Startup Haven, born from a Seattle poker game in 2006, grows network for founders and investors

Bob Crimmins just wanted to play some poker.

The longtime Seattle entrepreneur created Startup Haven back in 2006 to get founders and investors in a room together around a table to enjoy a meal and a game.

Nearly two decades later, Startup Haven is still going strong with more than 2,500 members across 18 cities, including two abroad.

This week the group announced its latest expansion: a new partnership with the Columbia Tower Club and The Collective in Seattle to establish a physical “headquarters” of sorts for Startup Haven members that will provide access to special events, member breakfasts, and daily co-working access.

It’s the latest milestone in a journey Crimmins certainly did not expect when the veteran software engineer and University of Washington philosophy grad first started organizing poker games.

“I really thought poker was this remarkable platform for building relationships, just because of the dynamics of the game and the way it works,” Crimmins said.

Startup Haven poker games started in Seattle and soon spread to other cities. Crimmins led the organization in his spare time as he juggled other startup endeavors and advisory roles. It was a passion project that lost money each year but provided fulfillment for Crimmins in the countless connections formed from the events.

More than a decade after launching Startup Haven, Crimmins saw an opportunity to tap into the growing network of founders and investors.

He began focusing full-time on Startup Haven in 2019 and soon launched a Startup Haven Fund after meeting so many founders as they were just launching their companies. “It struck me as a very unique pipeline for a fund,” he said.

Crimmins raised $4.5 million for the first fund. He typically writes checks in the $100,000-to $300,000 range in pre-seed rounds for early stage startups across the world.

“We’ve had a really terrific bunch of companies that have done really well so far,” he said.

Startup Haven also runs an accelerator that aims to share some of Crimmins’ learnings from advising and mentoring companies over the years.

But the community groups in each city that play poker and gather for other events — and will use the physical spaces — is still core to Startup Haven, which now has active chapters in Reykjavik and London.

Startup Haven remains rooted in Seattle, where it all began 19 years ago. Crimmins considers it a testing ground for new ideas, such as the new physical “headquarters” space.

He considers the city “one of the best places on Earth to start a company.”

“Seattle is entering a phase where there’s been enough success and learnings that we’re doing better than we ever have,” he said of the city’s startup ecosystem.

He said it’s key to create spaces like Startup Haven or the newer group Foundations, where veteran founders and investors can help newer entrepreneurs.

“At the end of the day, the most valuable help that a founder gets will come from other founders and investors who understand what it means to build a venture-scale company,” Crimmins said.

Crimmins has a small team that helps run operations for Startup Haven, as well as venture partners (Jay Westerdal and Arry Yu) and an investment director (Claudius Mbemba) that support the fund. There are also chapter directors in each city.