OpenSky Ventures

An early-stage venture capital firm based in Los Angeles, California, investing in what it calls the future of commerce. The partnership describes itself as operators turned investors — founders who have built large consumer and technology businesses and now back the next generation of category leaders in commerce. Its stated investment criteria center on recession-resistant, disruptive commerce-enablement technology companies and consumer brands operating in large or fast-growing markets with high repeat purchase rates. The firm invests at pre-seed and seed, and opportunistically at Series A, looking for positive traction signals such as client testimonials, a growing subscription base, organic growth and other healthy KPIs, and for experienced founders with seasoned teams and credible go-to-market strategies. The team is led by co-founders and general partners Josh Resnick and Josh Payne. Resnick co-founded the video game developer Pandemic Studios, exited to Electronic Arts, and co-founded the luxury confections brand Sugarfina; he is also managing partner of Pure Imagination Brands, a portfolio spanning consumer, food and beverage and technology companies. Payne founded Onward, an e-commerce post-purchase platform, and StackCommerce, a commerce and content platform acquired by TPG in 2020; he has served as a venture partner at Amplify.LA and as a Techstars and 500 Global mentor, and is an active angel investor in SaaS and commerce tools. Principal Stephanie Nwokolo Hussey co-founded Camby Clean Cocktails, a functional non-alcoholic beverage brand distributed in Los Angeles, and previously worked in finance and strategy at Lionsgate's Motion Picture Group and in product strategy at PIMCO. Beyond capital, the firm positions its support around four areas: fundraising and demand generation through a network of founders, angels, family offices and funds; a talent and resource network of agencies, designers, founders and fractional C-suite executives; operations and subject-matter expertise drawn from having scaled companies past $100m in revenue; and on-demand responsiveness to portfolio company needs. The portfolio spans food and beverage, supplements, pet care, household products and commerce technology. Food, beverage and consumer holdings include Magic Mind, a mental performance shot; Orka, canned energy water; Sett, a nicotine alternative; Feel Goods, plant-based supplements; Habiza, premium hummus; Kirra Iced Tea; Fishwife, premium tinned seafood; Nomadica, premium canned wines; Sunny Within, liposomal supplements powered by avocado oil; Veracity, plant-powered alternatives to prescription products; and Windmill, home air care. Commerce and software holdings include Bounty, Dimension Studios, Gumshoe, Intro, Max Retail, Siena, Cohesive, Limelight, Mixlab, OuterSignal, Ship Sidekick, Stanify AI, Daash, Haven, Levanta, Mantle, Reactiv and Shoplift.