Brett Hurt
Angel Investor @ Austin Ventures
Austin, United States
Brett Hurt is a seed investor at Austin Ventures in Austin focused on Software and Internet. Brett Hurt current job as Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at data.world. Brett joined Austin Ventures in 2012 and focuses on early-stage software investing. Prior to AV, Brett founded Bazaarvoice (NASDAQ: BV) and served as CEO and President for seven and half years, leading the company from bootstrapped concept to almost 2,000 clientsworldwide and through its successful IPO. He subsequently guided the company through a successful follow-on offering and two acquisitions, PowerReviews and Longboard Media. Brett continues to actively support Bazaarvoice as the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. Prior to Bazaarvoice, Brett founded Coremetrics and helped grow the company into a global, leading marketing analytics solution for the eCommerce industry before its acquisition by IBM.Brett holds an MBA in High-Tech Entrepreneurship from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Management Information Systems from the University of Texas at Austin. He serves as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Wharton School and previously served on the Board of Directors of Shop.org. Brett established the Bazaarvoice Foundation and is very active in the philanthropic arena. He received the Austin Entrepreneurs Foundation's Community Leadership Award in 2012. Brett is entrepreneur empowerment group RISE's Serial Entrepreneur of the year for 2012. He was named by Ernst & Young as Entrepreneur of the Year for Austin in 2009 and is a member of the Austin chapter of the International Young Presidents' Organization (YPO). Brett was also named CEO of the Year for large companies by the Austin Business Journal in 2012.
- Total investments:
- 30
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 13%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Brett Hurt invests in
Stages Brett Hurt invests in
Countries Brett Hurt invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Round size
- Seed
- $1M–$6.5M
- Pre-Seed
- $1M–$2.2M
- Series A
- $4.2M–$11M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Software 8 (27%)
- Internet 4 (13%)
- E-Commerce 4 (13%)
- Enterprise Software 4 (13%)
- Apps 3 (10%)
Stage
- Seed 16 (53%)
- Series A 6 (20%)
- Pre-Seed 2 (7%)
- Series B 2 (7%)
- Angel 1 (3%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tso Chinese Delivery is a Chinese-American delivery and take-out digital restaurant - dishes are prepared and delivered from a central kitchen and customers use an e-commerce menu ordering platform. Kitchens are location agnostic, thus inherently scalable. The front-end and back-end software platform is designed to handle everything from thecustomer experience to the kitchen order management to the delivery tracking. It allows for multiple locations and is opened ended to adapt to future different cuisine concepts.There are currently 2 locations in Austin:Arboretum Crossing9333 Research Blvd Bldg E, Ste 402 Austin, TX 78759Cherrywood3909 N Interstate 35, Ste E-5 Austin, TX 78722 | Seed / Jan 01, 2022 | ||
| Pani Source offers a water personalization appliance that upgrades drinking water with multi-use/naturally formulated enhancement pods. The Pani Source Smart Water System combines purification and customization. An advanced filtration system ensures the purest possible pour, then enhances it with minerals, vitamins, flavors, and otheradditives. Pani Systems uses an innovative filtration design to purify tap water to up to 99% purity. Then remineralize it to reflect nature's sources in the manner intended by nature. | $3M / Seed / Nov 19, 2021 | ||
| Ladder is a strength training app that provides a workout plan, every single day. Fitness-seekers can access a complete strength training program on their phone, learn from an expert coach, and engage with a community that shares a passion for fitness. The company is based in Austin, Texas. | $6.5M / Seed / Nov 09, 2021 | ||
| We believe portfolios are the future. We're a venture-backed startup based in Austin, TX on a mission to help every kid build one by creating a competition platform where kids can win cash prizes for building apps, games, websites, and other real-world projects. We're a team of game developers, educators, engineers, and designerspioneering the first learn-to-earn education model and are funded by some of the best investors in the education and gaming space. | $1M / Pre-Seed / Oct 01, 2021 | ||
| MakerSights enables retail brands around the world to put actionable consumer data at the heart of every product decision, from informing seasonal direction to choosing the right buy depth for each SKU, so they’re able to create products that people love – without the waste generated by over-assortment and overproduction. Founded in 2015 by DanLeahy and Matt Field, MakerSights is currently headquartered in San Francisco with additional offices in Austin, Vancouver, and London. Our customers include consumer-obsessed, smart-to-market brands, like New Balance, Madewell, Ralph Lauren, and Rothy’s. | $25M / Series B / Aug 04, 2021 | ||
