# Jeff Cantalupo

> Jeff Cantalupo is a seed investor at Listen (Chicago) backing E-Commerce and Internet. See 22 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Listen](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/listen-llc)
- Location: Chicago, United States
- Total investments: 22
- Last investment: May 2026
- Lead investor: 18%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-cantalupo-8415235/
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/jeffcantalupo
- Website: https://www.listen.co

Jeff Cantalupo is an entrepreneur, investor and branding expert. He started Listen, a consumer focused venture capital platform in 2010 to back and build the brands of tomorrow.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| E-Commerce | 5 | 23% |
| Internet | 2 | 9% |
| Software | 2 | 9% |
| Education | 2 | 9% |
| Consumer Goods | 2 | 9% |

50 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 8 | 36% |
| Series A | 7 | 32% |
| Series B | 2 | 9% |
| Funding Round | 2 | 9% |
| Venture - Series Unknown | 1 | 5% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Smearcase FroCo | Smearcase FroCo is an ice cream brand offering cottage cheese based frozen desserts and spreads. |  | Seed | May 05, 2026 |  |
| Go Brewing | Go Brewing is a brewery that offers non-alcoholic and low-alcohol beverages. The company was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Naperville, Illinois. |  | Venture - Series Unknown | Jan 29, 2025 |  |
| Black Buffalo | Black Buffalo is a smokeless tobacco alternative that has the same look, feel, smell, and experience as traditional dipping products like Copenhagen or Skoal, without using tobacco leaves or stems. The product comes in both long-cut and pouch varieties and contains pharmaceutical-grade nicotine. | $30M | Series A | May 31, 2022 |  |
| Miss Grass | Miss Grass is a modern and elevated online magazine with captivating content and an e-commerce destination for modern cannabis consumers. They share stories about the women who inspire and curate products for the women who define us. From cannabis basics to fitness, beauty to smoking etiquette, the war on drugs to healing lube, food to Mercury’sretrograde, This is your benevolent guide.Miss Grass was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Venice, California, USA. | $4M | Seed | Jun 28, 2019 |  |
| Codeverse | Codeverse is the world's first interactive coding studio & edtech platform,, founded on the mission to teach a billion kids to code. | $10M | Seed | Aug 23, 2018 |  |
| Codeverse | Codeverse is the world's first interactive coding studio & edtech platform,, founded on the mission to teach a billion kids to code. | $10M | Seed | Aug 23, 2018 |  |
| Interior Define | Interior Define (ID) is a pioneering digitally-native and vertically-integrated furniture brand, offering the most compelling and in-depth custom furniture experience in the middle of the market.ID makes customization easy: sofas may be tailored by size, fabric, configuration, leg style, and sit, providing an experience akin to high-end custombrands. Since every sofa (and now beds and dining) is made to order, inventory overhead is all but eliminated, allowing the brand to sell at accessible, middle market prices. This creates a unique customer experience further highlighted by complimentary white glove delivery, a standard 365-day return policy, and high-touch shopping process. Online, customers can view all pieces and custom options in 360 degrees, and order free fabric swatches to explore the product in home. Customers can also use ID's augmented reality (AR) app to view furniture and fabrics in their homes. Though a digitally-native brand, at ID's Guideshop locations, guests can experience firsthand the unique sit and style of each sofa and receive one-on-one consultations with expert team members. ID Guideshop locations can be visited in New York (Soho), Chicago (Lincoln Park), San Francisco (Hayes Valley), Los Angeles (Fairfax, La Brea), Boston (Back Bay), and Austin (Domaine Northside). |  | Series B | Mar 08, 2018 |  |
| Interior Define | Interior Define (ID) is a pioneering digitally-native and vertically-integrated furniture brand, offering the most compelling and in-depth custom furniture experience in the middle of the market.ID makes customization easy: sofas may be tailored by size, fabric, configuration, leg style, and sit, providing an experience akin to high-end custombrands. Since every sofa (and now beds and dining) is made to order, inventory overhead is all but eliminated, allowing the brand to sell at accessible, middle market prices. This creates a unique customer experience further highlighted by complimentary white glove delivery, a standard 365-day return policy, and high-touch shopping process. Online, customers can view all pieces and custom options in 360 degrees, and order free fabric swatches to explore the product in home. Customers can also use ID's augmented reality (AR) app to view furniture and fabrics in their homes. Though a digitally-native brand, at ID's Guideshop locations, guests can experience firsthand the unique sit and style of each sofa and receive one-on-one consultations with expert team members. ID Guideshop locations can be visited in New York (Soho), Chicago (Lincoln Park), San Francisco (Hayes Valley), Los Angeles (Fairfax, La Brea), Boston (Back Bay), and Austin (Domaine Northside). | $8M | Series A | May 09, 2017 |  |
| Gunslinger Studios | Gunslinger Studios is a games business bent on bringing the excitement of multiplayer gaming to mobile players in a minute or less-- something that fits their schedule but lets them compete and explore in a live game world. The company is creating fiercely mobile, one-handed experiences for a generation of competitive gamers who grew up withPokemon, CCGs and MMOs. They're powered by Gunslinger’s technology platform for competitive eSports, live game operations and community-driven content. Info about its first game, battle RPG Exiles of Embermark (already on PG's Most Anticipated List), is at exilesofembermark.com and @exilesgame. | $1.8M | Seed | Dec 12, 2016 |  |
| KnowledgeHound | KnowledgeHound simplifies how companies organize and access consumer insights—we build a unified, searchable database for your market research data, so your team can easily and efficiently locate the insights you need. Stunning visualization tools and powerful analytics make it easy to transform data and insights into effective businessintelligence, while secure, cloud-based technology lets your team share information across units, geographies, and business partners for a broader impact. | $2.7M | Series A | Nov 16, 2016 |  |

10 of 22 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [The Pritzker Organization](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/the-pritzker-organization) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Bessemer Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bessemer-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Breakout Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/breakout-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Grace Beauty Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/grace-beauty-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Keiretsu Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/keiretsu-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Keiretsu Forum Northwest](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/keiretsu-forum-northwest) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Listen

VC Fund · Chicago, United States

Listen is a consumer-only venture capital firm focused on backing and building the brands of tomorrow.

5 contacts available at Listen.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Jeff Cantalupo | Founder, Managing Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jeff-cantalupo |
| Rick Desai | Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/rick-desai |
| Andrew Kallick | Investor | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/andrew-kallick |
| Brent Fernandez | Partner, Head of Creative | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brent-fernandez |
| Shawn Dennis | Venture Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/shawn-dennis |

## 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 Jeff Cantalupo invest in?

Jeff Cantalupo invests primarily in E-Commerce, Internet and Software startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 22 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Jeff Cantalupo last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Jeff Cantalupo closed in May 2026. Shizune tracks 22 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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