We Are Investors
Kass & Mike have invested in 100+ companies, with $400 million under management as angels, individual investors and venture capitalists.
Sector
Status
Embrace AI
An interaction and engagement platform intended to improve the relationship between customers and companies. The company's platform uses a company's internal knowledge with the help of artificial intelligence to create sales and marketing materials, answer customer questions and onboard new employees, enabling sales, marketing, customer success and support teams to work efficiently and effectively.
Etched
An artificial intelligence-based computing hardware designed to cut LLM inference costs radically specialized for transformers. The company offers hard-coding chips for the transformer architecture, allowing for fast computation of language models compared to general-purpose GPUs, enabling developers to generate new content in real time.
Frame AI
A collaborative messaging platform designed to improve business conversations. The company's platform produces structured analytics that can help businesses make decisions and improve performance across all message-based interactions, enabling employees to interact with customers and each other in a more efficient and consistent manner.
Gynger
A sales acceleration platform intended to close deals by adding capital to the stack. The company's platform specializes in offering custom financing to pre-qualified leads and underwrites, approves, and issues each loan with EMI options and combines software management and financial services, enabling businesses to improve sales and manage credit by improving the cash flow of financing.
KarmaCheck
An employee verification platform designed to provide background checks for employment needs. The company's software uses artificial intelligence and blockchain to provide real-time and actionable background checks including comprehensive criminal checks, employment verification, and education verification, enabling businesses to run fast and efficient checks on their new hires and employees, achieve a fast turnaround, and increase retention ratio.
Thredlands
An AI-powered education platform that lets individuals, organizations and teams generate conversational courses and quizzes on any topic. These bite-sized and gamified experiences make learning any subject more effective, engaging, social and fun.
Torre
Self-driving AI recruiters who replicate human intuition (100 matching factors + 9 types of AI). The company's end goal is all jobs and all candidates, making thousands of job boards, hundreds of ATSs, and millions of old-style recruiters obsolete. TAM is $200B+/year.
Kass & Mike Recognition
Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story
In this honest account, Kass & Mike will tell you the crap you can expect to find in the $h!t-filled fields, how to avoid stepping in some of it, and how to scrape off the rest.
"Kass and Mike’s transparency and expertise shine through every page—this is entrepreneurship as it’s meant to be understood."
- Ron Conway
Founder & Managing Partner, SV Angel
"If you're building a company, you want Kass and Mike in your corner. Their startup and life journey offers a rare glimpse into true resilience, ingenuity, and heart—a chance to learn from the best."
- Karin Klein
Founding Partner, Bloomberg Beta
"With their signature blend of honesty and experience, Kass and Mike deliver a powerful narrative that captures, unlike any book on the topic, what it means to be an entrepreneur."
- Kevin Colleran
Managing Director, Slow Ventures & Early Facebook Employee
"Mike and Kass have crafted a masterpiece that uses poignant stories to share invaluable lessons for anyone serious about succeeding as an entrepreneur."
- Rick Farman
Founder, Superfly
"I have lived Kass and Mike’s cheat codes for entrepreneurs as a product leader at Buddy Media. They worked for me and they will work for you. The lessons they share in Shoveling $h!t have informed my success at Sure and I will take them with me forever."
- Wayne Slavin
Cofounder & CEO, Sure
"An unflinching look at what it really takes to succeed. Kass and Mike dive into the crap every entrepreneur has to deal with building a business and emerge with hard-won lessons about starting, managing, pivoting—and learning to love the shovel along the way."
- Scott Galloway
Professor NYU Stern School of Business, Host Prof G Pod & Co-host Pivot Podcast
"Mike and Kass is the greatest partnership I've ever been lucky enough to witness in person. Not just in business but in life, they bring out the best in each other and all of those around them. This book is a wonderful map to success both personal and professional from two of the most special people I know."
- Seth Meyers
Host, Late Night with Seth Meyers
"The world needs to be exposed to Kass and Mike. Entrepreneurs who don’t devour this book are grossly negligent."
- Gary Vaynerchuk
Chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia & CEO of, VeeFriends
"Kass and Mike have been invaluable to me as a first-time entrepreneur. Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story captures the universal entrepreneurial journey in an authentic, insightful, and undeniably powerful way."
- Mike Cessario
Founder & CEO, Liquid Death
"Kass and Mike’s transparency and expertise shine through every page—this is entrepreneurship as it’s meant to be understood."
- Ron Conway
Founder & Managing Partner, SV Angel
"If you're building a company, you want Kass and Mike in your corner. Their startup and life journey offers a rare glimpse into true resilience, ingenuity, and heart—a chance to learn from the best."
- Karin Klein
Founding Partner, Bloomberg Beta
"With their signature blend of honesty and experience, Kass and Mike deliver a powerful narrative that captures, unlike any book on the topic, what it means to be an entrepreneur."
- Kevin Colleran
Managing Director, Slow Ventures & Early Facebook Employee
"Mike and Kass have crafted a masterpiece that uses poignant stories to share invaluable lessons for anyone serious about succeeding as an entrepreneur."
- Rick Farman
Founder, Superfly
"I have lived Kass and Mike’s cheat codes for entrepreneurs as a product leader at Buddy Media. They worked for me and they will work for you. The lessons they share in Shoveling $h!t have informed my success at Sure and I will take them with me forever."
