Steve Jang

Background

Steve Jang is the Founder and Managing Partner of Kindred Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund based in San Francisco ¹. Before becoming a full-time investor, Jang was a serial entrepreneur: he co-founded the music streaming platform imeem (acquired by MySpace in 2009) and the music discovery app SoundTracking (acquired by Rhapsody) ^{2 3}. He also co-founded Bitski, a crypto wallet company later acquired by Phantom ¹.

Jang’s investing career began in 2009 when he wrote Garrett Camp a check for what was then a side-project — the company that became Uber ². He served as an early advisor to Uber from its founding through its IPO ⁴. During Uber’s early years, when the company had few full-time employees, Jang pitched in wherever he could, building a reputation as a hands-on operator-turned-investor ².

After imeem’s sale and SoundTracking’s acquisition, Jang made approximately 50 angel investments of $25,000 to $250,000 in companies including Coinbase, Blue Bottle Coffee, Postmates, and Zymergen, initially under the Kindred Ventures name starting in 2014 ^{2 5}. In 2019, he and Kanyi Maqubela formally launched Kindred Ventures as an institutional fund with $56 million ². The firm has since grown to approximately $600 million in assets under management across three core funds and an opportunity fund ^{1 6}.

Jang was named to the Forbes Midas List in both 2023 (ranked #45) and 2024, recognizing him as one of the top venture capital investors in the world ^{7 8}. Over his career, he has backed ten companies that reached $1 billion or more in valuation, three of which are now publicly traded ¹.

Stated Thesis

Kindred Ventures publicly describes its focus as backing “visionary thinkers and pioneers building the technologies that will move humanity into the frontier of innovation” ⁹. The firm states it invests in emerging areas including AGI, decentralized systems, personalized well-being, and electric transportation ⁹.

Jang has stated that Kindred takes a high-conviction, concentrated approach, maintaining “an extremely concentrated, high-touch portfolio of around 25 companies per fund” ¹⁰. He has said the firm emphasizes live product demos over pitch decks and positions partners as founders’ primary advisors during crises ¹⁰.

On the firm’s formation investing approach, Jang has described it as proactive: rather than waiting for founders to pitch, Kindred identifies problems and assembles teams to solve them ². He has stated the firm’s ethos is “empathy — to take a very adaptive coaching and mentorship model” ².

Jang has said: “We co-founded a venture capital fund with LPs. We write lead checks and don’t invest in a ton of companies” and “We’re high-concentration, as they say in the industry, because we want to partner with a small handful of founders” ¹¹.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 40 verified investments across Jang’s career (both personal angel investments and through Kindred Ventures), the following patterns emerge. Note: this represents a subset of his 100+ total investments; the sample is sufficient for directional analysis but may not capture the full picture.

Stage distribution: Predominantly pre-seed and seed. Kindred Ventures has made 62 seed-stage investments with an average round size of $5 million ¹². Check sizes range from $250K to $3M for the core fund ⁶.

Sector breakdown (based on 40 verified investments): - AI / machine learning: 10 of 40 (25%) — Perplexity AI, fal, PlayAI, Extropic, Causal Labs, Hour One, Humane, Aww - Crypto / Web3: 8 of 40 (20%) — Coinbase, dYdX, Magic Eden, Zora, Bitski, Alliance DAO, BitGo, Goldfinch - Consumer / marketplace: 7 of 40 (18%) — Uber, Postmates, Poshmark, Blue Bottle Coffee, Clubhouse, Ando, Atlas - Fintech: 4 of 40 (10%) — Tala, OpenPhone, Basis Theory, Otto - Health / wellness: 4 of 40 (10%) — Color Health, Heartbeat Health, Tonal, BeSound - Climate / frontier tech: 4 of 40 (10%) — Whisper Aero, Nuro, Faircraft, Aalo Atomics - Developer tools / infrastructure: 3 of 40 (8%) — fal (also counted in AI), Anjuna Security, Red Planet Labs

Geographic focus: Heavily concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area, with selective investments in New York and international markets. Jang serves as a cultural bridge between Silicon Valley and Asian markets, having helped companies like Uber, Coinbase, and Blue Bottle expand into Korea and Japan ⁷.

