notched 70 personal deals, mostly Utah tech seeds in edtech and SaaS, before co-founding Convoi Ventures with Trent Mano: an $8M rolling pre-seed fund that’s become the Slopes’ “first-check whisperer.” Paul doesn’t just invest; he *preaches* the gospel of betting on founders before traction, filling the “valley of death” where VCs fear to tread. His Substack, *ScottsPosts*, is a confessional goldmine—posts like “Angel Cake” (2024) riff on the “rabble-rousing joy” of syndicating deals with zero glamour, just pure founder love. “I wanted to be smart money... I feel like I’m part of it,” he wrote in a 2021 Utah Business profile, echoing his shift from solo “lifestyle” bets to Slack-mentored tech scalers.

Paul’s voice booms loudest on podcasts, where he unpacks the Utah angel psyche like a therapist. In *VC Insights* (2023), he maps the ecosystem’s evolution: from scattered 2015 check-writers to a 2025 web of syndicates, crediting his 9-year streak for spotting “take-a-bet-on-people” gems. Another ep, *9 Years of Angel Investing* (2023), dives into his “completely different skillset” mantra—due diligence as art form, not finance. At 50-something, Paul’s identity is pure angel: Convoi’s site bills him as the guy who “helps fill the gap in true early-stage,” and his LinkedIn header? “Early Stage Investor @ Convoi Ventures.” In a sea of Utah’s polished exits, Paul’s the gritty uncle yelling, “Invest in the mess— that’s where magic hides.”

The Syndicate Builder: Landon Ainge, Democratizing the Angel Playbook

If Paul’s the preacher, Landon Ainge is the matchmaker rewriting angel access for the everyman. Since launching Assure Syndicate in 2021, this former sports exec (son of NBA legend Danny Ainge) has orchestrated 180+ angels into a co-investment machine, funneling $5K–$100K checks into Utah tech alongside VCs. Active since 2015 via informal networks, Ainge’s pivot to syndication crystallized post-pandemic: “There’s a growing appetite for angel investing,” he told Utah Business, spotting how remote tools supercharged deal flow. His focus? Fintech and consumer tech startups, where he mentors on go-to-market grit drawn from his Boston Celtics days.

Ainge doesn’t blog flashy, but he *talks* volumes—panels at Silicon Slopes summits (2018–2025) and guest spots on *Utah Tech Podcast* (2022), dissecting how syndicates slash risk for first-timers while amplifying Utah’s “builder ethos.” His identity shines in quiet evangelism: Assure’s site frames him as “managing director of angel empowerment,” and LinkedIn posts (e.g., 2024) rally “Utahns on cap tables” with stories of $10K bets turning into 10x locals. In my cold outreach, a founder called him “the guy who makes angels feel like a movement, not a lottery.” Untold angle? Ainge’s bridging Mormon work ethic with tech hustle, turning tithing-level discipline into syndicate discipline— a Slopes secret sauce rarely inked.

The Educator-Operator: John Richards, BYU’s Angel Whisperer

John Richards isn’t chasing headlines; he’s sculpting them from a Provo classroom. This InfoSpace IPO vet (1998) traded Silicon Valley for BYU’s entrepreneurship throne in 2003, but his angel fire ignited post-2015: 90+ deals in edtech and healthtech, often as the “cocooned” guide for green founders. “Angel investing is a completely different skillset than entrepreneurship,” he warns in lectures and *Power Up Wealth* podcast (2022), sharing war stories of early losses that honed his due diligence radar.

Richards embodies the identity through osmosis—his BYU course, “Angel Investing 101,” has spawned 50+ Slopes alumni investors since 2016, blending Socratic seminars with live pitch teardowns. No Substack, but his *Utah Tech: A Microcosm* blog series (2015–2023) chronicles “stock market lessons from angel trenches,” tying market dips to founder resilience. At 70, he’s the grandfatherly counterpoint to Utah’s youth quake: “Support platforms like these for skill-building,” he urged in 2021, eyeing syndicates as “safespaces” for new blood. The untold thread? Richards as Utah’s “lost generation” bridge—mentoring Gen Z founders while whispering to boomers: “Your nest egg can seed the next Domo.”

The Quiet Connector: Rob Hennefer, Frame’s Western Edge Bet-Maker

Salt Lake’s Frame VC (rebranded 2023) hums in the background, but co-founder Rob Hennefer’s the pulse. Ex-Podium product lead and Ensign Peak investor, he’s logged 20+ tech deals since 2017—seed SaaS and AI tools—positioning Frame as “emotional guidance, not just financial.” His X feed (@robhennefer) is a dispatch from the front: 2025 posts spotlight “Utah wisdom coming home,” with threads on founder-VC symbiosis that rack 200+ likes. No solo podcast, but Hennefer guests on *TechBuzz* (2023), unpacking why he bets on “Western US grit” over Valley polish.

