Firebrand was created after Managing Director John Fein saw 30 Techstars Kansas City companies struggle to raise seed rounds in non-coastal ecosystems, leading to a fund that deliberately targets cities like Austin, Boulder, Denver, Chicago, Des Moines, and Kansas City rather than SF/NYC/LA. The fund operates with deep accelerator DNA and maintains physical offices across three secondary hubs (Boulder, Kansas City, Austin) to provide hands-on, accelerator-style support to founders in non-coastal ecosystems, including being their first late-night call and rolling up sleeves in the earliest days.