John Caulkins

Producer

📍 Los Angeles, California, United States🔄 Updated September 2026💼 8 investments📅 18 years investing🗓 Last invested Jul 2026
Operator-angel🌍 United StatesInvested this quarter
8
Total investments
4
Early stage
3
Mid stage
0
Late stage
18y
Years active

Portfolio

8 investments · sorted by recency
All investments
Early stage
Mid stage
Late stage
Investor
Jul 2026
At Studio Arbo, we unlock the creative potential of a brands history, transforming archives into multi-platform campaigns that create new commercial and cultural value. We bring hidden stories to life across audiovisual touchpoints, helping you repurpose and repackage primary content into compelling, brand-building assets. In a culture flooded with automated content and noise, the rarest asset is meaning. Our hybrid approach to creating deeper, specific, artist-centered activations with the intimacy of the handmade and the intelligence of modern technology sparks deeper cultural connection. We partner with luxury fashion and heritage, foundations, hospitality, science and media brands where legacy, culture, and storytelling are essential to brand distinction and long-term relevance.
Investor
Jan 2019
A new kind of record label with a curated repertoire of world class musicians. Newvelle ships six audiophile-quality vinyl LPs to your door every year. This music is available only on vinyl and solely through Newvelle
mid stageMusicians
Investor
May 2018
Manifesto is a hospitality group focusing on food & beverage, real estate, technology, ​and culture. We create stylish places that provide a variety of food and drinks for people who want to enjoy cool, exciting vibes, cultural experiences and a high-quality customer experience. Uniquely, we are one of the first fully cashless places in Europe. That means we create and utilize digital technology products and data to provide an enhanced customer and tenant experience. Manifesto is the brainchild and first hospitality project from landscape architect and entrepreneur Martin Barry. Welcome to the future of retail, food and culture.
early stageHospitality
Investor
Sep 2014
Atlas Obscura is a media and entertainment company on a mission to inspire wonder and curiosity about the world. We uncover hidden places, incredible histories, scientific marvels, and gastronomical wonders via our site, app, video, social media, books and podcast. Atlas Obscura creates hundreds of unique global trips and local experiences every year, bringing our community with us to visit the worlds most unusual places and try the worlds most extraordinary foods.
Investor
Apr 2014
Cultivate Ventures is a boutique advisory and private equity firm built on a foundational belief that investing is more than simply deploying capital. We believe each investment should be accompanied with a hands on, unwavering commitment to operational excellence, a dynamic entrepreneurial mindset, and a precise focus on optimizing compounded profitability. Cultivate Ventures expertise is high yield, long-term, alternative investments in private companies and real estate, specifically in niche sectors defined by high barriers to entry and complexity.
Investor
Aug 2012
Relay Foods is your healthy online grocery store. Our mission is to make eating quality, healthy, and sustainable food simple. Pick up your groceries from our convenient pick-up locations (or have them delivered to your home) in Virginia, Maryland, DC Metro, and North Carolina.
mid stageRetail
Investor
2012
Founded by journalist and editor Jeff Koyen, Assignmint is a turnkey, browser-based job software where writers and editors work together, solving long-standing logistical issues that waste time and money, and complicate relationships. Whether it’s managing proposals and pitches, handling deliverables, processing payments or simply keeping in touch—Assignmint simplifies and streamlines all aspects of job fulfillment. Work smarter on Assignmint.
Investor
2008
360cities.net is the web’s largest collection of stunning, 360° interactive panoramic photos and videos, created by a network of thousands of the finest panorama photographers and videographers from around the world. 360Cities is the source of 360° imagery and videos for EdTech service providers, educational publishers, digital advertising agencies, and VR/AR/MR experience developers. We’ve been curating and licensing high quality, fully 360° interactive panoramic photos and videos since 2007 and have rewarded thousands of passionate VR photographers and videographers from around the world with royalties on their work. The 360Cities collection of high-quality VR-ready images and videos is now available via custom API connection. Add the immersive magic of our massive database of curated virtual reality panoramic photos and videos to your EdTech service, stock image offer, VR app, or other service.
early stagePhotography
Experience · 15 entries
All (15)
Investments (8)
Founder (7)
2026
Investor
Jul 2026
At Studio Arbo, we unlock the creative potential of a brands history, transforming archives into multi-platform campaigns that create new commercial and cultural value. We bring hidden stories to life across audiovisual touchpoints, helping you repurpose and repackage primary content into compelling, brand-building assets. In a culture flooded with automated content and noise, the rarest asset is meaning. Our hybrid approach to creating deeper, specific, artist-centered activations with the intimacy of the handmade and the intelligence of modern technology sparks deeper cultural connection. We partner with luxury fashion and heritage, foundations, hospitality, science and media brands where legacy, culture, and storytelling are essential to brand distinction and long-term relevance.
2019
Investor
Jan 2019
A new kind of record label with a curated repertoire of world class musicians. Newvelle ships six audiophile-quality vinyl LPs to your door every year. This music is available only on vinyl and solely through Newvelle
mid stageMusicians
2018
Investor
May 2018
Manifesto is a hospitality group focusing on food & beverage, real estate, technology, ​and culture. We create stylish places that provide a variety of food and drinks for people who want to enjoy cool, exciting vibes, cultural experiences and a high-quality customer experience. Uniquely, we are one of the first fully cashless places in Europe. That means we create and utilize digital technology products and data to provide an enhanced customer and tenant experience. Manifesto is the brainchild and first hospitality project from landscape architect and entrepreneur Martin Barry. Welcome to the future of retail, food and culture.
early stageHospitality
2015
Founder
Apr 2015
Overhead is a first-of-its-kind hybrid conference/festival taking place in Prague in October. We cover the drone (UAV) industry from a new perspective- that a gathering of leading experts can network to create collaborations in a healthy atmosphere of discussion and debate. We highlight the applications of drones to solve problems in society at large and present new ways of seeing our shared world. We also aim to create a fun all-ages event that can be replicated as a festival with hands-on demonstrations, safety courses, performances and competitions. We also aim to add a maker studio element that explores open-source creative use for drones. We welcome participants from around the world to join us on our mission and attend our inaugural event in Prague on October 16-17, 2015. Location for Overhead 2016 TBD http://overheadprague.com/
2014
Investor
Sep 2014
Atlas Obscura is a media and entertainment company on a mission to inspire wonder and curiosity about the world. We uncover hidden places, incredible histories, scientific marvels, and gastronomical wonders via our site, app, video, social media, books and podcast. Atlas Obscura creates hundreds of unique global trips and local experiences every year, bringing our community with us to visit the worlds most unusual places and try the worlds most extraordinary foods.
Show all 15 entries ↓
Investment activity
2008–2026 · 8 investments
200812012220142201812019120261
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