I work for an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in startups and creators, and given that my tenure in the VC business is largely tied to my ability to find sick people to invest in, I'm using my "about" page as a bat signal for just those people. Please hit "see more" to keep reading.

I'm interested, broadly speaking, in meeting with three types of people:

1) Moderately unhinged founders who are hell-bent on building something big and cool and want to use our money to do it.

2) Moderately unhinged founders who are hell-bent on building something big that the rest of the world finds lame, but, for some reason, they are obsessed with, and wants to use our money to do it.

3) Influential creators who have realized that they'd rather use their platforms to build their own businesses instead of living on brand deals forever. (I used to run ads on my blog, not the highest leverage way to monetize an audience! That's why I'm a VC now).

If this describes you, hit me up. Of course, in the name of transparency, I should probably tell you a bit about myself so you'll know if you even want to meet with me in the first place. (Business, like love, is a two-way street, after all).

A few things about me: I've been blogging on Substack since 2021, writing about everything from personal finance to travel shenanigans when I was 24, and 65,000 people subscribe to my blog now. I even landed a book deal with Penguin from that blog. The topic is life advice for 20-somethings, basically. It comes out in 2026.

I wrote most of that book in a 2-week period (50,000 words in 14 days while locked in a hotel room in the CitizenM in the Bowery). I'm pretty happy with it; the best thing I've ever written. If you're reading this, you should subscribe to my blog. And read my book.

Other prior experiences include working for Robinhood's media startup Sherwood News, managing a newsletter for finance meme page Litquidity, working in corporate finance for UPS, and spending a year living out of a backpack abroad and blogging about the whole thing (never staying in a hostel again, but it was fun).

Anyway now I work for Slow Ventures and want to give money to those of you who are building killer businesses. So, if that's you, let's chat? Shoot me a note at jack@slow.co.

(Also, Linkedin added a "write with AI" button to the about section. There's no way I'd ever write my bio with AI. I have too much hubris).

Jack Raines

Many people have asked me, "Jack, how is a venture capital associate supposed to have differentiated sourcing in 2026 when everyone is using the same AI tracking tools?"

My answer? Find My Friends.

Any time I meet someone who I assign a >1% chance of starting a company (I have a robust mental model trained on the hundreds of pitches I've seen over the last year), I say, "Hahaha, you know what would be funny? If we added each other on Find My Friends so if we're in the same neighborhood, we can grab beers."

But actually, this allows me to track which of these serendipitous contacts are the most "locked in," and, importantly, who seems to be pitching VCs. See, I have overlaid my Find My Friends interface with popular nightlife neighborhoods in NYC and SF, every VC office location in both San Francisco and New York, and the coffee shops most-regularly populated by VCs near Jackson Square.

Any contact that averages more than 3 evenings out in a popular nightlife area (west village, marina district, etc) per month is assigned a red flag (not locked in!), and anyone who appears in the vicinity of VC offices or the South Park Blue Bottle more than 4x in one week receives an automated text from my AI co-pilot that says, "What's up ____, hope all is well! Coffee soon?"

Haters call it an "invasion of privacy." Me? I say I'm just monitoring the situation.

Forward Deployed Personality Hire @ Slow Ventures

Air France = fantastic flight + lounge experience. Easily the best national airline amongst the developing economies.

Similar to Thiel investing in Tolkien names, I'd love to see a trend of companies named after Star Wars references, but using the stupidest names possible.

"Yeah, we're raising $20m to democratize access to energy with my new venture, Jar-Jar Binks."

New blog to kick off 2026: Brief ski trip recap + I'm pretty convinced that self-driving will be so pervasive in 20 years that my kids won't have to drive. What comes next?

Open article: Happy 2026, Let's Get This Bread by youngmoney.co

Robin

Taking Robin from pre-revenue to lots of revenue.

Robin is an SMS-based communication tool built for event organizers who need to reach people fast.

Designed to solve common headaches like last-minute changes, unanswered emails, and fragmented comms, Robin gives organizers a simple way to keep attendees in the loop through automated text messaging. Think schedules, reminders, safety updates, menus, and more - delivered straight to phones.

Robin is already working with events across Canada, including Nuit Blanche and the North Forge Founders Program. Organizers can set up in minutes, personalize their messaging style, and monitor responses in real time. It’s fast, friendly, and helps teams do more with less.

Go-to-Market

Afters

Founder

Various Companies

Companies I've helped go from initial product/service to market exposure & new clients since October 2024:

MyAreaa
A community banking & socializing platform. Targeting niche communities to raise product awareness to increase user adoption. Also supporting by arranging events for community leaders to organically raise awareness.

Kokoro Energy
A wellsite geology & technical advisory shop. Initial clients were gained by the founder, I've now built and executed on a growth strategy to gain more clients and diversify revenue streams. Activities included building a geologist community, attending industry events, and doing extensive cold outreach.

BITCAP
A geosteering software solution built by a brilliant geologist duo. They're building out their MVP and I'm helping them reach their ideal target market. I do this by namedropping them at industry events, and building relationships with their ideal customers and asking them to test the software before distribution efforts are made.

Afters
This is my personal project. Afters is a company that specializes in throwing afterparties for corporate affairs. Our first event was for a Tech Thursday biotech panel. Next one coming up is an Inventures afterparty. 

Stealth - Dental Technology
Currently developing a MVP. I found a firmware engineer to develop the initial product for the founder, and will be deeply involved with market validation and finding initial clients once it's developed.

Maria J Yoga 
A yoga company that goes into corporate offices during lunch hour to do specialized desk work yoga. I helped the founder take it from an idea to finding her her first client. I'm now helping her find more clients and also helping her understand how to go from working "in" the business, to working "on" the business.

Consultant

Kokoro Energy

My role is make sure people know Kokoro Energy exists, and establish how it differentiates itself. Some of the things I've done:

• Identified creative ways to reach Kokoro's ideal clients without spending money (community building, content creation, social selling)
• Created a value-driven geologist community (GeoSocial) to establish brand presence to a targeted market.
• Launched a technical advisory vertical to meet market demand and utilize existing skills within the org.
• Enter the industry with none to little brand presence, and slowly established Kokoro's position as a high-end, boutique service provider for complex wells.

Growth

Grid Group

Fortunate enough to have worked with an incredible team to headhunt talent for top firms.

Headhunter

Morgan Stanley

Learnt about, and administered, equity compensation plans for companies.

Client Success Manager

Analyst for the Client Engagement team, focused on building strong relationships with brokers and clients while driving business growth and retention.

Analyst

Apple

People don't like when their iPhones break. My job was to make sure they left our store satisfied.

Technical Specialist

CIBC

Worked as a bank teller in a diverse community. Had to work on my Punjabi so I could communicate with our clients.

Customer Service Representative

I throw afterparties. I support the ecosystem through thoughtful introductions, targeted relationship building & niche community development. 

In my spare time I play squash, read dystopian science fiction, backpack, and help my friends launch businesses.

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Jack Raines

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Jack Raines's LinkedIn Performance

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