| Gembah provides consumer services intended to empower businesses and product innovation. The company democratizes and demystifies the product creation process by helping entrepreneurs, e-Commerce sellers, and small-to-midsize businesses research, design, and manufacture products. Its services allow managing supply chain with a local team to developa new product with a specification, factory sourcing, quotes, prototypes, negotiation right through to monitoring production.Gembah was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. | $11M / Series A / Jul 12, 2021 | ||
| Kadama is a Gen-Z education tutoring marketplace that has impacted millions of students. Kadama has raised $1.7 million, reached over 2M downloads, and accumulated 2.5 million followers and 1 billion views on TikTok and Instagram.Highlights:• $1.7M seed investment• Paid tutors millions of dollars• 3-5x Y/Y revenue growth (Profitableafter 1 year)• Conducted hundreds of thousands of tutoring sessions across K-12 & college• Most downloaded tutoring platform on App Store since 2020 (2M downloads)• Forbes 30 Under 30 Education & Youngest Lists• 1B views & 2.5M followers on TikTok, Instagram• Reached #2 ranking on App Store• Featured on Forbes, Fox, TechCrunch, NBC, Yahoo, and more | $1.7M / Seed / Jun 07, 2021 | ||
| FloorFound is a developer of an e-commerce software platform that facilitates returns and resales of oversized products for retailers.The company's end-to-end turnkey solution manages the returns and resale process of oversized goods for eCommerce retailers by leveraging a network of freight, transportation, and logistics partners. Once areturn is initiated, FloorFound arranges for the item to be picked up from the customer and delivered to a nearby warehouse where it is inspected, labeled, and properly stored. Through FloorFound's platform, the item is then remerchandised and listed for resale on the retailer's digital storefront, where cost-savvy and environmentally conscious consumers can purchase it.In 2020, Chris Richter and Ryan Matthews headquartered the company in Austin, Texas. | $4M / Seed / Feb 24, 2021 | ||
| MikMak is the leading global platform for commerce intelligence and orchestration. Our software grows brands in real-time by enabling commerce in the places where their shoppers spend time, measuring the omnichannel outcome of those interactions, and helping them to plan and optimize future outcomes.In 2023, MikMak significantly expanded itsglobal footprint across EMEA, APAC, and LATAM through the acquisition of French eCommerce enablement company Swaven. That same year, the company further deepened its commerce insights by acquiring ChannelAdvisor’s Shoppable Media and Brand Analytics product lines from Rithum (formerly CommerceHub). In January of 2026, MikMak was acquired by SPINS, bringing together two category leaders in commerce intelligence and best-in-class data and insights. The combined entity provides brands with an unrivaled, unified view of availability, point-of-sale performance, and consumer behavior, globally and in real time. | $10M / Series A / Aug 03, 2020 | ||
| Osano is an easy-to-use data privacy platform that helps businesses to become compliant with laws such as GDPR and CCPA. | $5.4M / Series A / Dec 19, 2019 | ||
| See all 30 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Austin Ventures
Austin Ventures is a venture capital and private equity company that specializes in partnering with talented executives and entrepreneurs to build companies. It was founded in 1984 and headquartered in Austin, Texas.
Austin Ventures Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Dave Alter
Senior Associate
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Jim Kozlowski
Venture Partner
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Joe Aragona
Founder & General Partner
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Ken DeAngelis
General Partner
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Chris Pacitti
General Partner
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FAQ
What does Brett Hurt invest in?
Brett Hurt invests primarily in Software, Internet and E-Commerce startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 30 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What is Brett Hurt's check size?
Brett Hurt typically joins rounds of $1M–$6.5M at Seed, $1M–$2.2M at Pre-Seed and $4.2M–$11M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Brett Hurt participates in.
How do I contact Brett Hurt?
Public channels for Brett Hurt include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Brett Hurt last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Brett Hurt closed in Jan 2022. Shizune tracks 30 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Sep 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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