- Wayne Slavin
Cofounder & CEO, Sure
"An unflinching look at what it really takes to succeed. Kass and Mike dive into the crap every entrepreneur has to deal with building a business and emerge with hard-won lessons about starting, managing, pivoting—and learning to love the shovel along the way."
- Scott Galloway
Professor NYU Stern School of Business, Host Prof G Pod & Co-host Pivot Podcast
"Mike and Kass is the greatest partnership I've ever been lucky enough to witness in person. Not just in business but in life, they bring out the best in each other and all of those around them. This book is a wonderful map to success both personal and professional from two of the most special people I know."
- Seth Meyers
Host, Late Night with Seth Meyers
"The world needs to be exposed to Kass and Mike. Entrepreneurs who don’t devour this book are grossly negligent."
- Gary Vaynerchuk
Chairman of VaynerX, CEO of VaynerMedia & CEO of, VeeFriends
"Kass and Mike have been invaluable to me as a first-time entrepreneur. Shoveling $h!t: A Love Story captures the universal entrepreneurial journey in an authentic, insightful, and undeniably powerful way."
- Mike Cessario
Founder & CEO, Liquid Death
"Kass and Mike’s transparency and expertise shine through every page—this is entrepreneurship as it’s meant to be understood."
- Ron Conway
Founder & Managing Partner, SV Angel
Highlights
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June 3, 2025
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June 5, 2025
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March 20, 2025
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Your go-to newsletter for real, no-BS insights on the messy, rewarding journey of entrepreneurship. Each edition is packed with our best cheat codes, favorite finds, and behind-the-scenes stories, plus a roundup of past and upcoming events, podcasts, and more. Whether you’re here to learn, grow, or just enjoy the ride—grab a shovel and let’s get to work!
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Kass and Mike delivered an engaging, raw, and frequently hilarious keynote interview at the Primary NYC Summit that resonated deeply with both founders and investo...
Brad Svrulga
Cofounder & General Partner, Primary Venture Partners
Kass and Mike’s stories, rich with real-life examples and lessons, capture the grit and tenacity necessary to succeed as entrepreneurs. They brought a humanity and...
Erik Dochtermann
YPO Marketing Network Board Member, YPO Global Marketing Summit 2024 Champion
Kass and Mike Lazerow have created something rare - a book packed with actionable insights and refreshing authenticity that is also just fun to read. Alumni Ventur...
Jin Kim
Executive Vice President, Alumni Ventures
Mike and Kass brought humor, heart, and hard-earned wisdom to our stage—shifting minds and sparking action. Their authenticity lit up the room and elevated...
Jennifer Sampson
President and Chief Executive Officer, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas
If you are not following Kass and Mike, two of the best founders and investors sharing their advice, you are missing out! [They] are insightful, inspiring, authent...
Tami Holzman
Founder, @queenconnector
Kass and Mike brought an incredible energy to the panel, engaging the audience with their insightful perspectives and genuine passion on being entrepreneurs. Their...
Ed Reitler
Managing Partner, Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLP
Their story is not just inspiring; it's a testament to the power of perseverance, the impact of visionary leadership and the beauty of struggling. But most import...
Jimmy Nguyen
Founder & CEO, New Win Global
Kass and Mike are exceptional. Their combination of experience, IQ, and EQ make them the ideal speakers at any event. Our attendees are a tough crowd - every singl...
Grant Gittlin
Founder, Lasagna & ChapterX
Kass and Mike are wildly successful entrepreneurs who have been instrumental in guiding me and countless other entrepreneurs. Their mentorship and...
Matt Britton
CEO, Suzy
"Kass and Mike Lazerow are not only two of the greatest founders I've ever worked with, but they’re also two of the greatest humans I've ever met. Their ability to...
Josh Rahn
Cofounder and Managing Partner, Oceans Venture Capital
Kass and Mike delivered an engaging, raw, and frequently hilarious keynote interview at the Primary NYC Summit that resonated deeply with both founders and investo...
Brad Svrulga
Cofounder & General Partner, Primary Venture Partners
Kass and Mike’s stories, rich with real-life examples and lessons, capture the grit and tenacity necessary to succeed as entrepreneurs. They brought a humanity...
Erik Dochtermann
YPO Marketing Network Board Member, YPO Global Marketing Summit 2024 Champion
Kass and Mike Lazerow have created something rare - a book packed with actionable insights and refreshing authenticity that is also just fun to read...
Jin Kim
Executive Vice President, Alumni Ventures
Mike and Kass brought humor, heart, and hard-earned wisdom to our stage—shifting minds and sparking action. Their authenticity lit up the room and elevated every m...
Jennifer Sampson
President and Chief Executive Officer, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas
If you are not following Kass and Mike, two of the best founders and investors sharing their advice, you are missing out! [They] are insightful, inspiring, authent...
Tami Holzman
Founder, @queenconnector
Kass and Mike brought an incredible energy to the panel, engaging the audience with their insightful perspectives and genuine passion on being entrepreneurs. Their...
Ed Reitler
Managing Partner, Reitler Kailas & Rosenblatt LLP
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© Kass & Mike Lazerow 2026