Ram Street Ventures is a pre-seed and seed venture fund built around startups emerging from the Colorado State University ecosystem. We write the first check and surround it with the University's labs and commercialization infrastructure, so capital, incubation, and a pathway to market arrive together.
Colorado State University produces more investable companies than the regional capital base absorbs. We love the Venture motion and believe founders deserve greater access to high quality capital as they launch.
Colorado's venture capital concentrates on the Denver to Boulder corridor. Companies coming out of CSU stall at exactly the point where a first check would carry them to the next milestone. Ram Street exists to close that gap, and to back company formation at CSU like never before.
Ram Street draws on a university that generates new companies continuously, through several channels rather than one.
Ram Street was built inside the CSU ecosystem and runs on it. The Fund sits where the companies are formed, works with the people who form them, and accelerates portfolio company access to CSU institutes for laboratory space, equipment, and expertise.
Energy systems and fusion, at the Powerhouse Energy Campus in Fort Collins.
Translational and veterinary medicine, from bench research to clinical application.
Inertial fusion and advanced materials, at one of the University’s largest research facilities.
Agricultural technology and robotics, at the National Western Center in Denver.
Fund leadership works with CSU founders and CSU startups on company formation, fundraising, and scale-up, on campus and in the labs where the companies begin.
In conjunction with CSU Strata, Ram Street provides founders with an actionable process they can plan around.
CSU Extension reaches counties across Colorado, and CSU Spur anchors a Denver campus, which puts the Fund in communities venture capital rarely visits.
Stout Street Capital, the Fund’s operating partner, has an established Colorado portfolio, has backed companies born out of CSU research and is dedicated to portfolio success.
We invest early, as near to company formation as possible. Smart money in your corner.
We're not just a one-and-done. We keep reserves for follow-on and work with founders to create achievable milestones, aligning success by removing as much friction as possible.
Our support is even wider than CSU. Our model is designed by partners who've built companies and have structural access to the U.S. national laboratory system.
A serial deep tech founder. Built and scaled an interational advanced manufacturing company for over a decade. Blake has raised and arranged capital across most venture stages and alternative instruments, for multiple companies, in multiple industrial and deep tech sectors, from formation to public-market ready.
A CSU Mechanical Engineering alumnus and Fort Collins resident, with a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Texas A&M. Blake already works with CSU founders and CSU startups on formation, fundraising, and scale-up.
In addition to the Fund, Duncan serves as Program Director of Entrepreneurship for Mission Innovation at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and is the Laboratory's former Chief Technology Officer.
Duncan has incubated and directs the New Mexico Lab-Embedded Entrepreneurship Program, which moves national laboratory science into venture-backed companies. A Colorado native with deep roots here, Duncan brings deep technical diligence and a working model for building companies alongside the research that produced them.
An experienced firm providing institutional support to Ram Street Ventures. Stout Street Capital has been investing in Colorado companies across multiple funds, believes in CSU startups and is pleased to support the CSU ecosystem in the next chapter of growth.
Ram Street believes in the biggest tent possible for Colorado founders. Looking beyond the CSU ecosystem, Ram Street is committed to a State-wide aperture, seeking to make the best first-principles investments possible.