Steve Jang

Who they are

Steve Jang is Founder and Managing Partner of Kindred Ventures — co-authored Ethereum standard EIP-6551 and previously built imeem, the first large on-demand music streaming service, which was acquired by MySpace.

Person

Steve Jang founded Kindred Ventures in 2014, starting it as an angel fund with a small, lean team focused on seed and pre-seed deals — the same year Schematic Labs, his prior social media company, was acquired by SoundCloud. His earlier career ran through operations and IP roles at companies including Uber, Hulu, Meta, and Qualtrics, alongside a BA from UC Berkeley and an MBA from USC Marshall. The through-line, though, is music and media: he co-founded imeem, the world's first large on-demand music streaming service (acquired by MySpace), then SoundTracking (acquired by Rhapsody/Napster), then Schematic Labs (acquired by SoundCloud) — three consecutive consumer music bets, each one exited. He then built Future Primitive, a crypto startup studio, and co-founded Bitski, a Web3 startup later acquired by Phantom. He co-authored EIP-6551, the Ethereum standard for token-bound accounts, which signals hands-on technical depth unusual for a managing partner. He writes occasionally on Medium and TechCrunch on AI, venture capital, and technology trends, and appeared on The Tim Ferriss Show in 2023 to discuss Korean soft power and export economies, and spoke at Fortune Brainstorm AI in 2025 on AI-driven technology waves. The through-line: serial founder who exits into the next wave, building operator credibility before writing the checks.

Company

Kindred Ventures closed $355 million across two new vehicles — Fund IV and Selector II — in June 2026, pairing early-stage and early-growth capital to back frontier technologies in what the firm calls the 'Age of Intelligence.' The fund has been active since: in August 2026 it led the $25 million seed round for Bios Life, a personalized cancer surveillance startup, and participated in the $23 million Series A for Sandbar, an AI-powered voice ring startup. In July 2026 it also joined the Series A of Assured, a healthcare AI agentic platform. The portfolio carries strong signal — 13 unicorns, 5 IPOs, and 25 acquisitions as of April 2025 — with early bets on Uber, Coinbase, and Postmates among the marquee names. Steve Jang and Kanyi Maqubela continue as co-Managing Partners.

Market

Kindred sits in the crowded seed and pre-seed VC space but differentiates with a concentrated frontier strategy spanning AI, software, and deep tech — one of few small funds to pair a seed vehicle with a separate early-growth selector fund. The broader market is under pressure: valuation corrections and down rounds defined late 2024 and 2025, and capital is increasingly concentrating in a narrow set of high-profile startups, making differentiated access and conviction-driven sourcing more important for smaller funds. Defense and aerospace are attracting new VC attention amid geopolitical tensions, a dynamic Kindred's generative AI portfolio — Perplexity, Fal, PlayAI, Nuro, Inversion Space, and others — positions it to watch closely.

Network

Kanyi Maqubela is Steve's co-Managing Partner at Kindred Ventures, co-leading fund strategy and investment decisions since the firm's early days. Tim Ferriss interviewed Steve on episode #707 of The Tim Ferriss Show in 2023, a relationship that signals crossover into the broader operator-and-investor media circuit. Notable portfolio relationships include early investments in Uber, Coinbase, and Postmates — founders and operators in those networks are likely part of Steve's ongoing dealflow and reference loop.

Kanyi Maqubela· Co-Managing Partner, Kindred Ventures
Tim Ferriss· Podcast host, The Tim Ferriss Show

How they likely show up

Three consecutive consumer music companies exited (imeem → SoundTracking → Schematic Labs) → pattern-matches on markets early and rides them to liquidity before pivoting, not a one-company builder.
Co-authored EIP-6551 as a managing VC partner → goes deep technically on bets he's making, not purely a capital allocator.
Role-type pattern flagged as 'hybrid' (operator + investor + builder) → likely blurs the line between fund and studio; expects portfolio founders to treat him as a co-builder, not just a board observer.
Founded Kindred in 2014 and is still running it as of 2026 → comfortable with long fund cycles and multi-year compounding relationships; not a quick-flip orientation.
Public writing is occasional (Medium, TechCrunch, LinkedIn) rather than high-volume → thinks in essays and theses, not threads; when he does publish, it's considered.
Spoke at Fortune Brainstorm AI (2025) and appeared on Tim Ferriss Show (2023) on Korean soft power → comfortable on stage across both technical and cultural topics, unusually broad range for a seed investor.

Conversation tips

→ Reference a specific portfolio company — Perplexity, Nuro, or Coinbase — and ask what the early signal was; he has operator pattern-recognition behind those bets and will engage at that level.
→ Don't frame him purely as a 'check writer' — he co-authors Ethereum standards and co-founded five companies; he responds better to builder-to-builder framing than investor-to-founder framing.
→ If the conversation turns to AI, go specific: he just backed Sandbar (voice), PlayAI, and Fal — ask about the voice AI thesis rather than AI broadly.
→ The Korea angle is genuine, not performative — a question about Korean tech or soft power dynamics will land and likely open a long thread.
→ He writes occasionally, not constantly — don't ask 'what do you think about X' expecting a quick take; he's more likely to have a formed thesis than a hot opinion.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on EIP-6551 — he co-authored the Ethereum standard for token-bound accounts as a sitting VC managing partner, which is a unusual enough move that asking what drove the decision will surface his builder-vs-investor identity clearly.
Lead with the Fund IV + Selector II close ($355M in June 2026) — pairing a seed fund with a separate early-growth vehicle is a structural bet worth unpacking; asking why he separated the two pools will get into his conviction on vintage and check-size discipline.
Reference the Bios Life seed lead in August 2026 — a $25M seed into personalized cancer surveillance is a long way from music apps and crypto; asking what connects those bets to his original thesis will reveal how he thinks about frontier technology across decades.

Discovery questions

You co-authored EIP-6551 while running a fund — how do you decide when to go that deep technically on a bet versus staying at the capital layer?
With Fund IV and Selector II running in parallel, how do you manage the tension between early-stage uncertainty and the follow-on discipline the Selector vehicle demands?
You backed imeem, SoundTracking, and Schematic Labs in music before the streaming era fully landed — what does that pattern-recognition feel like from the inside when you're looking at AI voice companies like Sandbar or PlayAI today?

Avoid

Don't treat the Korea or K-pop thread as a tangent or warm-up small talk — it came up as a full Tim Ferriss episode and reflects a genuine analytical frame he uses, so dismissing or skipping past it signals you haven't done the reading.

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