Ryan Broshar
Founder & General Partner
Reviewed Updated Jul 3, 2026This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.
Background
Ryan Broshar is Founder and General Partner of Matchstick Ventures, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture firm he co-founded in 2013 with Natty Zola 12. Based in Minneapolis with a second office in Boulder, Colorado, Matchstick invests in software-oriented companies with ties to the “North and the Rockies” — underserved startup ecosystems outside the Bay Area and NYC 23. Broshar earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota, where he started a college-publication business (University Guide) that he sold two years out of college, then completed an MBA at CU-Boulder 13. Before Matchstick he co-founded Beta.MN (Minnesota’s demo-day organization), Twin Cities Startup Week, and the Techstars Retail Accelerator with Target — where he served as Managing Director for three programs 123. Matchstick has raised three funds — a $5M Fund I, a $30M Fund II, and a $55M Fund III — totaling $90M in AUM across 100+ portfolio companies 4.
Stated Thesis
Broshar publicly frames Matchstick as backing “underdogs” from underrepresented geographies and non-traditional backgrounds. On the firm’s site he says: “We like to support founders that are underdogs. That come from untraditional backgrounds” 5. He has said the fund looks for “diverse, humble founders who have a chip on their shoulder and identify as the ‘underdogs’ who assemble humble, hard-working teams obsessed with the problems they are solving” 1. Matchstick’s stated geographic focus is the Rockies (Colorado) and the North (Minneapolis and adjacent Upper Midwest/Central US markets) 4.
Inferred Thesis
Based on public disclosures and 95+ recorded investments 36:
- Stage: Pre-seed and seed — investment range $250K–$650K with a $500K sweet spot per Signal by NFX 6.
- Geography: Portfolio skews to Minneapolis, Boulder/Denver, and other secondary-market North American ecosystems including Toronto (Frate) — consistent with the stated “North and Rockies” thesis 72.
- Sector breadth: Recent 2025-2026 investments span vertical SaaS (Dalton Mills for the trades; Locate.ai for CRE brokerage), healthcare AI/ops (Saile clinical credentialing; Automate.Clinic), enterprise AI (Type, Great Sky AI hardware), fintech (Cast Finance AI accounting, Paperstack, Pageport), and dev/data tools (Freeplay, Liminal AI data security) 78.
- Cheque behavior: Broshar frequently leads or co-leads seed rounds and often re-participates in follow-on rounds (Two Boxes, Tab Commerce, Liminal) 8.
- Sample size caveat: Portfolio breakdown is qualitative based on 30+ named recent investments; full sector percentage decomposition is not available.
The delta between stated and inferred: The “underdog” framing accurately describes the geographic bet, but the actual sector mix has drifted heavily toward AI-native enterprise tooling since 2024 (Type, Great Sky, Liminal, Freeplay, Automate.Clinic) even while the “chip-on-the-shoulder founder” language stays consistent 78.
Portfolio
Selection from disclosed investments; not exhaustive. Every entry cited.
| Company | Year | Stage | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dalton Mills | 2026-05-13 | Seed | 7 |
| Saile | 2025-12-12 | Seed | 7 |
| Type | 2025-11-21 | Seed | 7 |
| Automate.Clinic | 2025-10-30 | Seed | 7 |
| Great Sky | 2025-09-12 | Seed | 7 |
| Paperstack | 2025-07-03 | Seed | 7 |
| Locate.ai | 2025-06-26 | Seed | 7 |
| Juno | 2025-06-09 | Seed | 7 |
| Cast Finance | 2025-05-27 | Seed | 7 |
| Pageport | 2025-03-24 | Seed | 7 |
| Freeplay | 2025-06 | Seed | 8 |
| Frate | 2024 | Seed (led) | 8 |
| Two Boxes | 2024 | Follow-on | 8 |
| Tab Commerce | 2024 | Follow-on | 8 |
| Liminal | 2024-06 | Seed extension | 8 |
| Soona | ~2019 (founding year) | Early | 4 |
| Inspectorio | ~2016 (founding year) | Early | 4 |
| Parallax | ~2016 (founding year) | Early | 4 |
| Branch | ~2015 (founding year) | Early | 4 |
| CometChat | ~2010 (founding year) | Early | 3 |
| Cooklist | ~2019 (founding year) | Early | 3 |
| Optera | ~2019 (founding year) | Early | 3 |
In Their Own Words
Ryan Broshar on his investment focus: “We like to support founders that are underdogs. That come from untraditional backgrounds” 5.
Ryan Broshar on early-stage support: “When you’re an early investor in an early stage company, it’s part financial support, part cheerleader, part psychologist” 5.
Ryan Broshar on venture as a profession: “Venture capital is insanely risky. It’s the only profession in the world where you can be wrong the majority of the time and still be the best at it” 5.
Ryan Broshar on his personal philosophy: “I’ll always challenge entrepreneurs to think bigger” 1.
What Founders Say
No independently sourced founder testimonials found at this time.
Sources
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Matchstick Ventures, “Ryan Broshar” team page, accessed July 2026. https://www.matchstick.vc/team/ryan↩↩↩↩↩
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LinkedIn, “Ryan Broshar - Founder & Partner at Matchstick Ventures,” accessed July 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanbroshar↩↩↩↩
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VCSheet, “Ryan Broshar (Matchstick Ventures) / VC Breakdown & Contact,” accessed July 2026. https://www.vcsheet.com/who/ryan-broshar↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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VC Mapping (Gilion), “Matchstick Ventures – Info, Investments & Portfolio,” accessed July 2026. https://vc-mapping.gilion.com/vc-firms/matchstick-ventures↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Twin Cities Business podcast, “Ryan Broshar,” February 18, 2020. Accessed July 2026. https://tcbmag.com/podcast/ryan-broshar/↩↩↩↩
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Signal by NFX, “Ryan Broshar’s Investing Profile - Matchstick Ventures Partner,” accessed July 2026. https://signal.nfx.com/investors/ryan-broshar↩↩
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Matchstick Ventures, “Companies,” accessed July 2026. https://www.matchstick.vc/companies↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩
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Matchstick Ventures News page and Foundry blog, “Matchstick Ventures has a new fund!” September 2021 and 2024 portfolio updates. Accessed July 2026. https://foundry.vc/blog/2021/09/matchstick-ventures-has-a-new-fund/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