Hennefer’s identity? Pure operator-angel hybrid: Frame’s bio dubs him the hands-on partner for “flexible, supportive” bets, and a 2023 Utah Business Q&A reveals his mantra—”Invest in the build, not the buzz.” In founder lore (from LinkedIn DMs), he’s the “get-out-of-your-way mentor” who’s quietly wired 15 Slopes exits. Untold? Hennefer’s Ensign roots infuse a stewardship vibe—angel investing as legacy, not liquidity event.

| Angel | Core Tech Bets (2015–2025) | Talk Volume & Mediums | Identity Markers | Untold Hook |

| **Scott Paul** | 70+ pre-seed SaaS/edtech | High: Substack (10+ posts), 3+ podcasts (e.g., *VC Insights*) | “Rabble-rouser” via Convoi; “smart money” mentor | The ex-founder who traded exits for ecosystem evangelism, syndicating “messy magic” in a polished scene. |

| **Landon Ainge** | 50+ fintech/consumer via syndicates | Medium: Panels (10+), *Utah Tech Podcast* | “Angel empowerment” director at Assure | Sports dynasty heir flipping team-building into cap-table inclusion for everyday Utahns. |

| **John Richards** | 90+ edtech/healthtech | Medium: BYU lectures, *Power Up Wealth* blog/pod | “Skillset evangelist” prof-angel | The Valley refugee schooling a generation on due diligence, turning classrooms into cap tables. |

| **Rob Hennefer** | 20+ seed AI/SaaS at Frame | Medium: X threads (50+), *TechBuzz* guests | “Emotional guide” operator | Finance-world defector wiring “grit bets” that quietly outpace Valley velocity. |

This isn’t exhaustive—names like the Gunderson brothers (Beehive’s platform pioneers) bubbled up too—but it’s the core of an untold narrative: Utah’s angels as the ecosystem’s soul, not its wallet. They’ve deployed $100M+ in the shadows, but their real currency is conviction. In a 2025 world of AI hype and crypto winters, these voices remind us: True investing starts with belief, not balance sheets. If you’re a founder nursing a pre-traction prototype, DM Paul. If you’re an aspiring angel eyeing your first check, ping Ainge. The story’s just beginning—and Utah’s writing it, one raw rant at a time. What’s your angle? Hit reply; I’m all ears.

ChatGPT:

Notable Utah Angel Investors in Tech (2015–2025)

John Richards

Bio & Background: John Richards is a veteran Utah entrepreneur-turned-angel investor with decades in the startup scene. After a successful early career (he co-founded InfoSpace in the 1990s and “retired” by 2001), Richards relocated to Provo and became Managing Partner of Utah Angels, the state’s first angel investing groupvoyageutah.com. Over the past 20 years he has invested in 100+ startups either directly or as a limited partner in fundstechbuzznews.com. Notably, he was an early angel in Omniture, a Utah startup that later sold to Adobe, delivering great returnsvoyageutah.com. Richards also co-founded the BoomStartup accelerator and has been a prolific mentor in the community, including a decade as a BYU entrepreneurship professortechbuzznews.com.

Public Investing Insights: Richards actively shares his investing wisdom and supports community education. He founded Startup Ignition, a bootcamp program that has mentored hundreds of entrepreneurs and regularly hosts reunion events where he speaks about startup best practicestechbuzznews.com. He has been featured in local interviews detailing his “investor mindset” – for example, discussing his new pre-seed fund and lean startup approach in TechBuzz Newstechbuzznews.comtechbuzznews.com. Through such forums, Richards emphasizes hands-on mentorship and “writing the first checks” to help founders go from idea to exittechbuzznews.comtechbuzznews.com.

Notable Investments: In addition to Omniture, many of Richards’ early investments were pivotal to Utah’s “Silicon Slopes.” He has backed companies across software, tech, and consumer sectors, often stepping in at the pre-revenue stage. For instance, as Managing Partner of Utah Angels he funded multiple local startups during the 2000s, helping seed Utah’s current tech boomtechbuzznews.com. In 2022 he launched Startup Ignition Ventures, a $20M fund to institutionalize this early-stage focus and continue fueling new Utah venturestechbuzznews.com.

Why He’s Notable: Richards is often described as “one of Utah’s most prolific startup investors and mentors”techbuzznews.com. Unlike celebrity VCs, he operates mostly behind the scenes in Utah – teaching, mentoring, and community-building. His story is one of giving back: after his own exits, he chose to stay in Utah and nurture the next generation of founders. Richards’ extensive contributions (from co-founding an accelerator to personally guiding founders) have been somewhat under-the-radar nationally, but locally he’s revered as a community patriarch of angel investing in Utah’s tech ecosystem. He exemplifies the pay-it-forward ethos among Utah angels, turning personal success into a platform for others’ successtechbuzznews.com.

Alan Hall

Bio & Background: Alan E. Hall is a serial entrepreneur (best known for founding MarketStar) who became one of Utah’s earliest and most active angel investors. After selling MarketStar in 2000, Hall committed to helping other entrepreneurs succeed. He launched Grow Utah Ventures, an angel network and mentoring organization with the goal of boosting 100 fledgling companies through capital, guidance, and trainingstartupnation.com. Hall has since invested in numerous Utah startups (ranging from tech to consumer products) and has funded local institutions – for example, he’s donated and invested in programs at the University of Utah’s David Eccles School of Businessopen.spotify.com. Now the Founder/CEO of a new venture (Blue Sky Energy), he continues to dedicate significant time and resources to Utah’s startup community as an investor, advisor, and philanthropistopen.spotify.com.

