# Chris Herndon

> Chris Herndon is a seed investor at Homestead Partners (San Francisco) backing E-Commerce and B2B. See 10 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Homestead Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/homesteadpartners)
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 10
- Last investment: Jun 2015
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherndon

Chris Herndon is a serial entrepreneur and amateur investor that is jamming on some hare-brained schemes that he hopes will someday dent the universe. Chris is the Co-Founder of Apartment List and served as President from 2011 to 2015. Prior to Apartment List, Chris spent several years as an investor at GTCR Golder Rauner and Goldman Sachs. He is aco-founder of the 40 Acres Group, an Austin-based real estate investment firm. He is also a co-founder of Philanthropedia, an online resource for strategic donors that was acquired by Guidestar in 2011. Chris has an MBA from Stanford University and a bachelors from the University of Texas at Austin. Hook 'em Horns!

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $900k–$3.5M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| E-Commerce | 4 | 40% |
| B2B | 2 | 20% |
| Apps | 2 | 20% |
| SaaS | 2 | 20% |
| Mobile | 2 | 20% |

33 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 8 | 80% |
| Angel | 1 | 10% |
| Series A | 1 | 10% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 9 | 90% |
| Russian Federation | 1 | 10% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Rinse | Rinse is building the first and largest national (and global) brand in clothing care. It is addressing a massive consumer problem and creating a significantly better (and more standardized) dry cleaning and laundry experience through the combination of "smart scheduling" and best-in-class quality, all supported by a strong technologybackbone that allows it to effectively manage the operational complexity that comes with scale. Its services include Dry Cleaning, Launder & Press, Wash & Fold, Hang Dry, Repairs, Leather Cleaning, and it even takes Clothing Donations. | $3.5M | Seed | Jun 09, 2015 |  |
| Man Crates | They say 'no' to ugly neckties, cologne samplers and executive trinkets. They don't save wrapping paper, They don't do ribbons.They ship bragworthy gifts for guys. Gifts that you can't wait to arrive because you know the recipient will love opening them.Gifts that people gather round at the office, people followingthe sounds of wood being torn from wood by the included, laser-engraved crowbar.They are Man Crates, and we deliver awesome gifts for men. |  | Seed | Dec 30, 2014 |  |
| Fixed | Fixed is a mobile app that fights parking tickets by finding erroneous information in the ticket through their algorithm. The company was founded in 2013 and based in San Francisco, California. | $1.2M | Seed | Jul 24, 2014 |  |
| byUs | byUs.com is a new platform for trusted recommendations. Modeled on the way people naturally find and share personal recommendations in the offline world, byUs.com is positioned to fundamentally alter how those in the know find important service providers (e.g. pediatricians, general contractors, wealth advisors). | $1.5M | Angel | Dec 25, 2013 |  |
| GuideSpark | GuideSpark is the leader in change communications guiding over 1,000 enterprise customers to business success by changing the hearts and minds of employees. GuideSpark Communicate Cloud™ drives organizational change with communication journeys, targeted experiences that reach, engage and change employee behavior to achieve your critical businessgoals around Talent Strategies, M&A, and Digital Transformation. Manage, measure and scale your internal communication effectiveness with GuideSpark. | $5M | Series A | Aug 27, 2013 |  |
| Chat Sports | As the first full-service sports media channel on Facebook Live, Chat Sports produces over 20 hours of live, produced video content weekly. With our iPhone and Android apps, Chat Sports is the leading sports media brand on mobile. Complemented by a staff of full-time writers and hundreds of nationwide contributors, Chat Sports produces hundreds oforiginal articles across all major American sports each month. And with its unique curation technology, Chat Sports also delivers millions of fans over 200,000 unique pieces of sports content monthly from 2,000+ sources along with live scores powered by SportRadar. The company now reaches over 100 million sports fans monthly across all platforms. | $900K | Seed | Mar 31, 2013 |  |
| Periscope Data | Periscope Data is the most powerful, flexible analytics platform for data professionals and business users. With the fastest time to insight, periscope data helps companies ingest, store, analyze, visualize and report on data — all from a single connected platform. Periscope Data is trusted by more than 1,000 customers, including Adobe, Crunchbase,EY, Flexport and ZipRecruiter.- 291% 2 year headcount growth- Winner of 15 Comparably awards: https://www.comparably.com/companies/periscope-data/review- Super high ratings on GlassDoor: https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-Periscope-Data-EI_IE1139334.11,25.htm- Voted Top Places to Work by the Bay Area News Group- Voted 2017 & 2018 Best Places To Work by the SF Business Time and the Silicon Valley Business Journal- Winner of the SaaS Award in 2018 for "Best SaaS Product for Business Intelligence or Analytics"- Super sticky product: customers companies spend 20 hours per week, per person, using Periscope Data!- Super high customer retention — better than best in class for a SaaS company- Our own building in SOMA!- Lunch every day, healthcare fully paid |  | Seed | Dec 26, 2012 |  |
| ZENDEALS | ONLINE SHOPPING |  | Seed | Dec 13, 2012 |  |
| Chobolabs | Chobolabs develops multiplayer games for tablets and smartphones. The company was founded by Petar Dobrev and Deyan Vitanov in 2012 and is based in California, United States. |  | Seed | Nov 15, 2012 |  |
| WikiMart | Wikimart is an online marketplace for Russia and Russian speaking countries. It's a B2C platform where any retailer in Russia can open an e-shop for free and start selling online. Wikimart charges participated retailers 3% final value fee and provides them with a large number of services including order-fulfillment interface, accounting andlegal support, ecommerce marketing tools. The company was founded in 2008 and sets a goal to become a dominant ecommerce marketplace on the territory of the former Soviet Union. |  | Seed | Aug 09, 2009 |  |

10 of 10 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Expansion Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/expansion-venture-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Homestead Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/homesteadpartners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Merus Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/merus-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Rothenberg Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/rothenberg-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Accelerator Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/accelerator-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Outlander Fund I Archimedes](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/arena-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Homestead Partners

VC Fund · San Francisco, United States

The investment vehicle through which Chris and Stephanie Herndon make modest investments into early stage companies and real estate projects. In addition to writing small checks, Homestead also provides domain expertise and intros, when helpful.

1 contacts available at Homestead Partners.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Chris Herndon | Second Fiddle | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/chris-herndon |

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## Featured in investor lists
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## FAQ

### What does Chris Herndon invest in?

Chris Herndon invests primarily in E-Commerce, B2B and Apps startups, most often at Seed and Angel stage. Most of the 10 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 Chris Herndon's check size?

Chris Herndon typically joins rounds of $900k–$3.5M at Seed. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Chris Herndon participates in.

### When did Chris Herndon last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Chris Herndon closed in Jun 2015. Shizune tracks 10 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 Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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