Asylum Ventures Research
Overview
Asylum Ventures is a Brooklyn, New York-based early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2024. The firm raised $55 million for its debut Fund I (closed September 2024) and deploys $1–2 million checks into a small, intentionally selective portfolio of pre-seed and seed-stage companies. Asylum is built around a singular philosophical conviction: that the best founders are artists, not assets — obsessive creators building novel products that are often initially misunderstood.
The firm was co-founded by Nicholas Chirls, a 15-year NYC startup ecosystem veteran and co-founder of Notation Capital (the first pre-seed firm in NYC), alongside partners Mackenzie Regent, Lola Wajskop, and Jon Wu. The four-person partnership operates from Brooklyn and positions itself as a deliberate antidote to the industrialization of venture capital.
Investment Thesis
Asylum's thesis is captured in its founding letter: "The best founders are artists." The firm backs founders who are obsessively driven, compelled by novel ideas, and often initially dismissed or misunderstood by the mainstream — much like artists whose work is initially overlooked. The firm draws inspiration from Asylum Records (David Geffen's label) and A24 Films, companies known for championing unconventional creative talent.
Asylum explicitly rejects the institutional VC playbook: no board seats, no administrative control, no hundreds of investments per year. Instead, the partners describe their role as "a small team of partners moving mountains to help when asked and otherwise getting out of the way."
The firm is generalist/thesis-agnostic by design. While there is no prescribed sector mandate, the team brings specialized knowledge in crypto/blockchain (Jon Wu, former Head of Growth at Aztec), AI-enabled services, consumer applications, enterprise software, and life sciences.
Stage Focus
Asylum invests primarily at pre-seed and seed stages — the earliest institutional check. The firm participates in some Series A rounds as follow-on or selective first check. They deliberately make only a handful of investments per year to maintain quality and depth of partnership.
Check Size
Initial check size is $1M–$2M. Given the $55M fund size and a typical reserve ratio, the firm likely writes 25–40 initial checks across the fund lifetime.
Lead Tendency
Asylum typically leads early-stage funding rounds, consistent with their pre-seed and seed focus and their stated philosophy of being the first institutional check for a founder.
Board Seats and Involvement
Asylum explicitly does not take board seats or administrative control. This is a deliberate differentiator — the firm believes that creative founders need autonomy, not oversight. When founders ask for help, the partners provide it fully; otherwise they stay out of the way.
Fund Status
Fund I ($55M) closed in September 2024. The fund is actively deploying capital with 25+ companies backed as of early 2026. Given the small check size ($1–2M) relative to fund size ($55M), the firm still has significant dry powder to deploy.
Portfolio Highlights
Asylum's portfolio spans multiple sectors, reflecting the generalist approach:
- Ark Robotics (ark-robotics.com) — Autonomous drone operations platform. Seed-stage investment reflecting interest in robotics and industrial automation.
- The Clearing Company (clearing.co) — Fully on-chain prediction market. Seed investment; noted as exited. Reflects Jon Wu's crypto/blockchain focus.
- Hilbert's AI / Hilbert (hilberts.ai) — AI-powered growth operating system for businesses. Pre-seed investment.
- Noso (noso.so) — Productivity platform that makes field technicians 10x more efficient. Series A participation, enterprise software focus.
- Riffle (riffle.studio) — Makes professional music production accessible to all using AI. Pre-seed investment.
- Super Games (super.gs) — Sweepstakes-based casual gaming platform. Pre-seed investment.
- Nucleus Genomics (mynucleus.com) — Whole-genome sequencing and genetic risk assessment. Participated in $14M Series A (January 2025) alongside Founders Fund, Seven Seven Six, and others. The company provides genetic analysis including family planning tools for 800+ inheritable disease risks.
- Henlo (henlo.com) — Crypto-native consumer/community project on Berachain. Participated in $3M Seed (February 2025) alongside Framework Ventures, SNZ Capital, and Primitive Ventures.
Team
Nicholas Chirls (Partner)
Nick has 15+ years in the startup ecosystem. He was a co-founder of Notation Capital, the first pre-seed venture firm in New York City, and before that led seed investing at betaworks, the NYC startup studio. Nick is the firm's primary public face and the author of Asylum's founding letter. His investing philosophy emphasizes backing contrarian founders with deep conviction, especially those building in overlooked markets.
Mackenzie Regent (Partner)
Mackenzie focuses on operations, systems design, and internal infrastructure for the firm. She builds the internal scaffolding that enables the firm to operate effectively. Her background is in storytelling and books rather than traditional startups, which informs the firm's cultural and humanistic lens. She is quoted: "Structure, when done right, is a form of care."
Lola Wajskop (Partner)
Lola comes from a family of entrepreneurs — her grandparents built a textiles business, and her parents have run a recruiting firm for 40+ years. She has an engineering school background and brings a nuanced understanding of human character and long-term business building to her investment practice.
Jon Wu (Partner)
Jon was formerly Head of Growth at Aztec (a privacy-focused ZK rollup), co-founder of Zevv, and founder of fortyIQ (a communications firm for crypto and frontier industries). He also had a background at Bain Capital. At Asylum, Jon focuses primarily on crypto and blockchain investments and also spends time in AI-enabled services and consumer applications. He was an early Asylum believer and publicly welcomed followers for the first time when announcing his role at the firm.
Geographic Focus
Primarily United States, with a home base in Brooklyn/New York City. The firm's deep roots in the NYC startup ecosystem are evident, though the portfolio includes companies from various US cities and beyond. No formal geo restrictions.
Founder Preferences
Asylum seeks founders with an artistic temperament: obsessive, novel-idea-driven, and motivated by creating something meaningful rather than wealth optimization. They value:
- Obsession: Founders who need to build this specific thing
- Novelty: Ideas overlooked or dismissed by others
- Conviction: Strong belief systems about future states others don't yet understand
- Authenticity: Founders who want to "win their own way"
- De-emphasis on pedigree: Focus on motivation and formative experience, not resume
Decision Process
Four-partner firm operating as a true partnership. Given the small fund and selective strategy, decisions likely require partnership consensus. Nick is the most public-facing partner and likely leads many investment decisions, with Jon Wu leading crypto-specific opportunities.
Competitive Positioning
Asylum positions itself as a genuine alternative to institutional VC. Inspired by A24 (indie film) and Asylum Records (indie music), the firm argues that the best creative work comes from small, focused operations that champion unconventional talent. Their explicit anti-board-seat, anti-control stance is a deliberate competitive differentiator in attracting founders who want capital without loss of creative control.