Nicholas Chirls

Nicholas Chirls is the Founder of Asylum Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in New York City. Through Asylum Ventures, he currently manages a $55 million fund that typically deploys initial investments of $1 million to $2 million into emerging technology startups. Prior to establishing his current firm, Chirls co-founded Notation Capital, which ultimately became recognized as one of the most active and successful pre-seed investment firms operating within the New York ecosystem. His formal academic background includes earning a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Yale University and a Master's Degree in Technology and Business from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Chirls maintains a primary professional focus on providing pre-seed capital to early-stage entrepreneurs, specifically approaching his startup investments by supporting technical founders as creative builders rather than traditional financial assets.