Jake Knapp – Startup Investor Profile

Jake Knapp is a creator of the Design Sprint, a general partner at Character co-founding a seed fund, investing in startups with capital focusing on big shifts in customer behavior, with investments up to $2 million at the seed stage. He works with startups to find and expand product-market fit using the Sprint method developed at Google Ventures. With a remote-native approach, Character invests flexible across seed stages and supports startups in various fields like AI/ML, enterprise, industry, climate, healthcare, and life sciences. Some of Jake Knapp’s previous investments include Phaidra, HeadsUpAI, House Rx, and more. As a designer, investor, and New York Times bestselling author, Jake Knapp helps startups through the Design Sprint process and co-founded Google Meet. He has coached teams at major companies and institutions like Miro, Slack, LEGO, IDEO, NASA, MIT, and the Harvard Business School. Jake Knapp’s collaboration style emphasizes effective communication and individual thinking while maintaining a collaborative environment

Location: Seattle, Washington

Country: United States of America

Investment Regions:

Investment Stages: pre-seed, seed

Website: https://www.jakeknapp.com/

AI Reasoning: Character’s website lists investments including Phaidra and HeadsUp AI with current site footer ©2025, indicating recent activity in 2025. The most recent publicly listed investments on the Character site (e.g., Phaidra) are within the last 6 months but beyond 3 months? Given site shows activity in 2025 and announcements (Fund 2 May 19, 2025) and investments noted in 2025, Jake Knapp has made investments within the past 6 months but more than 3 months, classifying as active. Example startup invested: Phaidra.

Low Activity – Only known angel investments more than 12 months ago.

Active – Known angel investments between the last 12 and 6 months.

Very Active – Known angel investments in the last 6 months.