# Rick Smith

> Rick Smith is a seed investor at Crosscut Ventures (Los Angeles) backing Software and Advertising. See 25 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Crosscut Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/crosscut-ventures)
- Location: Los Angeles, United States
- Total investments: 25
- Last investment: Oct 2024
- Lead investor: 40%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rick-smith/4/20/45a
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/smithrick
- Website: https://x.com/smithrick

Rick Smith is a seed investor at Crosscut Ventures in Los Angeles focused on Software and Advertising. Rick Smith is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Crosscut Ventures. Rick is an early-stage venture capital investor focused on seed and Series A investments in the Internet, mobile, software and gaming. He has been a venture capital investor since 1997. He has invested in several successful start-ups, including JustFab, Ipsy, GumGum,Docstoc, Shoedazzle, Verve Mobile, Super Evil Megacorp, Dermstore, Magma Design, Micromuse, Maverick Networks, Netcontinuum, Trivida and Pulpo Media.He received a Finance degree from the University of Illinois, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He previously worked at Palomar Ventures, SunAmerica and Milbank Tweed.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 6 | 24% |
| Advertising | 4 | 16% |
| Apps | 2 | 8% |
| SaaS | 2 | 8% |
| Big Data | 2 | 8% |

54 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 10 | 40% |
| Series A | 8 | 32% |
| Funding Round | 3 | 12% |
| Series B | 1 | 4% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Carbon Ridge | Carbon Ridge is a technology that offers a fuel-independent method to decarbonize ships. | $9.5M |  | Oct 22, 2024 |  |
| Loyal Foundry | Loyal Foundry is a global mobile app consolidator. The company builds and acquires mobile apps that make people’s lives both easier and more enjoyable. It was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Carlsbad, California, United States. |  | Series A | Jun 29, 2022 |  |
| Privacy Dynamics | Data privacy tools built for analytics engineers and the modern data stack. | $4M | Seed | Mar 01, 2021 |  |
| Retina AI | Retina uses next-gen algorithms and the data you already collect to pinpoint your highest-value customers — and deliver the insights you need to reach more just like them. | $2.5M |  | Feb 04, 2020 |  |
| Retina AI | Retina uses next-gen algorithms and the data you already collect to pinpoint your highest-value customers — and deliver the insights you need to reach more just like them. | $2.5M | Seed | Feb 04, 2020 |  |
| Extend, Inc. | Extend is an API first company that allows any merchant to offer extended warranties and protection plans, both online and offline, while also providing the merchant's end customers with a vastly improved and modern support experience that eliminates many of the issues customers face today with legacy underwriters. Their intelligent decisionengine uses machine learning to optimize warranty offers in real-time, thereby improving warranty and cart conversions and generating the most revenue for the merchant. Extend platform is integrated into leading eCommerce solutions including Shopify, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, BigCommerce, and others so that they can be up and running quickly, with no technical requirements. They also provide custom API integrations for larger merchants who have their own eCommerce platform. It stores all the details of an individual's product purchase and warranty plan for them, while also assisting throughout the claim process to create a seamless experience from start to finish.It was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. | $16.4M | Series A | Nov 06, 2019 |  |
| Teampay | Teampay’s award-winning platform helps larger SMBs and middle-market businesses across industries manage expenses. By streamlining the purchase process across virtual and physical cards, invoices, and reimbursements, Teampay makes company purchases easy for employees and finance teams alike. | $4M | Seed | Feb 22, 2018 |  |
| Retina AI | Retina uses next-gen algorithms and the data you already collect to pinpoint your highest-value customers — and deliver the insights you need to reach more just like them. |  | Seed | Sep 01, 2017 |  |
| DataScience.com | DataScience.com is an information technology company that provides an enterprise data science platform. DataScience.com provides an enterprise data science platform that combines the tools, libraries, and language data scientists. It was founded in 2014 and headquartered in Culver City, California. | $4.5M | Series A | Jun 02, 2015 |  |
| HelloTech | HelloTech is changing the way consumers purchase and get support for new technology. Utilizing a background-checked, vetted on-demand workforce, HelloTech provides in home support and consultation for consumers looking to manage and upgrade the technology within their home | $2M | Seed | May 26, 2015 |  |

10 of 25 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Baroda Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/baroda-ventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Double M Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/double-m-partners) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Amplify.LA](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/amplify-la) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Frontier Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dfj-frontier) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Gideon Hixon Fund](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/gideon-hixon-fund) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Greycroft](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/greycroft) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

## About Crosscut Ventures

VC Fund · Los Angeles, United States

Crosscut Ventures, one of LA’s longest-standing seed funds, invests in founders building solutions that provide humanity with a better future. Crosscut partners with founders focused on clean energy generation and power distribution, the commercialization of frontiers in space, the ocean, and the earth, decarbonization, and the upgrading of theU.S.'s defense systems. The firm is committed to using its 16+ years of experience, widespread connectivity, and proven playbooks to bring companies to commercial viability for the betterment of humanity.

5 contacts available at Crosscut Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Brett Brewer | Co-Founder & Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brett-brewer |
| Rick Smith | Co-Founder & Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/rick-smith-5 |
| Brian Garrett | Co-Founder and Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/brian-garrett |
| Lisa Riedmiller | CFO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lisa-riedmiller |
| Mel Elias | Venture Partner | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/mel-elias |

## 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 Rick Smith invest in?

Rick Smith invests primarily in Software, Advertising and Apps startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 25 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 Rick Smith last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Rick Smith closed in Oct 2024. Shizune tracks 25 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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