Now Deploying Capital

Backing the Builders of Tomorrow

We invest in technical founders building foundational infrastructure across AI, blockchain, and developer tools. Early stage. High conviction. Long-term partnership.

Submit Your Pitch Our Thesis

$25M

Fund Size

Portfolio Companies

$250K-2M

Check Size

Pre/Seed

Stage Focus

Investment Focus

Deep expertise in infrastructure that powers what's next

AI/ML Infrastructure

The picks and shovels of the AI revolution. Model serving, vector databases, training infrastructure, and the tooling that makes AI accessible to every developer.

LLM Tooling MLOps Inference RAG

Developer Tools

Software that makes developers more productive. IDEs, APIs, SDKs, and platforms that abstract complexity and accelerate the path from idea to production.

DevEx APIs CLI Tools SDKs

Web3 & Blockchain

Infrastructure for the decentralized future. Cross-chain protocols, developer tooling, and the rails that enable new economic primitives and ownership models.

L1/L2 Cross-chain DeFi Infra Wallets

Deep Tech

Hard technical problems worth solving. Systems programming, performance infrastructure, security tooling, and breakthrough technologies with defensible moats.

Systems Security Performance Compilers

Portfolio

Building in public

Live

Purple Squirrel Media

Break free. Stream wild.

Decentralized video infrastructure for content creators. Mesh network delivery, AI-powered intelligence, and true content ownership.

4K Max Resolution

150+ Edge Nodes

<40ms Latency

Video Infra Decentralized AI

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Devnet

SolMail

Send real mail with crypto.

Bridge the digital and physical. Pay with SOL or USDC to send real physical letters anywhere in the world via Solana.

Coldstar

Keys exist in RAM only during signing.

Transform any USB drive into disposable cold storage for Solana. Open-source CLI with AES-256 encryption and RAM-only key handling.

1,000 First Run

AES-256 Encryption

OSS Open Source

Security Solana Hardware

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We believe in technical founders with unfair advantages

The best infrastructure companies are built by people who've felt the pain themselves. We look for founders with deep domain expertise, strong opinions about how things should work, and the technical chops to build it.

Founder-Market Fit Over Everything

We invest in founders who are building for problems they've personally experienced. Technical depth and domain expertise matter more than pedigree.

Infrastructure Compounds

We're patient capital for hard problems. The best developer tools and infrastructure become more valuable as ecosystems grow around them.

Operators, Not Just Capital

We've built and scaled technical products. We help with hiring, architecture decisions, go-to-market, and the unsexy operational stuff that matters.

Conviction Over Consensus

We make concentrated bets on ideas that seem crazy until they're obvious. Early and contrarian beats late and consensus.

About

Matthew Karsten

Builder, investor, and developer relations leader based in San Francisco.

I've spent the last 5+ years at the intersection of developer tools, AI infrastructure, and blockchain. I build things that help other builders move faster.

Before starting Karsten Investment, I led developer relations at a top-20 crypto exchange, built 15+ production MCP servers for AI-to-software integration, and grew a 29K+ developer audience from zero.

I invest in technical founders building foundational infrastructure. The best tools come from people who've felt the pain themselves.

Years in DevRel

15+

MCP Servers Built

29K

Twitter Following

57+

Open Source Repos

Updates

Latest thinking

January 2026

Why I'm Betting on AI Developer Tools

The next wave of developer productivity isn't about writing code faster—it's about AI that understands your entire codebase and can act on it.

AI DevTools Thesis

December 2025

The MCP Protocol: Why It Matters

Model Context Protocol is quietly becoming the standard for AI-to-software integration. Here's why I've built 15+ servers on it.

MCP Infrastructure

November 2025

Coldstar: Rethinking Cold Storage

Why I built a USB-based cold wallet that keeps keys in RAM only during signing—and what it taught me about security UX.

Security Solana Building

Let's build together

Building something at the intersection of our focus areas? We'd love to hear from you. No warm intro required.

Book a 30-Minute Call

Schedule directly on my calendar

or send a message

matthew@purplesquirrelmedia.io

Phone

(269) 262-2808

Twitter/X

@expertvagabond

matthew-karsten