
Brown and white ventures
LATEST NEWS

September 3, 2026
Bounce Imaging: "Keeping Them Safe"
Lauren Baynes, Chief Growth Officer at Bounce Imaging, sits down with Brown and White Ventures co-founder and Brown and White Ventures podcast host Jim Aroune to share how her company explores the intersection of defense technology, public safety, and operational scale. Bounce Imaging is transforming how law enforcement and military personnel gather intelligence in high-stakes environments through their innovative throwable tactical cameras. Lauren shares the journey of scaling a venture-backed hardware company, discussing the critical transition from a 43North win to expanding production capacity. Highlighting the conversation is the "Pit Viper 360," a system TIME recognized for its ability to provide 360° visual and thermal sensing. Lauren explains how this technology—specifically the integration of 4G two-way audio and immersive video—is fundamentally changing the dynamics of hostage negotiations and tactical entries by removing the operator from the line of fire while maintaining total situational awareness. "If I think about the long-term vision for Bounce, it would be that every soldier, every police officer, every patrol cop has access to something to keep them safe so that they’re not putting their body in harm when entering a confined space," Baynes said. From being named one of Buffalo’s "40 Under 40" to leading growth strategy, Lauren Baynes provides a candid look at the challenges of delivering mission-critical hardware to warfighters and first responders. The conversation concludes with a look at the future of deployable sensing systems and how Bounce Imaging continues to push the boundaries of tactical imaging to save lives and increase operational efficiency on the front lines. Watch the Brown and White Ventures podcast on the fund's YouTube channel featuring
RECENT NEWS

How GreenIRR and Evidence-Based Procurement Deliver
Join KAV and 43North for an evening of innovation, cycling, and community at their state-of-the-art factory in Buffalo's Old First Ward. The Brown and White Ventures portfolio company will host cyclists and the public Wednesday, August 5th, 2026 from 5:30-8 p.m. at the helmet maker's HQ, 225 Louisiana Street. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5TH | 5:30PM - 8PM Go behind the scenes to see how KAV's bike helmets are designed, 3D printed, and hand-assembled right here in Buffalo. Learn how digital head scanning technology allows us to create helmets tailored to each rider for a more precise fit, enhanced comfort, and improved protection. Enjoy guided factory tours, product demonstrations, food trucks, prizes, and complimentary beverages by Thin Man Brewery. The Buffalo Bicycling Club will be hosting group rides that begin and end at the KAV factory. Whether you're a cyclist, interested in technology and manufacturing, or simply looking for a unique community event, come see how KAV is redefining helmet manufacturing through custom-fit design and 3D printing.
July 21, 2026

KAV To Welcimee Public To Silvo Launch Event Aug. 5
Join KAV and 43North for an evening of innovation, cycling, and community at their state-of-the-art factory in Buffalo's Old First Ward. The Brown and White Ventures portfolio company will host cyclists and the public Wednesday, August 5th, 2026 from 5:30-8 p.m. at the helmet maker's HQ, 225 Louisiana Street. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5TH | 5:30PM - 8PM Go behind the scenes to see how KAV's bike helmets are designed, 3D printed, and hand-assembled right here in Buffalo. Learn how digital head scanning technology allows us to create helmets tailored to each rider for a more precise fit, enhanced comfort, and improved protection. Enjoy guided factory tours, product demonstrations, food trucks, prizes, and complimentary beverages by Thin Man Brewery. The Buffalo Bicycling Club will be hosting group rides that begin and end at the KAV factory. Whether you're a cyclist, interested in technology and manufacturing, or simply looking for a unique community event, come see how KAV is redefining helmet manufacturing through custom-fit design and 3D printing.
July 20, 2026

Counsel Stack Connecting Legal Citator to Claude for Advanced AI-Powered Research
Counsel Stack announced its next advancement in AI-assisted legal research: the successful integration of its proprietary citator with Claude. This development marks a step forward in how legal professionals can leverage large language models (LLMs) to perform complex, grounded legal research and litigation workflows. By connecting Counsel Stack’s citator to Claude, the platform now enables the AI to research with the precision of a lawyer. The integration allows Claude to access and navigate Counsel Stack’s massive 200-million-edge citation graph, providing users with answers backed by direct, verifiable links to legal sources. "We connected Counsel Stack's citator to Claude. It researches like a lawyer, based on our prompting, and provides answers with links. Counsel Stack helps Claude find relevant legal sources and crawl around our 200m edge citation graph," said Von Wooding, CEO of Counsel Stack. This integration goes beyond simple search queries. It is designed to support sophisticated litigation workflows, including editing and redlining legal briefs, all while remaining grounded in curated, high-quality legal data. The system currently operates via a local Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, utilizing a robust 250GB dataset that includes over 50 million citations, ranging from federal statutes and regulations to state constitutions and agency enforcement actions. The company is also exploring the future of local, private legal AI. Counsel Stack has successfully tested the system with 27-billion-parameter local LLMs, demonstrating that high-performance legal research can be achieved without relying on third-party cloud services. "In the very near future you will be able to run a ~120 IQ LLM on your own machine, calling on local legal data that is updated daily from an oracle, and can answer most legal questions without connecting to a third party service," Wooding added. While the current primary bottlenecks for local deployment remain hardware-related—specifically the cost of vRAM and token throughput—Counsel Stack is actively optimizing its architecture to overcome these challenges. The company is also preparing to announce further integrations, including a connection to the Mike OSS front end, which is purpose-built for legal applications. This development positions Counsel Stack at the forefront of the "private AI" movement in law, offering firms the ability to maintain data sovereignty while utilizing cutting-edge research tools. As the legal industry continues to grapple with the balance between AI efficiency and data security, Counsel Stack’s approach offers a compelling path forward. Counsel Stack provides advanced legal technology infrastructure, specializing in citation graphs and AI-driven research tools designed to empower legal professionals with accurate, grounded, and efficient workflows. It is a portfolio company of Brown and White Ventures.
July 16, 2026
WHY BROWN AND WHITE VENTURES?
Integrity
Behaving honorably, even when no one is watching. We follow moral and ethical principles in all aspects of business and extend strong ethical practices in decision making, interacting with colleagues and serving customers or clients.
Insight
Being able to see or understand something clearly, often sensed using intuition. Understanding the company goals enables us to find solutions to even the most difficult tasks.
Experience
Varied professional experiences makes a difference in venture capital. Our willingness to share that experience and see our companies through adds value to our portfolio.
Investment Focus

Healthcare and Medical Startups
Shaping the future of wellness

Supporting Diversity in Entrepreneurship
Fostering diversity in entrepreneurship

Tech and Energy Startups
Driving progress towards sustainable solutions

WNY, FLX, CNY and Upstate
Generating growth in the University footprint.