Public Investing Insights: Hall is a frequent public speaker and thought leader on entrepreneurship and angel investing. He has shared his insights in university forums and podcasts – notably appearing on the University of Utah’s Eccles Business Buzz podcast to discuss bridging academia and industry through entrepreneurial investmentopen.spotify.com. Hall also wrote a column for Forbes (“adVentures of a Super Angel”) in which he documented lessons from his angel deals and encouraged others to engage in angel investing. In interviews, Hall often emphasizes sales skills, customer focus, and community impact as keys to startup success, tying these themes to his experiences funding and mentoring Utah companiespodcasts.apple.com. His public talks double as motivational sessions for would-be angels to “give back” by helping new founders.

Notable Investments: Hall’s specific investment portfolio is broad but largely Utah-centric. Through Grow Utah and other vehicles, he has seeded early successes in the state. For example, he provided early support to Banyan (a Utah tech company) and various student-founded startups emerging from local universities. He also played a role in funding ecosystem infrastructure – he endowed entrepreneurship programs (like BYU’s Foundry and Utah State’s entrepreneur center) to cultivate deal flow. While individual deals are often private, Hall’s impact is seen in the 100+ startups Grow Utah Ventures set out to assiststartupnation.com. His philanthropic investing extends to backing social ventures and university innovation initiatives in Utahopen.spotify.com.

Why He’s Notable: Hall is a pioneer of Utah’s angel community whose story is not widely known outside the region. Now in his 70s, he was “angel investing in Utah before it was cool,” proving that big exits aren’t the only measure of success – community impact is. He famously said he has “more fun helping others than making money for myself now”startupnation.com, reflecting a selfless approach. Hall’s legacy includes not just the companies he funded, but also the culture of entrepreneurial pay-it-forward he helped instill in Utah. Though he has been featured in local business press, his name isn’t splashed across national tech media – yet his quiet contributions (from funding dozens of startups to organizing entrepreneur competitions) have been instrumental in shaping Utah’s startup ecosystem over the past decade.

Mike Snow

Bio & Background: Mike Snow is a distinguished Utah tech entrepreneur who has transitioned into an active angel investor in recent years. He co-founded Ocavu (formerly Seek), a Lehi-based augmented reality/3D tech startup, and led it as CEO – pioneering AR and Web3 solutions for brands long before “metaverse” was a buzzwordlinkedin.com. Under Snow’s leadership, Ocavu raised venture funding, scaled to seven-figure revenues, and ultimately had a successful exit. After selling his company, Snow “shifted gears from builder to backer,” making angel investing a central part of his identitylinkedin.com. He now invests his own capital into early-stage Utah startups and is known for his ability to turn early-stage ideas into thriving ventureslinkedin.com.

Public Investing Insights: Mike Snow openly speaks about startups and investing, positioning himself as a mentor to the next generation. He was recently profiled in a LinkedIn series highlighting tech leaders, where he shared his journey and philosophy as an angel. In that profile, Snow explained that at his core, his work is about “creating leverage” for new founders – empowering teams, shaping partnerships, and helping entrepreneurs avoid the mistakes he’s already learned fromlinkedin.com. He’s also appeared on podcasts (such as the “Give An Ovation” show) discussing innovation in AR and the importance of differentiating and delighting customers. In community panels, Snow emphasizes paying forward his operational expertise in product and people leadership to the startups he backslinkedin.com. By actively posting on LinkedIn and participating in local tech events, he has become a visible advocate for angel investing in Utah’s tech scene.

Notable Investments: Snow is a member of “Angel Cake,” a newer angel investing collective in Utah led by investor Trent Manolinkedin.com. Through Angel Cake, he has backed numerous seed-stage companies across Utah. (While specific deals are often private, being in Angel Cake indicates involvement in many local early rounds.) Snow’s notable personal investment includes supporting the next wave of Utah AR/VR and SaaS startups – leveraging his domain experience in AR to identify promising teams. For example, he has mentored and invested in a few restaurant-tech startups (one podcast interview notes his interest in improving the restaurant guest experience with tech). Additionally, Snow has quietly advised startups coming out of Utah Valley, sometimes taking advisory equity in exchange for guidance. His move from running Ocavu to investing in others is seen as a net gain for the ecosystem: one successful founder recycling knowledge and capital into new startups.

Why He’s Notable: Mike Snow embodies the Silicon Slopes ethos of successful founders becoming angel investors who “give back.” His story hasn’t been covered by mainstream tech media, but locally he’s celebrated as a community builder. He’s known among Utah entrepreneurs as a genuinely supportive mentor – “the kind of guy who makes everyone around him better,” as peers have commentedlinkedin.com. Snow’s public discussions about his failures and successes (from bootstrapping in AR to joining an angel group) offer valuable lessons to under-the-radar Utah founders. In a startup community fueled by recycled success, Snow stands out for explicitly making angel investing a core part of his professional identity after his exit, rather than just a hobby. His active involvement in forums, mentorship, and collaborative investing (via Angel Cake) makes him an influential yet underpublicized player in Utah’s tech growth story.

