Happy Wednesday,
If you're receiving this for the first time, one of two things happened. Either we had the pleasure of connecting sometime during Q2 2026, or our inbox and CRM agents decided you should have been on this list all along, and put you on it. Either way, we're glad to have you.
This email shares key progress updates and insights from our work, and you can browse the last six years of them here. If the agents got it wrong, no hard feelings — the unsubscribe link at the bottom takes one click.
In this update, we'll cover the following:
Chisos LLC — a deliberately slower investment quarter, and why
Chisos Golf — a second player signed, and what's coming in September
Investment portfolio updates
Chisos LLC
A slower investment quarter, on purpose
We made 2 new investments in Q2 from roughly 105 applications, bringing us to 111 total investments to date across Fund I, Fund II, and the balance sheet.
This investment pace is deliberately slower for a few reasons. One is market factors and the other is team priorities.
A note on the market conditions: the disappearing middle
This is the note we shared with our investors in our quarterly reporting earlier this month.
The early-stage funding landscape has split this year, creating what Carta calls the "disappearing middle." With tools like Claude Code and Codex, top software talent can now build and reach first revenue at almost no cost, and when those teams do raise, they are raising $10M–$100M out of the gate. The smallest rounds still happen, but they are increasingly funded by friends and family. Professional capital has left both the small end and the $150K–$500K growth band above it.
We see opportunity at both ends, and they call for different strengths. At the small end, capital is not the scarce input; selection is. The work is finding the talented founders not already funded with personal or family resources, and income-first businesses that AI tooling strengthens rather than threatens. That remains our balance sheet investing focus, with a higher bar and a slower pace. In the growth band, the capital itself is missing: proven builders with real distribution have outgrown friends and family but sit below institutional minimums.
Chisos Golf
Two players signed
Since launching at Augusta in April, we've built the infrastructure behind the strategy: the new site and our proprietary ChisosOS underwriting system both went live, and we reviewed a large pool of players through the process during the period.
In June we announced our first Chisos Golf investment: Brent Grant, a Korn Ferry Tour winner chasing his PGA TOUR card.
Since quarter end, our second signing closed: Ethan Davidson, a 25-year-old competing on PGA TOUR Americas and mini-tours. Ethan played at Texas Tech alongside Ludvig Aberg.
What the first ninety days of Chisos Golf taught us
Two things became clear fast. First, the pool of players who can both clear our quality bar and will accept the original fund terms, is thinner than we modeled. Second, investor appetite for the thesis is real, but it comes with consistent feedback that investors want to see results first: signed players, and a clear path and resources for those players to succeed.
So we've paused the Chisos Golf Fund I raise as originally structured. That structure and initiative is ambitious and we need a proof point before proceeding.
We went back to the drawing board, starting with a focus on golf credibility and a unique and complete solution for developmental golf. Led by the recommendation of a US Open Champion and elite agents that are an integral part of the partnership, we will be introducing Team Chisos Golf: backing players as a team rather than through a fund, with real management capacity behind it.
We will be making announcements about this exciting development in the September timeframe. Stay tuned for details.
If you are a golf enthusiast and you would like to support the investments we make, you have an opportunity to do that with one-off allocations to a given player. Accredited investors can do that through Play Money at chisosgolf.letsplaymoney.com.
Chisos Investment Portfolio Updates
Chisos LLC Balance Sheet
2 new investments in Q2 2026:
Trembo — A tactile feedback pad and app delivering alerts that save and improve lives.
Ranchos Ventures — A first-time fund investing in category-defining franchise brands.
Chisos Capital Fund II — ($2.01mm; closed August 2023)
Fund II is fully deployed with 56 investments. Notable portfolio updates:
Review Piper completed an all-equity trade sale, with DentifAI acquiring the assets and Review Piper's CEO joining the acquiring team.
Companion Candles continues its strong expansion into retail and online. A recent win included Amazon awarding them a Prime Day Badge, which provides significant national exposure. As they continue to grow, they are looking to add national-level retail brands and would welcome strategic CPG advisor support.
Nimbus Aerospace reported exciting progress, successfully completing a quarter-scale test flight. Their AI software is helping them execute fast and is a path to faster revenue and partner introductions in the industry. They are now moving into the next growth phase — full scale, and letters of intent for the purchase of the aircraft.
Arvist announced the release of a new Claims Management product, which extends their offering beyond quality control and introduces a value proposition to the C-suite of their distribution and warehousing customers. They continue to grow their customer base.
Ink'd Greetings continues to execute its aggressive growth strategy well, with a retail pilot performing strongly. They are working on card content partnerships with major entertainment brands to increase inventory quantity and quality, and are solidifying partnership terms on prepaid gift cards to increase margin per card sold. Hardware and software improvements continue with each customer rollout.
A-Frame Venture Studio announced a large multi-year services engagement with the University of California, which will strengthen their balance sheet and provide organic growth capital. Their Mirth Water launch continues with guerrilla marketing on socials.
Chisos Capital Fund I — ($500k; closed January 2021)
Fund I is fully deployed with 13 investments. Two standouts this quarter:
Re-Nuble recorded record Q2 revenues. The 2026 outlook indicates strong year-over-year revenue growth for the microgreen mat product, and the rollout of a second plug greens product should start to contribute net new revenues.
Vizen Analytics is pleased to report its first quarter of positive free cash flow in company history. While the numbers are small, this is a significant step forward. Go-to-market scaling strategies are being explored as they nurture their first successful customer installations.