top of page
Indian-Head-5.jpg

Brown and white ventures

LATEST NEWS

September 22, 2026

BWV SIMM  nbo jar Sept 22 2026.PNG

SBU's SIMM Considers Investing in BWV

Brown and White Ventures co-founder Jim Aroune and advisory board member Neil Bommele presented to St. Bonaventure University's Students In Money Management Investment Club for a third time on Monday, September 22nd. In two previous meetings with the organization at the Swan Business Center, Bommele and Aroune provided an introduction to the new venture capital fund as an educational experience. The latest - was all business. SIMM hosted Brown and White Ventures as an investment candidate. The fund became the student investment group's first prospect for capital commitment under a new sector it is opening. It is also the first time an organization affiliated with the university has considered investment in the nearly three-year-old fund. SIMM has provided students with hands-on experience in actively managing an investment portfolio of publicly traded companies since 2004. Seeded with a $20,000 investment from St. Bonaventure Class of '85 alum Chris Kinslow, SIMM's current portfolio value exceeds $850,000. But for the first time, SIMM will commit to a sector it calls alternative investments. Among the options it may consider: entering into a limited partnership in a venture capital fund. Forty students attended, reviewed the fund's presentation and asked questions for half an hour. SIMM's student leadership will determine whether the organization invests. SIMM also donates one-third of its gains to charitable, non-profit organizations. It retains one third in its Equity Fund and delivers one-third of its gains to the university's endowment. Its mission aligns with that of Brown and White Ventures, which brings university alumni together as investors, deliver maximum returns for limited partners and commit at least ten percent of its net profits to a charitable contribution to St. Bonaventure's School of Business.

RECENT NEWS

image.png

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 SIlvo Rider.jpg

KAV To Welcomes 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 LOGO 2026.png

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

News

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

ChatGPT Image Apr 30, 2025, 03_30_40 AM_

Healthcare and Medical Startups

Shaping the future of wellness

ChatGPT Image May 5, 2025, 08_39_35 PM_edited.png

Supporting Diversity in Entrepreneurship

Fostering diversity in entrepreneurship

ChatGPT Image May 5, 2025, 08_28_51 PM_edited.png

Tech and Energy Startups

Driving progress towards sustainable solutions

ChatGPT Image May 5, 2025, 09_09_54 PM_edited.png

WNY, FLX, CNY and Upstate

Generating growth in the University footprint.

Integrity • Insight • Experience

bottom of page