John Fein
Firebrand Ventures makes 4 investments in Midwest startups
Kansas City-based Firebrand Ventures is kicking off the summer with a series of startup investments. Led by managing director John Fein, Firebrand has signed a quartet of new deals supporting two pairs of tech startups in both Boulder and Austin. “We’re just incredibly excited to invest in these companies,” Fein said. “We think they’re the…
Firebrand Ventures joins $6.85M round in Des Moines startup
Continuing a streak of investments, Kansas City-based Firebrand Ventures joined a sizable investment in an Iowa-based payments processing startup. Firebrand joined six other venture funds in a $6.85 million funding round in Des Moines-based Dwolla, which builds applications that facilitate bank transfers, manages customers and verifies bank accounts. The round was led by Union Square…
Firebrand Ventures partners with UMKC to cultivate entrepreneurs
Firebrand Ventures has partnered with the University of Missouri-Kansas City to help local startup entrepreneurs. As part of the agreement, the Kansas City-based fund will offer graduates of UMKC’s E-Scholars program an opportunity to receive an investment from Firebrand starting in 2017. Housed under UMKC’s Regnier Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (RIEI), E-Scholars offers students…
Rockstar team forming at KC-based Firebrand Ventures
A venture fund’s success is determined by its ability to find and evaluate the best deals. And that job is a whole lot easier when you have a team with decades of technology investment experience guiding your decisions — as is the case with Kansas City-based Firebrand Ventures. Launched in July by John Fein, Firebrand…
Illness forecaster Sickweather lands local investor, opening KC office
As part of a recent investment round, Sickweather will be returning to familiar stomping grounds to open a Kansas City office. A graduate of the 2014 Techstars-led Sprint Accelerator, Sickweather raised a seed round of an undisclosed value to accelerate sales of its tech that forecasts and maps illnesses for consumers and enterprises. “We’re thrilled…
