About Us

Freeing Boardgames from Tables and Screens

Our Mission is to create compact, durable and delightful products that get people off screens and out into the world. Because of our love for chess, we’re starting here with VentureBoard Chess. We have endeavored to create games that can accompany you on every adventure, no matter where life takes you.

May 2020

VentureBoard Conceived

Co-Founder Lewis Kerwin was on a long road trip and got frustrated with how classic board games like chess were so ill-equipped for people on the go. He sketched up a schematic for a better travel chess set, and VentureBoard was Born

Co-Founders Meet

Going table-to-table showing his prototypes in a Seattle bar, Lewis meets Kirk Grogan, tech entrepreneur and chess enthusiast. Kirk is immediately drawn to the simplicity and creativity of VentureBoard, and offers to help with digital marketing. A partnership begins.

July 2022

Kickstarter Success

VentureBoard launches publicly for the first time on Kickstarter. Fully funded in less than 24 hours, the kickstarter community of backers transform a dream into a viable business and widely available product. VentureBoard launches on Shopify and Amazon shortly later.

The Future

Go, Backgammon and more

While we started with chess, we are eager to bring our design to every game that students, travelers and adventurers would like to take with them. We are thrilled to be developing classics like backgammon, Go and more.

Our people

Lewis Kerwin, MD. grew up playing chess with his father and exploring the hills and mountains of southern Oregon. As he became an adult, he became annoyed with how sedentary most board games were, especially for people with an active lifestyle. This led him to design VentureBoard, a better travel game board that can go anywhere, fold up in an instant and magnetically save your game. When not managing Ventureboard, Lewis works as an emergency psychiatrist.