About Zincan
A studio, a family name, and a building in San Francisco.
Zincan builds companies, some of its own and some with one founder at a time, and runs every one of them in Zincan Venture Studio, where you talk to Coach and the work gets done.
Roots · San Francisco, 1895
Named for a café, and the man who built it.
Zincan is named for Charles A. Zinkand, known as Chaz. The papers called his café “a costly institution with scarcely a superior in existence.”
- 1873
Charles A. Zinkand arrives in New York and goes to work as a mechanic. Within two years he is superintendent of the factory.
- 1895
He opens Café Zinkand in San Francisco’s Spreckels Building: a room where culture, ideas and community thrived.
- Today
His great-great-grandson carries the name, and builds companies in the same spirit.
What we believe
Three things you can check against the deal.
- 01
Founders run companies.
The founder keeps the majority and control. The companies we start ourselves, we own outright. Either way a person runs the company, and the studio does the work.
- 02
Terms in writing, before anyone builds.
Yes or no, with reasons. If it’s yes, we agree the terms in writing first, so nobody builds on a handshake and a hope.
- 03
Make tangible things, not tasks.
Work shows up as things you can hold: a logo, a pull request, a postcard on its way to print, an NDA ready to sign.
The people
Someone from Zincan is in the room every week.
Nate Collins
Founder, Zincan
A builder at heart, of startups, software and teams. Nate has been a CEO, a CTO and a principal engineer, and helped scale IXN Tech (acquired by Hexure), MX and Teamworks. Zincan is where he builds companies with founders: in the room every week, and in Zincan Venture Studio every day.
Have the idea and the hours?
We build with one founder per company, and we read every request.