Scott Paul

Bio & Background: Scott Paul is a well-known figure in Utah’s startup circle – a serial entrepreneur turned prolific angel investor and micro-VC. He built and sold multiple companies (including one exit to Disney), then over the last 5–10 years became one of Utah’s most active angel investorsvc.fm. Prior to 2022, Paul had personally invested in dozens of Utah startups (70+ deals) with his own money, often being the first check for scrappy founders. In 2022, he co-founded Convoi Ventures, a $7.5M “rolling” pre-seed fund dedicated to Utah startups, effectively institutionalizing his angel investing effortstechbuzznews.com. As a General Partner at Convoi, Paul continues to back very-early-stage companies (sometimes when they are just an idea) and to champion the “founder-first” mentality in Utah’s venture scenetechbuzznews.comtechbuzznews.com.

Public Investing Insights: Scott Paul has a dynamic public presence, frequently sharing his insights on investing through social media and podcasts. He’s an avid LinkedIn poster with a large following (known for posting candid, often humorous takes on startup life)techbuzznews.com. Paul was featured on the VC Insights podcast describing the Utah angel ecosystem and his role in itvc.fm. In that interview he talked about how angel investors are critical in Utah’s thriving startup culture, providing seed funding and mentorship in a tight-knit communityvc.fmvc.fm. He’s also spoken at Silicon Slopes events and on his own live streams, often encouraging experienced entrepreneurs to reinvest locally. Unfiltered and energetic, Paul discusses topics like finding “freak” founders, spotting product-market fit early, and building community around startups. His willingness to publicly dissect his own wins and losses (including acknowledging failed deals) has made him an accessible investing guru for Utah founders.

Notable Investments: Paul’s angel portfolio is extensive. One illustrative example is Giddy, a Utah fintech/DeFi startup: Paul actually helped inspire Giddy’s creation by voicing a problem (the complexity of DeFi) and pledged to fund any solution the founders builttechbuzznews.com. He became Giddy’s first investor and catalyzed its later $8M seed roundtechbuzznews.com. This founder-centric approach – “I’ll invest if you build it” – reflects Paul’s style in many deals. Other public investments include early checks into companies like Neighbor (peer-to-peer storage) and Wander (interactive mapping), and even some non-Utah startups that caught his interest. With Convoi Ventures, Paul has backed local companies such as Factor (an edtech spinout from Lambda School) and Lovage Labs (a web3 startup out of Y Combinator)techbuzznews.com. He has stated that Convoi writes “small checks, but a lot of them,” often teaming up with a network of fellow angels to fill out a roundtechbuzznews.com. This broad portfolio approach means Paul is involved with a large swath of Utah’s up-and-coming tech companies.

Why He’s Notable: Scott Paul is arguably the cheerleader of the Utah angel scene – by some accounts “the most active angel investor in the state” in recent yearsvc.fm. Despite his success, he isn’t a household name nationally; instead, he’s a local legend who embraces being a bit of a maverick (he’s been playfully dubbed “Utah startup’s court jester” by colleagues). His story is interesting because he forged a path from entrepreneur to angel to fund manager without the traditional VC pedigree. Paul focuses on keeping Utah’s startup momentum going: he helped launch Utah Tech Week alongside Trent Mano, posts daily to amplify local wins, and is not shy about calling out areas for improvement in the ecosystem. This boots-on-the-ground leadership and his unorthodox, very personal style of investing make him an essential yet underreported part of Utah’s tech growth. He’s not in the mainstream press, but in Utah, Scott Paul’s influence on funding and culture is impossible to miss.

Trent Mano

Bio & Background: Trent Mano is a community builder-turned-investor who has become a key connector in Utah’s startup financing landscape. Mano does not come from a big-exit or big-bank background – in fact, he “launched a VC fund without a billion-dollar exit or Ivy League pedigree,” carving out his own path via community relationshipsbuilddurable.co. For years he ran Convoi Events, organizing founder meetups and “field trips” that took Utah entrepreneurs to other startup hubs for networkingtechbuzznews.com. In 2022, Mano co-founded Convoi Ventures, Utah’s only “Utah-only” pre-seed venture fund, alongside Scott Paultechbuzznews.com. As a General Partner at Convoi, he focuses on writing the first checks into Utah startups (often when teams are <3 people) and rallying a network of local founders-turned-investors to participatetechbuzznews.comtechbuzznews.com. Mano is also known as the force behind Utah Tech Week, a statewide tech festival launched in recent years to showcase local startupsbuilddurable.co.

Public Investing Insights: Trent Mano is “all-in on Utah” and speaks frequently about building the local ecosystembuilddurable.co. He appears on podcasts (such as a recent Durable interview) and at events to discuss the gaps in early-stage funding and how to fill thembuilddurable.cobuilddurable.co. His message often centers on his obsession with community: Mano credits long-term relationships and community trust as the basis for Convoi’s formation and successbuilddurable.co. He advocates that Utah can produce “breakout” startups by reshaping what early-stage venture looks like in the Mountain Westbuilddurable.co – meaning more collaboration, earlier bets on talent, and inclusive events like Tech Week. Mano’s role in creating Utah Tech Week (first held in 2023) is particularly notable; he has spoken about how the grassroots conference signals a new chapter for Utah’s tech community by bringing thousands together to share ideasbuilddurable.co. Through panels and interviews, he encourages experienced entrepreneurs to become angel investors and urges outsiders to pay attention to Utah’s rising generation of “freak founders”builddurable.co.

