# Howard Charney

> Howard Charney is a seed investor at Santa Clara University backing Machine Learning. See 8 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Santa Clara University](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/santa-clara-university)
- Location: San Francisco, United States
- Total investments: 8
- Last investment: Sep 2023
- Lead investor: 25%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardcharney
- Website: https://www.getspectrum.io

Howard Charney is a seed investor at Santa Clara University in San Francisco focused on Machine Learning and Enterprise Software. Howard Charney is the Co-Founder and Executive of 3Com (Nasdaq: COMS). He is the Co-Founder & CEO of Grand Junction Networks (acquired by Cisco). He served as a Senior Executive at Cisco for over 20 years.Howard Charney attended Santa Clara University School of Law, Santa Clara University Leavey School of Business, and Massachusetts Instituteof Technology. He currently serves as a Senior Trustee at Santa Clara University.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Seed | $2.3M–$5.4M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Machine Learning | 3 | 38% |
| Enterprise Software | 3 | 38% |
| Artificial Intelligence | 3 | 38% |
| Big Data | 2 | 25% |
| Software | 2 | 25% |

19 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 3 | 38% |
| Pre-Seed | 2 | 25% |
| Angel | 1 | 13% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 13% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Nurdle AI | 87% of AI projects never make it to production. Whether it’s because they are inaccurate, hallucinate, don’t work in real-world contexts, misunderstand real people or that they’re stuck before they start because of the “cold-start problem”, the issue comes down to not enough high-quality use-case specific, privacy-compliant labeled data fortraining. But real-world human-labeled data is expensive and requires a lot of data science labor – and synthetic data is so low-quality and unrelated to the model’s actual use-case that it doesn’t improve performance much.Nurdle can help. By using real-world human-labeled kernel datasets built for specific use-cases, we produce enhanced synthetic datasets that perform almost as well as human-labeled at the speed and price of synthetic datasets. Contact us for a free data gap analysis showing you what kind of data you’re missing and how much you need for your performance target.Nurdle AI uses real-world custom use case datasets to generate synthetic datasets for accurate LLMs. |  | Angel | Sep 01, 2023 |  |
| Invisible AI | Invisible AI is a next-generation computer vision company that offers a no-code, edge-based visual intelligence platform to improve quality, productivity, and safety in manufacturing industries. Its low-bandwidth and low-cost cameras, which can be deployed at each workstation tracks real-time human motion to help customers run accurate, reliable,and safe operations. Invisible AI helps ensure processes are done correctly and safely, every time. | $2.5M |  | Jul 14, 2021 |  |
| Invisible AI | Invisible AI is a next-generation computer vision company that offers a no-code, edge-based visual intelligence platform to improve quality, productivity, and safety in manufacturing industries. Its low-bandwidth and low-cost cameras, which can be deployed at each workstation tracks real-time human motion to help customers run accurate, reliable,and safe operations. Invisible AI helps ensure processes are done correctly and safely, every time. | $2.5M | Seed | Jul 14, 2021 |  |
| MainStreet | MainStreet identifies and claims government incentives, tax credits, deductions, and stimulus funds for startups and SMBs. The company’s platform scans payroll and accounting systems to match federal, state, and local tax credits, in addition to managing legal workflows, to help clients save money and time. MainStreet charges a flat 20% success feeupon incentive disbursement. MainStreet is backed by leading investors SignalFire, Gradient Ventures, Sound Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, SV Angel, Moxxie Ventures, Weekend Fund, and Shrug Capital, among others. Daniel Griffin, Doug Ludlow, and Dan Lindquist founded MainStreet in 2019 in San Jose, California. | $2.3M | Seed | Jun 15, 2020 |  |
| Rula | At Path we believe behavioral health should be treated with the same respect, rigor, and focus of other chronic diseases. We’re building the future of mental health, and in 20 years we’ll look back and be astounded that we ever treated the physical before the mental. Over 65 million Americans suffer from a treatable mental health issue - that’s 1out of every 5 people. Today it’s difficult to find a provider, and for those with complicated conditions, it’s nearly impossible to find coordinated care. We’re here to fix this. Path is at the intersection of tech + mental health with thousands of therapists, psychiatrists, and other mental health services delivering care through a virtual first approach. Our platform matches patients with exactly the right person for their needs, whether it’s experience with a certain condition, gender, race, location, life experience, etc.Learn More: www.pathmentalhealth.com | $5.4M | Seed | Oct 07, 2019 |  |
| Rula | At Path we believe behavioral health should be treated with the same respect, rigor, and focus of other chronic diseases. We’re building the future of mental health, and in 20 years we’ll look back and be astounded that we ever treated the physical before the mental. Over 65 million Americans suffer from a treatable mental health issue - that’s 1out of every 5 people. Today it’s difficult to find a provider, and for those with complicated conditions, it’s nearly impossible to find coordinated care. We’re here to fix this. Path is at the intersection of tech + mental health with thousands of therapists, psychiatrists, and other mental health services delivering care through a virtual first approach. Our platform matches patients with exactly the right person for their needs, whether it’s experience with a certain condition, gender, race, location, life experience, etc.Learn More: www.pathmentalhealth.com |  | Pre-Seed | Jun 10, 2019 |  |
| Rula | At Path we believe behavioral health should be treated with the same respect, rigor, and focus of other chronic diseases. We’re building the future of mental health, and in 20 years we’ll look back and be astounded that we ever treated the physical before the mental. Over 65 million Americans suffer from a treatable mental health issue - that’s 1out of every 5 people. Today it’s difficult to find a provider, and for those with complicated conditions, it’s nearly impossible to find coordinated care. We’re here to fix this. Path is at the intersection of tech + mental health with thousands of therapists, psychiatrists, and other mental health services delivering care through a virtual first approach. Our platform matches patients with exactly the right person for their needs, whether it’s experience with a certain condition, gender, race, location, life experience, etc.Learn More: www.pathmentalhealth.com |  | Pre-Seed | Jun 01, 2019 |  |
| Spectrum Labs | Spectrum Labs is a technology company, platform, and community that focuses on making the internet a safer and more valuable place for all. The company identifies toxic behaviors across text, voice, and languages enabling trust and safety teams to reduce content moderation costs and increase the detection of brand-destroying behaviors. | $1M | Pre-Seed | Mar 07, 2017 |  |

8 of 8 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [8VC](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/8vc) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [iRobot](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/irobot) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [K9 Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/k9-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Sierra Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sierra-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Backend Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/backend-capital) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Santa Clara University

VC Fund · Santa Clara, United States

Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located in California's Silicon Valley, offers its more than 8,000 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, plus master's, Ph.D., and law degrees.Distinguished nationally by the fourth-highest graduation rate among allU.S. master's universities, California's oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice.

5 contacts available at Santa Clara University.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Howard Charney | Trustee | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/howard-charney |
| Brian Green | Adjunct Faculty Member, School of Engineering | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brian-green-f634 |
| B. V. Jagadeesh | Adjunct Professor | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/b-v-jagadeesh |
| Christopher Norris | Executive Director, Ciocca Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/christopher-norris |
| Dan Trepanier | Adjunct Lecturer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dan-trepanier |

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## FAQ

### What does Howard Charney invest in?

Howard Charney invests primarily in Machine Learning, Enterprise Software and Artificial Intelligence startups, most often at Seed and Pre-Seed stage. Most of the 8 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 Howard Charney's check size?

Howard Charney typically joins rounds of $2.3M–$5.4M 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 Howard Charney participates in.

### When did Howard Charney last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Howard Charney closed in Sep 2023. Shizune tracks 8 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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