Who's Tackling Life's Hard Stuff?

Kairosis a company that funds startups. And those companies have a mission: to identifyunsexy, overlooked, challenging industries, and then fix them like nobody else ever has.

- Mary Pilon

On a recent sun-drenched spring afternoon, Daniel Mishin is strolling through the townhouse in Manhattan’s West Village where he lives, works, and, if time allows, plays. It could bring on a serious case of Manhattan real estate envy—lofty ceilings, wooden staircases, gleaming appliances, capped off with a roof deck and a back porch. Trees line the street, where the Waverly Inn peeks through from the view on the stoop.

Most enviable is the price: Residents here can pay as little as $1,900 a month per private room, up to 40 percent below the area average for a shared apartment— but the price includes cleaning services, security deposit, internet, utilities, and even some toiletries (among them a very lovely hand soap). “Adult dorms? We don’t play that game,” says Mishin, who is as crisp and friendly as his surroundings. “This is a home.”

His neighbors know they have Mishin to thank for the living arrangement. It’s the product of his company, Residenz, which aims to create affordable urban housing for young professionals. But many residents may not be aware that there’s a force behind Residenz—and it’s the same force behind a growing number of buzzy startups run by young, ambitious founders.

It’s called Kairos. In the past 20 months, it produced five startups—the first four are profiled here—and invested in 16 more, and it has aggressive plans to keep growing.