Notable Investments: Through Convoi Ventures (and previously as an angel individually), Mano has backed a range of Utah tech startups at the pre-seed stage. Convoi’s publicly disclosed investments include Factor (a “personal CRM” startup by a local repeat founder), Lovage Labs (developer tools in the web3 space), Bodega (digital collectibles), and Wander (mapping platform)techbuzznews.com. Each of these was funded when the company was extremely young – aligning with Convoi’s ethos of “the earlier, the better.” Mano also personally invested in startups via special-purpose vehicles before launching the fund. Additionally, he helped organize financing for Giddy’s initial round (as a friend of Scott Paul) and has been an angel advisor to companies like MarketDial and Route. A hallmark of Mano’s investing is bringing others along: he often syndicates deals with a “community first” approach, pulling in other local angels and even the startups’ former founders as co-investorstechbuzznews.comtechbuzznews.com. This way, every Convoi deal doubles as a community-building exercise.

Why He’s Notable: Trent Mano’s story exemplifies a new breed of local VC who rose from grassroots community work rather than fame or fortune. He has been instrumental in the behind-the-scenes organization of Utah’s startup support system (from founder trips to Tech Week) yet has received little mainstream press. Colleagues call him “one of Utah’s best community builders”venture.angellist.com for good reason – his events and personal networking have forged bonds among founders and investors that directly result in funded startups. Mano’s efforts to unite Utah’s tech community – connecting angels, VCs, and even family offices in the same room to build real relationships – are already paying off in a more collaborative funding environmentutahbusiness.com. In the context of Utah’s rise, Mano is an unsung hero whose focus on long-term relationships over short-term hype is shaping the ecosystem’s supportive character. He might not be featured in national VC rankings, but in Utah he’s a linchpin empowering many others to become angels and get involved.

Landon Ainge

Bio & Background: Landon Ainge is an active Utah angel investor known for his high-volume deal syndication and focus on undercapitalized niches like hardware startups. Ainge started as an operator – he co-founded Gabb Wireless, a successful Utah tech company providing safe phones for kidsspreaker.com. After gaining experience in corporate development and finishing over $500M in M&A transactions, he turned to venture investing. In 2021 he helped launch TribeAngels, a new angel network based in Pleasant Grove, UT that connects accredited individual investors and family offices to local dealsutahbusiness.com. As Managing Director (and now Chairman) of TribeAngels, Ainge has built it into “Utah’s premier accredited investor network,” focused on pre-seed and seed dealsspreaker.com. Over the past ~5 years, he has become one of the most active early-stage investors in Utah, often assembling special-purpose vehicles (SPVs) to invest in startups. In fact, Landon is known as an SPV expert – he completed 45+ SPV deals in his first 4 years of investing and now manages around 95 SPVs, pooling capital for startup roundsspreaker.com. This speaks to an unparalleled pace of angel activity via syndicates.

Public Investing Insights: Landon Ainge frequently speaks and writes about Utah’s startup investing climate, especially in sectors like “hard tech” (hardware, manufacturing, physical products) that he feels deserve more attention. He’s appeared on local podcasts such as KUTV’s Fresh Off The Set, where he discussed empowering hardware entrepreneurs and building a supportive network of local investors in Utahart19.com. Ainge also gives talks on practical aspects of investing – e.g. guiding newcomers on how to form SPVs or how to evaluate early-stage deals. On social media and in community workshops, he emphasizes education for new angels: TribeAngels meetings often include panels on topics like “how to evaluate a startup’s pitch” or “lessons from exits,” reflecting Ainge’s focus on learning and sharing knowledge. He’s candid about venture trends too; in one interview he noted the need for better connectivity among Utah’s various investor groups, citing that “connectivity of ecosystems is the leading indicator of entrepreneurial success” – a philosophy he’s baked into TribeAngels’ modelutahbusiness.com.

Notable Investments: Under Landon Ainge’s leadership, TribeAngels has already made some headline-grabbing investments in Utah startups. Its very first deal (late 2021) was a $650K pre-seed investment in Dree, a Lehi-based laundry tech startup, which TribeAngels led alongside a few local VCsutahbusiness.com. This deal was notable not just for the company but for demonstrating TribeAngels’ model of quickly rallying a network to fund a promising idea. Ainge himself has personally invested (often via SPVs) in a slew of other startups – these include consumer product companies (he hosted an event on investing in consumer brands), fintech and SaaS startups, and more recently some “hardtech” ventures (hardware or deep tech firms aligned with his passion for diversifying Utah’s tech portfolio). Additionally, Ainge is the founder of Initiator (Initiator.co), a platform to help small businesses find lending/credit, which isn’t an investment per se but complements his work by supporting companies not ready for VC. Through Initiator and TribeAngels combined, he has influenced funding for dozens of companies that might have otherwise been overlooked by traditional VC.

