Tell the truth early
Clear feedback is a form of respect — most of all when the answer is no, or when something has gone wrong.
Team
Small on purpose.
Ptacek Ventures is owner-operated. The person who decides what gets built is the same person who builds it and answers for it afterwards.
Ptacek Ventures LLCEPPortrait forthcoming
Founder & operator
Ethan Ptacek
Ethan founded Ptacek Ventures to build and run software companies rather than advise them. He works on both companies directly — product, design, code, and the customer calls.
A portrait will be added here. The fuller personal biography lives on EthanPtacek.com, kept separately from the firm.
Operating values
Calm, candid, close.
These are the habits both companies are run on, and the ones a customer should be able to notice.
Stay close to the work
Founders who stop touching the product stop understanding it. The support inbox is not beneath the job.
Play the long game
Durable businesses are built out of accumulated judgment and repeated execution, not a single good quarter.
The companies
Two businesses, one desk.
QuikQuote and Rose are both built and operated in-house.