Austin Petersmith
About Austin Petersmith
Austin Petersmith started his career in journalism, then worked as a developer evangelist at Appcelerator and as a marketing lead at Singly, according to his Crunchbase profile. In 2014 he started the ReadThisThing newsletter, which Inside.com acquired. He later served there as President and GM.
He then founded Capiche, which Vendr acquired, and was Vendr's VP of Growth and Community in 2023. He also founded Racket, an app for 99-second audio clips.
He is now co-founder and CEO of Howie, an email-based AI scheduling assistant. Howie announced a $1M pre-seed round, and its investors included people Petersmith had known for years. He is based in Seattle.
Petersmith is a general partner at Coughdrop Capital, an early-stage firm he runs with his brother Stu Smith. His brother says investing began in 2015. His X bio describes him as a pre-launch investor in Lattice, Mercury, Superhuman and Varda, plus 75 more companies.
Stu Smith has since joined Scribble Ventures and says he will keep supporting Coughdrop founders. He also says Austin will lead new Coughdrop investing.
Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra says the brothers were among the product's first 100 users and early investors. Symbl.ai's CEO says they were paying customers who gave product feedback. VC Sheet describes his approach as becoming a power user and paying customer of a product before investing.
On the Lounge deals desk, Petersmith is recorded in the Aristotle seed round of $5M (September 2026). Aristotle is a voice-first AI tutoring platform for students aged 13 to 18. True Ventures led the round, with Wicklow Capital and a group of angels. The announcement lists him as an angel and identifies him as CEO and co-founder of Howie.
Coughdrop's site and his X bio do not break out his AI investments by company or year, so none are listed beyond Aristotle.
VC Sheet lists Coughdrop Capital as investing at pre-seed and seed in the US. Its listed sectors are SaaS, enterprise, fintech, AI and HR tech. It gives an average check size of $100K to $500K. That figure describes the firm and comes from a third-party directory, not from Petersmith.
Coughdrop says it makes investment decisions within 24 hours of meeting founders.
- Superhuman: email product; named by Petersmith as an early investment, and its CEO calls the brothers early investors (year not public).
- Lattice: named in his X bio as a pre-launch investment (year not public).
- Mercury: named in his X bio as a pre-launch investment (year not public).
- Varda: named in his X bio as a pre-launch investment (year not public).
- Symbl.ai: its CEO says Coughdrop's founders invested and were paying customers (year not public).
- Aristotle: voice-first AI tutoring platform; he participated in the $5M seed announced in September 2026.
- crunchbase.com/person/austin-petersmith
- vcsheet.com/who/austin-petersmith
- vcsheet.com/fund/coughdrop-capital
- coughdropcapital.com
- x.com/awwstn/highlights
- linkedin.com/in/awwstn
- linkedin.com/posts/awwstn_i-have-news-weve-closed-a-1m-pre-seed-activi
- podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/democratizing-audio-content-creation-aus
Investing activity
Austin Petersmith appears in 1 AI deal tracked by the Lounge deals desk. The rounds are mostly Seed, with a median round size of $5M. The most recent is Aristotle (Seed, $5M, Sep 2026).
Austin Petersmith most often invests alongside True Ventures, Ben Broca, Drew Wadsworth and Wicklow Capital, and the companies they back on Lounge are mostly in AI.
Deals
Frequently asked questions about Austin Petersmith
Who is Austin Petersmith?
He is a founder and angel investor based in Seattle. He is CEO and co-founder of Howie, an AI scheduling assistant, and a general partner at Coughdrop Capital. He previously founded Capiche and Racket.
What stage does Austin Petersmith invest in?
VC Sheet lists Coughdrop Capital at pre-seed and seed. His public AI deal on the Lounge desk is the $5M Aristotle seed round.
What check size does Austin Petersmith write?
He has not published a personal check size that we found. VC Sheet lists an average check of $100K to $500K for Coughdrop Capital.
What does Austin Petersmith look for in a startup?
VC Sheet says he likes to become a paying customer and power user of a product before investing. It also says he values founder integrity and persistence. Coughdrop says it decides within 24 hours of meeting founders.
Which companies has Austin Petersmith backed?
His X bio names Lattice, Mercury, Superhuman and Varda. Coughdrop's testimonials include Superhuman and Symbl.ai. In AI, he took part in the Aristotle seed round.
How can founders contact Austin Petersmith?
His public profiles are LinkedIn (linkedin.com/in/awwstn) and X (@awwstn). Coughdrop Capital's website also links to both.
Is Austin Petersmith an angel investor?
Yes. Austin Petersmith invests personally as an angel.
What AI companies has Austin Petersmith invested in?
Austin Petersmith's AI investments include Aristotle. The 1 round on Lounge are listed on this page with amounts, dates and co-investors.
What stage does Austin Petersmith invest at?
In the rounds tracked on Lounge, Austin Petersmith has invested at Seed, with a median round of $5M.
Who does Austin Petersmith co-invest with?
Austin Petersmith's most frequent co-investors on Lounge are True Ventures (1 deal), Ben Broca (1 deal), Drew Wadsworth (1 deal), Wicklow Capital (1 deal) and Cognition (1 deal).