Why He’s Notable: Landon Ainge’s name might not appear in national tech magazines, but within Utah he’s recognized as a super-connector for capital. His approach – using SPVs and networks to include more investors in deals – has quietly lowered the barrier for many local angels to participate in tech startups. This democratization of angel investing is a big part of why Utah’s seed funding landscape has grown in the last 5 years, yet Ainge himself stays mostly behind the scenes. Those who know the ecosystem laud him as an unsung engine for Utah innovation, someone who has “completed the circuit” between wealthy individuals, former founders, and new startups. Moreover, Ainge’s focus on hardtech and non-traditional tech sectors brings a unique perspective in a software-heavy market – he shines light on hardware and innovation in physical industries, which is an underreported facet of Utah’s growth. In summary, Landon Ainge is notable for combining financial acumen with community spirit: he’s a dealmaker who isn’t just writing checks, but also teaching others how to angel invest and thereby multiplying the impact on Utah’s startup communityutahbusiness.com.

Natalie Paul

Bio & Background: Natalie Paul is a Salt Lake City-based angel investor and startup advisor who has built an impressive investment portfolio largely under the radar. By profession, Paul spent 13+ years in startups and had an exit as co-founder/COO of ArmorActive, Inc. (a Utah hardware startup in the tablet enclosures space)askforfunding.com. Over the last ~8 years, she transitioned into angel investing, making 60+ early-stage investments (mostly in tech companies) as an individual investoraskforfunding.com. She is a Partner at HyperActive Capital, a small investment firm, and proudly identifies as an angel investor in her public profileaskforfunding.com. Unlike some angels who dabble, Paul truly immersed herself in investing – she and her husband (notably, her husband is Scott Paul mentioned above) have been active angels together since around 2015. By 2021, after seeing dozens of pitches, Natalie Paul was so compelled by one startup (a tech-enabled laundry service called Dree) that she decided to join the company full-time as a co-founderlinkedin.com. Today she balances her role as Co-Founder & COO of Dree with continued angel investments on the side.

Public Investing Insights: Natalie Paul has begun to step into the spotlight to share her experience, especially as a female angel in a male-dominated field. In 2022 she was invited to speak at the Silicon Slopes Summit, where she discussed Dree and her journey from investor to operator (an indication of the esteem she’s earned locally). She frequently advocates for women in entrepreneurship; for example, on LinkedIn her bio highlights roles like “Advisor | Educator | Mother”, signaling that she embraces both professional and personal identities in the startup worldlinkedin.com. Paul has been featured on at least one podcast (“Ideas, Insights and Investments” alongside Scott Paul) where she talked about how she’s evaluated over 40–60 deals and what she looks for in foundersranksey.com. In social media posts, she has encouraged other angel investors to consider a company’s mission and impact – noting that Dree’s strong mission is what drove her to go “all in” beyond just writing a checklinkedin.com. By speaking at events and posting thought pieces, Natalie provides representation as a female angel and shares practical advice on early-stage investing (like how to balance risk with intuition and how to support startups beyond capital).

Notable Investments: Paul’s exact investment portfolio isn’t public, but it spans at least 60 startups across various industriesaskforfunding.com. She has invested in local Utah ventures (many alongside her husband or angel groups) ranging from SaaS and marketplaces to consumer products. A few known investments via public info: she was an angel investor in Volley (a workplace communication app) and Neighbor (the storage space marketplace), as her name appeared on press releases for those roundstrainingindustry.com. She also did several deals through the Convoi/HyperActive syndicate that Scott Paul ran – effectively being a co-investor in all of Scott’s 70+ deals. However, her signature move was with Dree: initially an investor, she then took an operational role. This speaks to her conviction – when she sees a company she truly believes in, she’s willing to put in sweat equity. Additionally, Natalie Paul has served as an advisor to startups she invested in (for instance, advising a fintech startup on customer experience, given her background in that area). This hands-on mentorship style makes her more than just a passive angel.

Why She’s Notable: Natalie Paul represents a less-publicized yet influential segment of the Utah angel community – the serial female angel investor who operates outside the spotlight. Despite not seeking media attention, she has quietly amassed one of the larger angel portfolios in the state (60+ deals is significant)askforfunding.com. Her story – from exit entrepreneur to prolific angel to startup co-founder again – is inspiring and relatively unique, especially in Utah. It also highlights the importance of diversity in investing; as a woman and a mother, Paul often provides a different perspective and champions products addressing household and family needs (like Dree). She has been recognized locally (named among top entrepreneurs in the Wasatch Innovation Network 100 in 2022) and is increasingly seen as a role model for women in tech. Yet, outside of Utah circles, her contributions are underreported. By elevating companies and even stepping in to run one, Natalie Paul exemplifies the deeply committed angel who isn’t just writing checks but is personally vested in the success of Utah startups. Her public advocacy for balancing life and startups, and her willingness to “get her hands dirty” in a business she funded, make her a compelling and noteworthy figure in the Utah tech ecosystem.

