Influence Ventures

Kirk Ouimet and Tyler Hogge serve as co-founders and managing partners, with both actively involved in sourcing and diligence. Ouimet's background includes founding the digital wallet platform Mezu, giving the partnership an operator's perspective on product and go-to-market decisions. The firm has not publicly named additional investment committee members or venture partners as of mid-2026.

The firm concentrates on pre-seed and seed rounds, often providing the first institutional check to its portfolio companies. It focuses on enterprise software, FinTech, and AI/ML startups where initial product-market fit evidence exists but scale capital has not yet arrived. Follow-on participation in subsequent rounds is not explicitly outlined in public materials.

Influence Ventures operates as a traditional asset manager and private equity firm, not a family office. It raises capital from external limited partners and invests through a fund structure, per standard venture capital practice. The firm's website domain (influence.vc) and self-categorization confirm this institutional posture.

Sourcing leverages the co-founders' deep ties within Utah's tech ecosystem, a market where founder networks are highly concentrated and referral-based. The firm also draws on relationships from Ouimet's prior operating experience, which connects it to identity, payments, and developer-tool circles where his reputation as a founder carries weight with early-stage technical teams.

Influence Ventures invests directly in operating companies through equity rounds. It has not disclosed activity as a fund-of-funds or any allocation to external venture capital partnerships. The firm's stated focus on early-stage enterprise software aligns with a direct-investment model.

The firm has not published a formal exclusion list, but portfolio construction tilts away from capital-intensive hardware, biotech, and consumer social products. Its existing deals cluster around enterprise SaaS, FinTech infrastructure, and applied AI, suggesting a deliberate omission of sectors where the partners lack operating domain expertise or where the Mountain West ecosystem offers fewer natural advantages.

Influence Ventures has co-invested with other Utah-based funds, including Album VC, in syndicated rounds. The firm participates in these deals as a full partner in the cap table rather than through special-purpose vehicles layered on top of a lead investor's allocation, based on its early-stage entry point where syndicates are common.