Find out how we're taking our teams & partners to the next level.
Founding Partner Investments
Startup Failure Rate
VC Funds raised by Portfolio Teams
LvlUp's Founding Partner Brandon Maier launched Quake Capital (early-stage accelerator and venture capital fund) in New York City, NY.
Under Brandon's leadership, Quake expanded to Los Angeles, CA and Austin, TX and was ranked as a top-10 seed investor by Forbes.
Since launching in 2016, Quake Capital has:
250+ investments
9 (so far) exits/acquisitions
<14% startup failure rate
#1 fund for investments in founders of color
Global top 2% of early-stage investment vehicles
After several years of leading Quake Capital, Brandon began working independently with companies as an advisor and fundraising coach to address their #1 pain point: fundraising.
Brandon and long-time friend & colleague AJ Smith formed a consultancy around this need, which would eventually become LvlUp Ventures.
Formation of LvlUp Ventures Early-Stage Fund as a value-add VC, combining all of the best parts of Brandon's experience from Quake with the hands-on approach of several years consulting with companies and community-building to capitalize on a unique market downturn and invest in teams solving new challenges and problems.
Co-Founder of Quake Capital, highlighted by CrunchBase for making the second-most investments in female-led startups (2018).
250+ Startup Investments, with 84% still active, 9 previous exits. 10X+ return on portfolio of active investments within last 6 years.
Extensive network of over 1,000 investors.
Frequent collegiate guest lecturer & startup judge.
Technical managing partner bringing over a decade of frontier tech experience and 5+ years of investment experience prior to LvlUp.
Four-time venture-backed CTO with 3+ years leading startup consultant firm assisting in pitch deck creation, fundraising, coaching, and more.
10+ years of full-stack dev. experience in FinTech, SocialTech, MedTech, and more.
New York University, Masters
Four-time startup founder, creating and leading industry-leading enterprises like DebateIsland.com and The American Post.
9+ years of operating experience across VC-and-non-VC-backed startups and a multi-billion-dollar technology and strategy company in the Media, AI, FinTech, and Government Consulting industries.
Strategically advised and invested in about 20 companies.
Frequent Conference and Podcast participant.
Adam is a determined leader and expert problem solver, who takes a very hands-on approach with founders.
3 years of experience managing associates and working with a variety of startups across several industries.
Frequent Event & Pitch Competition Organizer, Host, and Participant
Co-Founder of a stealth mode cryptocurrency mining company.
B.S. Economics, Occidental College
Former founder and operator with 10 years of experience in early and growth stage startups in a variety of industries from health tech to CPG.
2x venture backed executive (COO & COS).
3 years of experience allocating $30M per year of federal funding to advanced industry startups in bioscience, clean tech, aerospace, and advanced manufacturing.
Active startup mentor, coach, and strategic advisor with a passion for supporting high-impact and undercapitalized founders.
BA University of Denver - Business and International Economics
We take a community-driven approach to venture.
We are a non-traditional lead, focusing on "upcelerating" our teams.
We open up our network full-throttle to help our portfolio companies close rounds faster so that they can spend less time pitching & more time building great companies.
We run a nation-wide venture scout program to support & educate the investor community.
This means that we are seeing a higher volume of great deals come across our desk & we aren't greedy with those opportunities. We love sharing deal flow with our community.