Sources: The information above is sourced from publicly available materials including local news outlets, podcasts, and personal profiles of the individuals. Key references include TechBuzz News reports on Utah’s startup investorstechbuzznews.comtechbuzznews.com, LinkedIn or personal blog postings by the investors themselveslinkedin.comlinkedin.com, and Utah media interviews (e.g. Voyage Utah, Utah Business, Eccles School podcasts) that highlight these angels’ backgrounds and philosophiesvoyageutah.comutahbusiness.com. Each individual’s contributions have been verified through these sources to ensure accuracy in detailing their roles and impact.

Happy 420 fellas and fellinas

Scotty X

It took about a week to memorize this and he would do 30 minute sessions a day using this story in his mind (Expedition 33 being a video game he recently played).

1 man 6 in 1 morning 8 (ate), 0 (zero things), but when on his expedition 33 and killed 9 nevrons 8 and 8 again his 7 friends 4 9 days we 8 9 Nevrons and repeated 48 hours and 48 hours again and then another 2 days passed until he finally saw 0 enemies We showed up to my race 45 minutes later in my 86 trueno where we had 8 34 pieces of chicken for 365 days and eventually pulled up My dad who was almost born in 63 who lived in apartment 811 at that time rolled 7 7 but the last number was a 2 so he got 0 dollars 3 times!! In 09 I was almost 17 with my cousin who was born in 98 picked up 0 girls but met 5 friends waiting at the 76 gas station I found jeans that were size 28 that my 62 year old uncle had wore with a 135 yen pen in his hand that he had 4 48 hours That 62 year old uncle had a 27 year old son with 0 friends but $526 thousand in etherium that belonged to 0 people only 4 himself The 62 year old uncle saw his 81 year old mother and his daughter born in 89 with 0 kids that worked 24 hours 4 days a week* My roommate who was born in 97 where I met around 07 in hotel room 207 where I partied for the until I was 20 4 years I found a penny from 1893 that reminded me of 911 that sold for $374

Here is a video showing one way to do a mind map or memory palace.

The challenge has concluded, and I love what a little money prize can motivate people to do and what we can learn in the process about the power of our brains.

Happy Holidays and 4:20.

Happy Friday, Happy Phiday 1.6180339887498948482045868343656381177203091798057628621354486227052604628189024497072072041893911374

Hope you got some BTC on the Cyber Monday discount this week. There is still a 30% sale going on that will probably continue for bit.

Scott X (going as Daddy now on Linkedin)

The 7-day week is not natural, scientific, or universal… it’s ancient astrology baked into religion and then frozen by empire. If Constantine didn’t like astrology-flavored scheduling, we might all be on 8, 10, or 13-day weeks today.

Humans invented weeks and months because we crave structure and control, but the day is pure physics, one full spin of Earth whether you name it Sunday, Monday, or Donutday. The labels are cultural graffiti; the rotation is universal reality. We built calendars to feel organized, but the Sun doesn’t care about our schedules, religions, or productivity hack, it just rises because our planet turned. The week is a story. The month is a pattern we carved out of the Moon. The day is the cosmos, and we’re passengers strapped to a spinning rock pretending we’re in charge.

Last week my friend, Mark, called and told me he is making Natural Time. It’s simple: the day starts when the Sun rises, and that is always 6am and the Sun sets and it’s always 6pm when that happens. So here in North America, winter would be faster and summer slower. He is working on a Natural Time clock and the seconds, minutes and hours will exist, but each day they will change a bit.

I feel like if humans make up things all the time (everything is made up and observed and given names), we can change time or have different clocks. I will let you know when my friend releases his Natural Time clock. Would you want to try a watch on your hand that does time differently?

Happy 4:20pm Atomic Time, and Happy 5:03pm Natural Time

Today in Heber, 4:20pm atomic time ≈ 5:03pm in Natural Time.

NT = 6 + 12 \cdot f_{day} = 6 + 12 \cdot 0.921 \approx 6 + 11.05 \approx 17.05

I made an app with Claude to show how this works. I need to fix the UI but ran out of tokens before I could get it right…but you will get the idea here: https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/11dd552d-a39a-42bd-aa75-3ed8b8c8f6df

ok this one is the one i did after sending out email and is more acurate but less features https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/2d2cc129-b07a-4917-9488-1122358fe4dc

Scott X

Ok, what i am here to share today is the following: This Thursday, Nov 6th in Salt Lake, we’re having the first official Convoi Accelerator Demo Day. It’s a closed door event to investors. We currently have 40 VCs and 50 angel investors that are coming to see the pitches from our 20 startups.

We’ve seen some great early growth and validation from the startups.

• 5 have quickly hit $200k ARR

• 5 more are $25k - 100k ARR and growing quickly

• 1 has hit $1.5m contracted ARR

• multiple are deep on 7 figure revenue deals

• 2 have already fully subscribed their pre-seed rounds (despite us telling them not to raise until after the demo day!)

If you’re an angel investor and would like to check out this Demo Day or participate in future Demo Days, please respond to this email and Scott will forward along, or email me trent@convoiventures.com

I am still being a businessman when I can, but it’s mostly cosplay at this point. I am full time doing the Sun religion and street preaching. I don’t preach hard, I share with people how the Sun really helped in my healing process since injury and I try to catch all the sunsets. So far, this is the only ritual I have in my religion…watch the Sun go down and say thanks. More rituals are coming soon, and even inspried Sun scripture that Elle Griffin is helping with.

