VC Spotlight: Catapult Capital

Catapult Capital does not read like private equity. It moves like operators who got tired of watching spreadsheets pretend they know what a product outage feels like. Founded in San Francisco in October 2016, the firm was built by people who have owned P&Ls, missed sleep, shipped fixes, and carried real consequences. This is capital shaped by experience, not theory, aimed squarely at the middle market where execution still matters more than optics.

Gary C. Hsueh and Rick Marini started Catapult Capital after living both sides of the table. Gary C. Hsueh came out of Goldman Sachs tech investment banking having advised on nearly $90B in M&A and financing, then crossed over to Yahoo to run global search partnerships where distribution decisions moved real revenue. Rick Marini built Tickle.com into a 200M member platform before selling it to Monster for $100M, then founded BranchOut, scaling it through hypergrowth and into a Hearst acquisition. Scar tissue was the entry price.

In January 2019, Jeff Bonforte joined as Managing Partner, adding product gravity. Jeff Bonforte ran Yahoo Mail, Messenger, Groups, and Answers at global scale, founded Gizmo5 sold to Google, and led Xobni through its Yahoo acquisition. Products used by hundreds of millions do not forgive sloppy thinking, and that discipline shows up in how Catapult Capital invests.

The firm targets special situations in internet, consumer, media, software, and tech. Equity checks range from $10M to $100M+. These are profitable or near profitable companies past venture chaos but not yet fully formed. Control matters here, not for dominance, but to move fast, fix systems, and make long horizon decisions without investor theater.

That model came into focus with Grindr. In June 2020, following a CFIUS mandated divestiture, Catapult partnered with San Vicente Acquisition to acquire the platform for roughly $608M. Jeff Bonforte stepped in as CEO. Gary C. Hsueh became CFO Rick Marini took the COO role. The app sat at 2 stars. Culture was fractured. Infrastructure was brittle.

Thirty months later, revenue and EBITDA were up more than 80%. App ratings climbed to 4.6. Glassdoor CEO approval jumped from 18% to 93%. Systems were rebuilt end to end with safety and privacy treated as core product, not compliance afterthoughts. In Nov 2022, Grindr listed on the !NYSE as GRND at a $2.1B valuation. Operator led PE stopped being a concept and became a receipt.

JibJab shows the quieter side of the playbook. Acquired in Feb 2019 with St. Cloud Capital, the original digital expression platform entered its next chapter with Paul Hanges elevated to CEO and Jeff Bonforte on the board, pairing cultural DNA with modern product and distribution discipline.

Catapult Capital stays selective, hands on, and allergic to financial engineering without substance. Portfolio companies are building and hiring.