Category archives: Portfolio Company
Strong (Math) Foundations
When I was an undergraduate at Carnegie Mellon, I took a class in Linear Algebra. The class was taught by a visiting graduate student, not by a Carnegie Mellon professor. The instructor of this class was *so* bad that ever since taking that class, I have always had a mental block against linear algebra and […]
Read moreThe Ingenious Osmo
Ingenuity. Ingenuity is a beautiful thing. It’s a beautiful word. It is at the heart of engineering. It is also something I strive to have in every company that K9 Ventures invests in. A lot startup ideas are an incremental or marginal improvement over something that already exists in another form. But, once in a […]
Read moreCoin: the missing link in payments
It’s 2013. We have a super computer in our pockets (or purses), but the way we pay for things hasn’t changed a whole lot. Yes, we don’t carry a lot of cash any more, but we all carry multiple credit cards. And the credit card hasn’t changed all that much since its introduction in the […]
Read moreBoomerang Calendar — scheduling done right
One of the downsides of being an investor is that you spend a lot of time in meetings. What’s worse is that most of these meetings need to be scheduled. And yes, in 2012, we all still mostly schedule meetings via email. Consequently, a fair number of emails that I exchange with people are about […]
Read moreTorbit Insight – Real User Measurement of Web Performance
Torbit Insight uses Real User Measurement, i.e. when a visitor comes to your site, Torbit Insight measures how long the page takes to load for every visitor, on every page. It collects all the data from every visitor and gives you a real-time view of how your site is performing across all visitors to your site
Read moreCongratulations IndexTank!
IndexTank (@IndexTank) has been acquired by LinkedIn! Huge congratulations to the entire IndexTank Team and especially to IndexTank’s founder Diego Basch (@dbasch).
Read moreWelcoming @Occipital!
Today, I am pleased to welcome Occipital in to the K9 Ventures portfolio. The company announced today that it is raising $7M in a Series A led by the Foundry Group.
Read moreCongratulations @BackType!
I’m pleased to announce that K9 Ventures’ portfolio company BackType (@BackType) has been acquired by Twitter. Huge congratulations to the founding team of Christopher Golda (@golda) and Michael Montano (@michaelmontano)!
Read morecard.io: Like Square, but without the square
card.io lets any phone with a camera now become a credit card scanner! Or as I like to say: it’s Like Square, but without the square.
Read moreThe Making of Lytro
The impact of Ren’s technology is so fundamental that, if successful, it will completely change an entire market. Photography and imaging will never ever be the same again. What used to be “Ren’s Camera” is now the Lytro camera. Congratulations to Ren, and to the entire Lytro team. It’s been a phenomenal journey so far, and we’re just getting started.
Read moreOur latest investment: iWalk
K9 Ventures is pleased to welcome to its kennel, our latest portfolio company, iWalk, Inc. iWalk is founded by industry veterans Caesar Shepherd and Sarah Husky, both of who have 7x the experience in the space compared to any other hot dog. Mr. Shepherd complete his PhD from a top school in Munich, Germany. Ms. Husky recently moved to the Bay Area from Juneau, Alaska, from where she could see Siberia. She is fluent in Russian.
Read moreCardMunch: Business Cards Solved
CardMunch is a mobile business card transcription service that allows a user to scan a business card using just their mobile phone. The service delivers the highest possible accuracy of the business card transcription by using a human workforce to transcribe and verify the information on the card. The transcribed information is returned to the mobile phone as a contact.
Read moreAnnouncing K9 Ventures, L.P. – a seed stage fund
I’m pleased to announce the formation of K9 Ventures, L.P. – a seed-stage fund. K9 Ventures, L.P. is a $6.25M fund that is designed to do concept and seed-stage investments in technology companies. The fund will be deployed over a period of 3-4 years, with initial investment in the range of $100K – $250K, while […]
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