Greatness begins with rituals. A daily commitment. A shared belief. A way of showing up.

At Ritual, we invest super early in founders who believe that true innovation is built through consistency, discipline, and a deep commitment to their vision.

We’ve backed the visionaries behind companies like Figma, Flexport, Heroku, Highspot, Kepler, Kong, Lattice, Pagerduty, thredUP and more. Founders who didn’t just launch companies, they redefined industries.

These founders have taught us that passion and grit get you started. Rituals make you unstoppable.

We write collaborative checks from $100K to $500K. We are early believers and first partners. We help founders imagine the impossible—and then make it real.

Small checks. Big bets. All heart.

Chris Howard
Founder and Managing Director

Over the past 15 years, I’ve made investments at the earliest stages in breakout companies, including Figma, Flexport, Highspot, Lattice, Kepler, Kong, Pagerduty, and more.

Prior to launching Ritual, I ran multiple market-leading funds as the founder of Fuel Capital and a principal at Ignition Partners.

I believe in the potential of founders—long before most people do and then leverage my expertise to help propel their companies forward. I pull from an accomplished career in advertising and marketing for brands such as Lexus and New Balance, and help founders with early brand, positioning, and go-to-market.

In 2023, I was recognized as one of the top 25 seed investors in the world by Forbes’ Midas Seed List. Previously, I was included on Forbes’ Midas Brink List.

I graduated from Occidental College with a degree in Psychology. And I received an MBA from the University of Washington, where I was a McGowan Scholar.

“Many VCs claim to be founder friendly but Chris is the very definition of it. At the most challenging times at Lattice, I never felt I had to hide or sugar coat things with Chris. I knew if I was ever in a pinch, I could call and he would answer.”

—Jack Altman,
Lattice

“Chris turned out to be one of my helpful investors. He introduced us to great talent, advisers and capital. He invested more in the business even when we didn’t realize we needed the money. That money turned out to be super important to Flexport being able to get to the point of raising our series A because we had more runway.”

—Ryan Petersen,
Flexport

"It’s hard to overstate how awesome Chris is, helping us recruit talent and build our leadership team to jumping in when we needed him. We have a great group of investors and Chris stands out as the most consistently value-add of all of them.”

—Walker Williams,
Teespring

"Someone once posted some praise about Chris on Secret and all 30+ comments were overwhelmingly positive. That’s rare. Chris is rare. Someone you can really trust."

—Chrys Bader,
Secret and Rosebud

“Chris says he aims to be ‘In your corner, not in your kitchen,’ and that’s been our exact experience with him. Other VCs ask ‘how’s the company doing?’ Chris will ask ‘how are *you* doing?’ Starting a company is a lonely and difficult endeavor, and Chris watches out for people just as much as he does the company’s strategy. I honestly think these two things will result in him not only having great financial returns, but also building a great community of entrepreneurs. He also works his ass off.”

—Michael Grinich,
Nylas and WorkOS