Beverly Hills-based Launch House, a membership community focused on connecting and supporting entrepreneurs, recently announced the launch of its venture arm, House Capital, and a $10 million debut fund that will help support its more than 500 members.
Founded in 2020 by Michael Houck, Brett Goldstein and Jacob Peters, Launch House acts as an accelerator program where startup builders live and learn together under one roof — the house is located in Beverly Hills — before launching their products and acquiring customers.
The founders have backgrounds in the tech world: Houck has worked for companies like Airbnb and Uber, Peters co-founded Commsor, a community platform, and Goldstein was a product manager at Google.
“What’s special about the fund is it kind of aligns to our whole vision of what the future is going to look like, which is tied to this idea of what is the new Silicon Valley,” said Goldstein.
Goldstein added that the concept of a broader “Silicon Valley” has changed every 15 years based on location, generation, and platform. New York City, Austin, Detroit, and L.A. are among cities seeking to develop a thriving tech community, which is where Launch House fits in.
Today, Goldstein said, Gen-Z and young millennials are the dominant entrepreneurial class and Silicon Valley is virtually everywhere, not tied down to the San Francisco area.
“We think Web3 creators, community and all these things are the future, so our venture fund is a bet on this,” he continued.
The fund focuses on backing companies in the Launch House community as well as other early-stage startups. programming and better experiences.
“Launch House has deep and authentic relationships with the-early stage founders who join our community,” Houck said in a statement. “We’d already been helping Launch House members with their fundraising efforts, so it was a natural progression for us to move into investing in these founders ourselves.”
The firm has funded a number of companies at the pre-seed and seed stages, including Coinbooks, Ghost Financial and Anja Health.
“It’s easier and easier to start companies these days. That means there’s more competition, and with more competition in any market you have the growing importance of brand, marketing and distribution,” Goldstein said.
To help further this aspect of the program, House Capital’s limited partnership base includes a variety of individuals across the diverse technology and entertainment ecosystem, including the co-founders of Dropbox, YouTube and Riot Games, as well as Michael Ovitz and operators from Polygon Studios.
