Backing Wisconsin's Earliest Venture-Scale Founders

We write the first institutional check and back ambitious Wisconsin founders who see what others don't, turning earned insight into opportunity.

Pitch Us
Pitch Us

Investing In Founders Before Consensus

The best companies are often built long before the rest of the market recognizes the opportunity. We believe exceptional founders develop insights through experience, identify opportunities others overlook, and create value by acting before consensus forms.

01

First-In Capital

We deploy capital in a company's first funding round as a lead investor. Our typical check size is $500k and we hold reserves for follow-on capital.

02

Industry & Technology Agnostic

We invest in pre-revenue and prototype stage companies across a broad range of industries, technologies, and products.

03

Why We Win

We know what it takes to build companies from the ground up. Mastercraft VC was founded by people who have started, scaled, and sold companies.

We Invest in Founders and Builders at their Earliest Stage

Mason Cook
Founder and Managing Director

Mason has spent more than a decade building startups from multiple vantage points—as an early employee, executive, founder, and investor. Prior to launching Mastercraft Ventures, he served as President of RealityBLU, a venture-backed software company, led startup accelerator programs supporting hundreds of entrepreneurs, and worked at a fintech company that raised more than $60 million in venture capital.

Mason graduated from Columbia Business School and Iowa State University.

01

Constructive
Collaborators

We have insight and support to help founders get clarity, move with speed, and increase their optionality.

02

Long-Term
Outlook

We align our timeline with yours. That means backing founders from first check to the right exit, not the fastest one.

We bring different perspectives, values, network, and work ethic to those dedicated to mastering their craft.

03

Mastercraft
VC Ethos

The Wisconsin Advantage

Great founders are everywhere. Wisconsin just happens to be one of the best places to build a company: lower operating costs, real depth in serious innovation sectors, and a lot less noise than the coasts. We've operated here ourselves, so we know the ground you're building on better than a fund parachuting in from out of state.

What we look for

We believe founders who have lived a problem are best positioned to solve it. Insight earned through experience creates advantages that can't be replicated through market research or trend chasing.

Earned Insight

An edge that comes from living a problem, not researching it. The kind of understanding you can't pull from a trend report.

Founder DNA

Founders with the conviction to push through the hard parts and the resolve to deliver when it gets messy.

Rapid Scalability

Technology and models built to grow fast. The kind that turns a real problem into a venture-scale outcome.

    • First institutional funding round (typically, this means pre-seed or seed)

    • At least one full-time founder at time of investment

    • We prefer to invest in pre-revenue companies with some evidence of market adoption and a prototype

    • Motivated by an efficient exit of $25-$50M+ (vs. $1B+ exit over a long period of time)

    • During the due diligence process, we primarily focus on four areas: People, Market, Product, and Return Potential

    • We aim to be the first institutional investor in a company

    • Our initial check size ranges from $250k-$500k

    • We prefer to lead the first funding round and work with the entrepreneur to align terms with their strategy

    • We reserve follow-on capital for future funding rounds in our portfolio companies

    • We primarily invest in Wisconsin-based founders

    • We prefer to invest in QNBV-eligible companies

    • Mastercraft Ventures is an industry agnostic investor and will consider companies building software, hardware, or products across any sector

    • We typically avoid investing in companies with large capital requirements greater than $10M across all rounds of funding

    • We are also probably not the right fit for lifestyle, real estate, or main-street businesses

Tell Us What You're Building