What New Stack Ventures does

New Stack Ventures is a Chicago-based, privately-held early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2014 by General Partner Nick Moran. The firm invests at the angel, pre-seed, and seed stages with check sizes of $500,000 to $1,500,000, targeting companies that are pre-revenue, in pilots/PoCs, or in early commercialization. Its investment thesis is explicitly oriented toward "outsiders"—founders who did not attend Stanford, work for Big Tech, or are based in the Bay Area—across Vertical AI, Fintech, Healthcare, and Industrials (Manufacturing, Energy, Construction, Defense, Supply Chain). The firm is currently investing from Fund III and reports a portfolio exceeding 50 companies, including notable names such as Tovala, Hologram, Jiobit, Adaviv, Cybrary, and Pliant.

The firm's primary deal-sourcing engine is The Full Ratchet podcast, founded by Nick Moran in May 2014, which has grown to over 90,000 active subscribers. Leveraging a decade of podcast content and direct VC outreach, the firm claims relationships with founding/general partners at 90% of Tier 1 VC firms, which it uses to facilitate post-investment Series A introductions for portfolio companies. Distribution channels are augmented by an AngelList syndicate and direct founder pitches. The platform team of five (GP, Principal, Director of Platform, COO, Venture Partner) provides operational support and execution assistance as part of the post-investment offering.

The firm generates returns through traditional venture capital economics: management fees on committed capital across its funds and carried interest on portfolio company exits via acquisitions or IPOs. Recent activity (H1 2026) has been concentrated in lead positions across pre-seed rounds in AI-native vertical applications (BioReact, SparkServ, Maestro AI, Binsr Inspect, Earlyasset, Kestrel Labs), with follow-on participation in Series B rounds for portfolio winners (Urban Sky, equipifi). Investment check sizes, fund vintages, AUM, and exit economics are not publicly disclosed.

Name

New Stack Ventures

Legal name

New Stack Ventures LLC

Website

https://newstack.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

New Stack Ventures is a Chicago-based early-stage venture firm founded in 2014 that invests $500K–$1.5M at angel, pre-seed, and seed stages in "outsider" founders—those outside Silicon Valley—across Vertical AI, Fintech, Healthcare, and Industrials, sourcing deal flow through its 90k+ subscriber podcast The Full Ratchet.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Early-Stage Venture Capital

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282)

akta.pro primary industry

Sector-Focused Venture Capital (Vertical Specialists) (FSANAAAD)

Keywords

• Venture capital investing
• Early-stage startups
• Pre-seed funding
• Seed stage investment
• Startup venture funding

Headquarters

HQ city

Chicago

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Venture Capital Returns: New Stack Ventures generates returns through carried interest and management fees from fund operations. They invest in early-stage companies with the goal of realizing gains through portfolio company exits via acquisitions or IPOs.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

New Stack Ventures is a venture capital firm that makes early-stage equity investments of $500K-$1.5M in startups at the Angel, Pre-Seed, and Seed stages. The firm focuses on "outsiders" — founders building companies outside Silicon Valley — across Vertical AI, Fintech, Healthcare, and Industrials sectors. Post-investment, portfolio companies gain introductions to Tier 1 VCs for Series A fundraising, leveraging relationships built through The Full Ratchet podcast over 10+ years.

Product overview

New Stack Ventures operates as a single unified investment platform rather than a product-plus-modules architecture. The firm specializes in early-stage venture investing, targeting Angel through Seed stage companies with $500K-$1.5M investments. Investment focus areas include Vertical AI, Fintech, Healthcare, and Industrials sectors. The portfolio includes Maestro Tech (AI mortgage operating system), SparkServ (automotive retail AI), BioReact (AI bioprocessing), Binsr Inspect (AI home inspection), and other companies. Post-investment, New Stack provides value-add services including introductions to Tier 1 VCs through the firm's network built from hosting The Full Ratchet podcast for over 10 years.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Full Ratchet: The 1st VC podcast, founded by Nick Moran in May 2014, which has grown to over 90k active subscribers. After 10 years of hosting, the team has built relationships with founding partners and general partners at 90% of Tier 1 VCs to make introductions for their portfolio companies.

Products and services

• New Stack Ventures Investment Platform Early-stage equity investment platform offering lead or co-lead investments of $500K-$1.5M to founders outside Silicon Valley across Vertical AI, Fintech, Healthcare, and Industrials categories. For founders at the Angel, Pre-Seed, Seed, and Pilot/POC stages. Includes post-investment support via Tier 1 VC network access.
• The Full Ratchet Podcast Content platform and podcast — described as the 1st VC podcast — providing deal sourcing, brand awareness, and the foundation for the firm's network of founding partners and general partners at 90% of Tier 1 VCs. For startup founders, VCs, and the broader venture ecosystem.
• New Stack Ventures AngelList Syndicate

Quantifiable outcome

• 90k+ active subscribers across The Full Ratchet podcast
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• International Code CouncilcoreTechnology or IntegrationKestrel Labs entered a data agreement with the International Code Council to integrate authoritative code content into its compliance tools. This is a portfolio company partnership, not direct to New Stack Ventures

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• M25: Chicago-based seed-stage VC investing primarily in Midwest founders; M25 is the most direct geographic and stage peer to New Stack Ventures, with similar outsider/non-Bay-Area founder focus and check sizes.
• FJ Labs: Global seed-stage investor in marketplaces and SaaS based in New York; former employer of New Stack Principal Luke Skertich. Operates a similarly disciplined, high-volume pre-seed/seed model with comparable check sizes.
• Right Side Capital Management: Pre-seed focused fund-of-funds/syndicate manager backing thousands of startups with checks typically under $1M; one of the most prolific pre-seed investors in the U.S. and a direct competitor for early-stage deal flow.
• Forum Ventures: Pre-seed and seed fund specifically targeting B2B SaaS founders outside of major tech hubs; directly comparable outsider/founder thesis and stage focus.
• Pioneer Fund: Pre-seed and seed-stage fund operated as a community of 700+ operators, investing in first-time founders outside traditional networks; structurally similar to New Stack's outsider founder model.
• Antler: Global pre-seed investor and founder-generator with operations in 30+ cities; competes for outsider founder deal flow and is a direct stage peer, though with a more programmatic cohort-based model.
• Susa Ventures: Early-stage fund investing in seed rounds with thesis-driven, operator-led approach; comparable stage, check size, and outsider-friendly orientation.
• Lerer Hippeau: NYC-based seed-stage VC with similar outsider-friendly thesis and pre-seed/seed check sizes; another New York-anchored seed investor competing in similar software and consumer markets.

Regional players

• Hyde Park Venture Partners: Chicago-based early-stage VC investing in Midwest founders at seed and Series A; overlapping Chicago geography and outsider-founder thesis makes it a direct regional peer, though check sizes tend to be larger.

Broad incumbents

• Techstars: Global accelerator/early-stage investor with a $20K-$100K check size and intensive program; overlaps with New Stack at the earliest stage but is much larger, more structured, and broadly sector-diversified.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/NewStackVC
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/new-stack-ventures

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments89 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about New Stack Ventures