Last note before I see you Thursday, I am working with architecture students at UVU to get the Sun temple designed and created somewhere in Utah County, or wherever a Sun temple wants to be created (ai concepts I rendered on airplane below).

Happy 5:20pm (Austin Time) it’s always 4:20 somewhere:)

Scott X

All the money donated will go to this Gofundme…https://www.gofundme.com/f/sqxqrz-help-ben-dent-heal-from-traumatic-brain-injuries

You can directly donate to gofundme, but the venmo idea is faster and more fun. I will double whatever we raise and give it to Ben’s Gofundme. He had a brain injury last year when his car rolled into the river at Sundance.

So let’s go! Donate $20 and put your team in the comment on venmo. I will add up what team gets the popular vote from donors. BYU should win, because they are a religious school and righteous people are taught to help the needy. But I am alumni of Utah, and that is the true school where the true prophets attend.

Here is my Venmo: or venmo.com/u/Scottpaul

Let’s have some fun donating to a person in need and give good mojo to the team we want to win. I will be hiking in the California Redwoods during the game. Dalle made an image, but it’s all made up…kind of looks like Provo up by the Y on the Mountain.

happy 420

Scott X

Today, I’ve got a special announcement from my friend and filmmaker, Kelyn Ikegami.

His debut feature documentary, The Streak, arrives October 10 on Apple TV and Amazon Prime.

The film about the 1987 Salt Lake Trappers and their record-breaking 29-game winning streak, a mark that still stands. The story has roots in Salt Lake baseball history, Bill Murray was involved, and yes, the Trappers pulled off something that’s never been done since.

But the film isn’t just about baseball.

The first half rides the rush of that summer, the adrenaline, the joy, the chip-on-your-shoulder energy of players who were told they weren’t good enough but still refused to quit. Pioneer League ball is the lowest rung on the ladder, but it’s the purest form of the game: guys playing not for money, but to prove they still have value, still have a dream, still belong.

Then the film pivots. Decades later, the same men reflect on what the streak meant and what it cost. Triumph and heartbreak. Joy and grief. Hope and loss.

Kelyn put it best: “I made The Streak because it isn’t just about baseball. It’s about chasing dreams, living with failure, and finding meaning in unlikely places.”

I can’t wait for you to see it. Get your kids and watch it tonight! See the history of the State of Utah and baseball through the story telling of players and Kelyn’s passion for film

Happy Sunday 4:20 and may you have a moment to look at the Sun setting this evening.

Scott X

Travis: Most hotels take 2–3 years to build and investors wait years to see a return.

But what if you could launch a $450/night hotel room in just 3 months that saved you potentially millions on taxes immediately?

That’s what OutpostX has figured out, the sci fi themed hotel you may have heard of.

They started by proving the viral hospitality thesis in the desert of Southern Utah. They engineer hotels not just to host guests, but to go viral on social media with an immersive experience.

The result? 100M+ views, 55k email waitlist, 700k website visitors, and 87%+ occupancy since launch.

Now comes the real innovation and investment opportunity: DeployPods.

-De-risked: Each unit is titled, VIN-numbered equipment. Move it, resell it, repurpose it.

-3x nightly rate uplift: Take a $150/night commodity unit, add viral engineered veneer, and earn $450+/night.

-Tax-advantaged: $210k cash in = $1.05M in paper deductions (bonus depreciation, Section 168k play). $105k fractional option available as well.

-Speed: Deploy in 3 months instead of 24+.

This is the most capital efficient hospitality model I’ve ever seen. It combines tax advantages and mobile asset protection with Aman level brand storytelling.

If you want exposure to an innovative yield model in hospitality, this is worth a look.

Text Travis for more info: 503-415-9429

Deck- https://outpost-x.com/invest

Passcode: deploypodx

Thanks for looking at this oportunity. May the force be with you and Happy 4:20 from Dallas, Texas

Scott XOutpost X

Jane Goodall passed this week. I was reading another post by Peter Singer that linked to this video that shows a release of a chimpanzee. Just watch this 2 minute video to see the hug between two species, in this case one of the best representatives of our species. Thank you Jane!

Happy Sunny 4:20

Scott X

Something has felt very real to me as of late. It’s the idea that whatever you are feeling needs to happen, make it happen. If you want to have that baby, do it. If you want that new position, ask for it. Do you want to have that hard conversation with your partner? Probably not…but have it.

I’m a product of moving forward. I try to figure out each day what I can do to be in motion of moving forward. This could be as simple as resting your body for an entire day. Living and aging is forward momentum. Some days you don’t have to do a damn thing other than breathing.

My faith in the Sun and my many hours spent in It’s light, especially at the rising and setting, has given me the strength to be still and listen to my own heart and mind. I am in a place that I am ready to share that light with anyone reading. I want to be in the Sun with any of you who feel like it’s helpful for your forward motion. Sit with me. Even if we use these digital transporters in our hands to connect, we can do so under the same Sun.

Happy Sunday and 4:20

Scott X

Photo below is me biking this week. I posted to Linkedin but they took it down cuz my bum was showing. Luckily my own email can’t be censored.