Updated:
Crisp
Adam and David Katz run Crisp, a New York venture firm that embeds operators inside seed and Series A enterprise software companies.
Crisp
Crisp was founded in New York by brothers Adam and David Katz. The firm emerged with a thesis that capital alone is insufficient—that early-stage enterprise companies need hands-on operators who can shape product and distribution from the first line of code. The wealth backing the firm has not been publicly attributed to a specific family enterprise or liquidity event, keeping the origin tightly held. Crisp concentrates on seed through Series A rounds in enterprise software, data infrastructure, and applied artificial intelligence. The firm also selectively backs digital health ventures that follow a similar product-intensity logic. Rather than writing broad checks, Crisp assembles dedicated launch teams—engineers, marketers, and sales architects—who embed for months inside portfolio companies. Confirmed positions include Timescale, the time-series database company, and iterative.ai, the MLOps platform (per TechCrunch, 2021). The firm operates from New York but funds founders across North America and Europe. Team size has not been publicly reported. Crisp maintains a lean operating structure, relying on its in-house product specialists rather than large investment teams. There are no known additional offices beyond New York. The firm has not disclosed participation in club-deal networks or prominent co-investment circles, though its sourcing leans heavily on founder referrals from prior portfolio alumni. Crisp's structural distinction lies in its refusal to separate investing from building. It functions less as a check-writing fund and more as an embedded product studio—a differentiator that forces founders to accept unusually deep operational partnership in exchange for capital. This model disqualifies passive co-investors and creates a portfolio that behaves like a federation of shared tooling and talent, not a collection of independent bets.
General information
Firm type
Single Family Office
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
New York
Corporate office
New York, NY, United States
Principals
Adam W. Katz
Managing Partner & Co-Founder
David W. Katz
Co-Founder
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who makes investment decisions at Crisp?
Adam Katz serves as Managing Partner and co-leads the firm alongside his brother David. The decision-making process has not been detailed publicly, but the small, founder-led structure suggests a concentrated, partnership-level approval path rather than a broad committee.
Does Crisp operate as a traditional venture capital fund or a family office?
Crisp functions as a single-family office deploying venture capital directly, not as a traditional fund with outside limited partners. It does not publicly market a fund vehicle, and its capital base is internally sourced from founding principals.
How does Crisp source its deals?
The firm relies heavily on tight founder networks and referrals from existing portfolio alumni. Its embedded-operator model also generates direct visibility into technical communities—engineers and product leads inside portfolio companies often surface new opportunities organically.
Does Crisp only invest in enterprise software?
Enterprise software—especially data infrastructure, developer tools, and applied AI—forms the core. Crisp has also backed digital health companies that share the same product-led, technical-foundation logic. It has not disclosed investments in consumer, hardware, or capital-intensive industrial sectors.
How involved does Crisp get after writing a check?
Crisp embeds its own operating talent—engineers, go-to-market strategists, and product specialists—directly into portfolio companies for months at a time. This is not advisory board membership; it is line-level operating work. The firm's thesis holds that early-stage enterprise success is a product-execution problem, not a capital problem.
What is the relationship between Crisp and the Katz family's other business interests?
No public disclosure links the firm to a specific operating company or liquidity event that generated the invested capital. The brothers have not detailed other family business interests connected to the vehicle's funding base.
Where does Crisp invest geographically?
Crisp writes checks primarily into North American companies, with confirmed activity in both US-based and European-based enterprise startups. New York serves as the sole office, but deal activity is not geographically constrained.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
Need institutional-grade insight on family offices?
Altss delivers:
Prefer a guided tour?
We’ll walk you through: