MaxsMaking Inc.

MaxsMaking Inc.

MaxsMaking Inc. was established in 2019 by Max Temkin, a co-creator of the breakout party game Cards Against Humanity. Temkin's wealth originates from the game's sustained commercial success and a series of spin-off projects — all bootstrapped and famously anti-corporate in posture. The office formalizes capital deployment that Temkin had already been pursuing personally, channeling liquidity events from the Chicago-based game studio and its sister projects into a structured investment platform now headquartered in New York. The firm operates with a generalist venture mandate, cutting checks primarily at the pre-seed and seed stages. Asset-class exposure spans direct equity in technology startups, media production ventures, and select real assets. Confirmed portfolio companies include the collaborative design tool Figma (secondary acquisition), the newsletter platform Substack, and the carbon-removal startup Charm Industrial. Temkin's approach favors founder-led, mission-driven companies — often those with strong community or open-source dynamics — and he has publicly discussed participating in rounds alongside firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator. Geographic focus is US-centric but includes select international bets through relationships in the creator and tech ecosystems. Since inception, MaxsMaking has deployed over $45 million across dozens of portfolio companies, according to the firm's own disclosures. Temkin remains the sole investment decision-maker, supported by a lean team that draws on his network of Chicago- and New York-based operators and creatives. The office does not manage external capital. Adjacent structures include the Cards Against Humanity company itself — which continues to operate autonomously and occasionally co-invests or incubates projects — and Temkin's personal philanthropic activity, notably through direct giving and political fundraising, which is kept entirely separate from the investment entity. As of 2024, the firm confirmed a deployed capital base exceeding $45 million, with no external fundraising or fund-vehicle structure in place. MaxsMaking's structural distinction lies in its origin story: it is a single-family office built not on inherited wealth or traditional finance careers but on the proprietary, community-funded exit of a consumer product that deliberately rejected venture capital. This yields an investment posture unusually tolerant of long incubation periods, artist-led projects, and companies that resist traditional growth-at-all-costs models — a rarity in a venture landscape dominated by institutional LP pressure and fixed fund lifecycles.