Founder profile patterns: Jang gravitates toward technical founders building category-defining products. His biggest hits (Uber, Coinbase, Perplexity AI) were all founders tackling problems that initially seemed niche but turned out to be massive platform shifts. Kindred also operates a formation investing model, sometimes assembling founding teams before a company officially launches ^{2 5}.

Co-investor patterns: Frequently invests alongside a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Founders Fund, YCombinator, 500 Global, and Race Capital ^{13 14}. Jang’s personal network from his Uber advisory days gives him access to deal flow from the broader Silicon Valley operator community.

Notable gaps vs. stated thesis: The firm claims focus on “electric transportation” but only Nuro fits this category among verified investments. Climate tech is a stated focus area but represents a smaller fraction (10%) than AI or crypto in practice.

Board involvement: Jang currently serves on the boards of Humane, Tonal, Color Health, and Zora, indicating deep engagement with these investments ⁴.

Portfolio

This table represents approximately 43 of 164 total investments (26%). Many early angel investments and recent deals are not publicly documented. Years marked with ~ are estimates based on founding year or fund vintage.

In Their Own Words

“We co-founded a venture capital fund with LPs. We write lead checks and don’t invest in a ton of companies. We’re high-concentration, as they say in the industry, because we want to partner with a small handful of founders.” — Steve Jang, Mercury Series Tea interview ¹¹

“The idea of a set amount of capital for every company, even at the same stage, is misleading.” — Steve Jang, Mercury Series Tea interview ¹¹

“The ethos is empathy — to take a very adaptive coaching and mentorship model.” — Steve Jang, TechCrunch, November 2019 ²

“Voice has the potential to be a great new user interface for any product using open-source or closed source LLMs today.” — Steve Jang, on Kindred’s investment in PlayAI ¹⁴

“We are honored and energized to be their backer and partner as they push the entire space forward.” — Steve Jang, on Kindred’s investment in fal ¹³

“We were lucky to back and learn from the founders and early teams at Uber and Coinbase during the height of Web 2.0 and the emergence of Web 3.0, respectively.” — Kindred Ventures, Fund III announcement ⁶

What Founders Say

Donnie Dinch, CEO of Bitski, described working with Jang: “In the early days, Steve would be in the office with us, late night jamming on ideas around the evolution of the blockchain space, fundamental products that needed to exist, early use cases etc. There’s a lot of money available for seed-stage projects, but it can be difficult to find an investor willing to grind with the team through the days of pre product-market fit.” Dinch added: “The collaborative tone of the relationship really stands out.” — Donnie Dinch, TechCrunch, November 2019 ²

No additional independently sourced founder testimonials found. The firm’s website describes intensive founder support and partners positioning themselves as founders’ “first call” in crisis, but these are firm marketing descriptions rather than independent founder statements ¹⁰.

Connections

• Board member, Humane ⁴
• Board member, Tonal ⁴
• Board member, Color Health ⁴
• Board member, Zora ⁴
• Early advisor, Uber (2009 through IPO) — wrote Garrett Camp’s first check for Uber as a side project ²
• Co-founder, imeem (acquired by MySpace, 2009) ²
• Co-founder, SoundTracking (acquired by Rhapsody) ²
• Co-founder, Bitski (acquired by Phantom) ¹
• Co-managing partner with Kanyi Maqubela at Kindred Ventures since 2019 ²
• Tim Ferriss Show guest (Episode #707, November 2023) — described by Ferriss as “a longtime friend” ²²
• Dave Chang Show guest (March 2024) — discussed seed-stage investing ²³
• Forbes Midas List (#45 in 2023, repeat in 2024) ^{7 8}
• HumanX 2026 speaker (April 2026, San Francisco) ²⁴

Sources