# First Step Fund

> First Step Fund is a VC fund in Detroit backing CRM and Video. See 4 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Detroit, United States
- Total investments: 4
- Last investment: Sep 2014
- Lead investor: 0%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/invest-detroit/
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/investdet
- Website: https://www.investdetroit.vc/first-capital-fund
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InvestDetroitCDFI/

First Step Fund is a VC fund in Detroit focused on CRM and Video. The First Step Fund provides emerging companies with access to seed capital, focused mentoring in areas consistent with growing the business, and a network that will work to foster demand and create opportunities.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for First Step Fund. Shizune tracks 8 team members at First Step Fund. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/first-step-fund?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| CRM | 1 | 25% |
| Video | 1 | 25% |
| Water | 1 | 25% |
| Rental | 1 | 25% |
| Internet | 1 | 25% |

21 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 2 | 50% |
| Series A | 1 | 25% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 25% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| David Blaszkiewicz | President | 0 | — |
| Andrea Washington | Executive Assistant | 0 | — |
| Edward J. Miller | Vice Chairman | 0 | — |
| Jamie Grimaldi | Senior Vice President | 0 | — |
| Karen Harris | Vice President, Administration | 0 | — |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Cribspot | Cribspot is an online platform for college students and property managers that streamlines finding and leasing off-campus housing. It was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan. | $660K | Seed | Sep 21, 2014 |  |
| Algal Scientific | Algal Scientific has two distinct business units that serve the animal feed, human nutrition, and wastewater treatment industries. One unit is focused on the production of their ProGlucan beta-glucan products for animal feeds and human nutrition. The second unit is dedicated to the commercialization of their Hypertrophic wastewater treatmentsystem, which they license to customers in the food and beverage industry.It was acquired by Kemin Industries in March 2017. It was founded in 2017 and is based in Plymouth, Michigan. | $3M | Series A | Apr 28, 2014 |  |
| LevelEleven | LevelEleven is a computer software company that specializes in the fields of gamification, sales contests, KPI management, and performance management software. It serves as performance management suite for leaders of customer-facing teams to motivate, engage, and coach around key behaviors that drive results. The company was founded in 2012 andheadquartered in Detroit, Michigan. | $2.1M | Seed | Sep 01, 2013 |  |
| Are You a Human | Are You a Human is the curator of The Verified Human Whitelist™, which allows anyone using it to be certain they are addressing a verified human before they serve content, services or ads. Automated programs, called bots, account for 59% of overall internet traffic today – and, as the world becomes more digital, this will only increase. Botsclutter the Internet with fake social media profiles, hacked accounts and are responsible for nearly all fraud. Ultimately, they make it more difficult for real humans to get what they need from the Internet, and more difficult for companies to address humans with high quality content and services cost-effectively. This includes e-commerce, online banking, social media, and, of course, media and advertising. Instead of searching for bots, which evolve in a matter of days, they find and verify humans by analyzing natural user behavior across millions of websites. After they have consistently seen and verified a user as human, they’re added to the Whitelist™, and then re-verified over and over again each day. Bots can’t consistently look and act like real humans on every page, every day, so they’re never added to the list, and all that's left are real humans. |  |  | May 30, 2012 |  |

4 of 4 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Detroit Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/detroit-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Ann Arbor SPARK](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ann-arbor-spark) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [CKM Capital Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ckm-capital-partners) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- Envy Capital — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Evonik Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/evonik-venture-capital-gmbh) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Formation 8](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/formation8) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does First Step Fund invest in?

First Step Fund invests primarily in CRM, Video and Water startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 4 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact First Step Fund?

Public channels for First Step Fund 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.

### Who are the partners at First Step Fund?

The team at First Step Fund includes David Blaszkiewicz (President), Andrea Washington (Executive Assistant) and Edward J. Miller (Vice Chairman), among 8 team members tracked by Shizune. The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### 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.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co