Math Venture Partners

Managing Directors Mark Achler and Troy Henikoff led investment decisions during the firm's active deployment period. Achler brought consumer tech and scaling expertise from his time building Redbox, while Henikoff contributed startup selection experience from his role as a managing director at Techstars Chicago. The partnership used a quantitative scoring framework to evaluate all opportunities, with both managing directors participating in final investment committee decisions.

The firm developed a proprietary tool known as the Math Model to score potential seed-stage investments across multiple weighted factors including market size, team experience, product readiness, and early customer traction. The model aimed to reduce pattern-recognition bias and impose a consistent evaluation standard across all deals flowing into the pipeline. This data-centric approach informed but did not fully automate the final investment decision.

Troy Henikoff was a managing director of Techstars Chicago and is a general partner in the Techstars Chicago venture fund, giving Math Venture Partners deep visibility into the accelerator's cohort of pre-seed and seed-stage companies. Mark Achler previously invested as an early-stage angel and built relationships across the Midwest venture community. The firm co-invested regularly with other seed-stage funds active in the Chicago area.