The Venture Codex

Led · Seed · Mar 2023

Entre offers a community-focused professional networking app aimed at founders, investors, and tech professionals, positioning itself as a "super app" for the next generation of business. The platform is web3-enabled with integrations for crypto wallets and blockchains such as DeSo, Coinbase, MetaMask, and WalletConnect, while remaining accessible to non-blockchain users. Entre has grown to more than 70,000 users and is available on the App Store, Google Play, and the web. The company markets itself as a superior, inclusive alternative to legacy professional networking platforms and seeks to capitalize on changes in how people work and connect. Entre was launched in 2019 and is based in Austin, Texas.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2022

Fizz is a two-year-old social network that launched at Stanford and centers on anonymous, campus-specific posting with upvotes/downvotes, a karma system, and visible "fizzfluence" metrics. The app originally invited users via Stanford email addresses and has expanded to more than 80 college campuses, with a stated goal of reaching 250 schools by year-end. Its core product emphasizes local, real-time campus conversation and community discovery, with moderation handled largely by volunteer student moderators. The company is testing product extensions including an online marketplace for students and has discussed adding job listings; a prominent, unnamed executive is slated to join as chief product officer next month. Fizz’s business model is described as a "work in progress," and executives acknowledge monetization is a current focus. The platform has faced content-moderation challenges and a 2021 privacy breach; company leaders say security practices have since evolved. Financially, Fizz has attracted venture funding to support growth while it refines product and moderation practices. Fizz is a college-only anonymous social app that gives each campus its own community where students can publish text posts, polls and photos without usernames and classmates can upvote or downvote content. Users can DM each other and choose to reveal their identities; the app is currently iPhone-only. Fizz launched on 13 campuses and expanded to 25 in under two months, and it reports 95% penetration among iPhone users on campuses like Stanford, Dartmouth, Pepperdine and Bethune-Cookman. The company says over half of its users engage with the app daily. Fizz has grown from a two-person founding team to about 25 employees and closed a $4.5M seed in June followed by a $12M Series A; it aims to reach 1,000 campuses by the end of 2023. The app experienced a November 2021 security vulnerability that exposed identifying data and PII; Fizz says it fixed the issue within 24 hours, moved PII to a separate secure database, notified users, and has since evolved its security practices. Fizz is an anonymous, campus-restricted social app built by and for college students that supports anonymous text posts, polls, photos and direct messages. Access is limited to students with a valid .edu address and each campus has its own community. The company supplements AI screening with paid peer moderators — about 15 per school — and reports posts are removed within less than a minute on average. Fizz says it has very high adoption in some places (95% of Stanford undergrads have downloaded the app; 70% at Rice) and estimates 50–60% of users on a given campus use the platform daily. The startup is not currently monetizing but has considered a marketplace for student-to-student sales (textbooks, bikes, etc.). Fizz operates with 22 full‑time employees out of a house in Palo Alto and plans to expand to more than 1,000 U.S. campuses by the end of next year.

Led · Series A · Feb 2022

Trubify is a live-streaming app created by musicians that offers fair pay and revenue-generating features for artists. Since launching in 2021, the platform has increased engagement by over 500% and saw live streaming activity rise 266% that year. In less than a year it has secured $1 million in royalty contracts and has $3 million more in advanced negotiation. The company has partnered with Octane, which provided investment capital and growth resources to support expansion. Founder and CEO Stephen Tyszka leads an experienced team and is backed by investor and advisor Walter Cruttenden, who serves on Trubify's board. Trubify emphasizes tools that help creators acquire engagement and revenue and aims to capitalize on demand for more socially responsible music consumption.