About ModRetro

ModRetro is building an "American Sony" starting with gaming.

With leadership that is a greatest-hits roster of hardware and consumer tech veterans, they are well-equipped to make this happen. Built around one of the most credentialed hardware founders alive, ModRetro’s mission is to rekindle cherished gaming memories by blending authentic, 8-bit nostalgia with modern, high-quality engineering.

The company aims to move away from generic, disposable Chinese electronics to create premium, durable hardware that acts as a "final form" or "ultimate tribute" to classic consoles, such as Game Boy and N64.

This brings us and Palmer back to our childhood days. While most of us were just playing the game, Palmer started ModRetro at 15. Now, he’s stepping into the final boss fight, aiming to beat the game for real. We can't wait to invest (and play). 

ModRetro (@modretro) founder @PalmerLuckey diagnoses everything that's gone wrong with modern gaming:

"You're going to turn on your console, you're going to try to play it. Oh, there's a critical security update. Time for you to do your critical security update. Now you need to also update your console. All right. You're updating your console. That wiped out all the cookies. So it's time for you to log in again. But now it wants you to do two-factor authentication because fraud has become such a problem. Where's my phone? Let me see. I don't have the authenticator app..."

Source: https://x.com/tbpn

Why We Like It

1. Team

   ModRetro is built around one of the most credentialed hardware founders alive. Founder Palmer Luckey sold Oculus to Facebook for $2 billion at 21, co-founded Anduril (now valued north of $60 billion), and has spent nearly two decades obsessing over this exact product category. The founder-market fit is as clean as it gets, backed by a blue-chip cap table including 776, Founders Fund, and Bezos Expeditions. CEO Torin Herndon co-founded ModRetro and was one of Anduril's first ten employees. CFO Sam Ecker comes from Anduril, Mithril Capital, and Goldman Sachs. Director of Product Development Tim Simons was formerly Director of Hardware Engineering at Snap; GM Phone Kyle Kiang was VP North America at Nothing and CMO of OnePlus. Casey Neistat rounds it out as Head of Phone and Chief Storyteller, bringing organic distribution and a filmmaker's instinct for brand narrative. This team is purpose-built for premium consumer hardware at scale.

   
   

2. Momentum

   The Chromatic launched in 2024 and was met with near-universal critical acclaim: Forbes called it "as close to perfection as any device like this will ever get," Nintendo World Report gave it 9/10, GBA Temp scored it 9.5/10, and GamesRadar awarded it Editor's Choice while Rolling Stone named it Best Retro. The product sold through GameStop and resonated well beyond the retro gaming core, with coverage from Digital Trends, Time Extension, XDA, Android Police, and Parents. The M64, an FPGA-based console playing original N64 cartridges at 4K, is slated for spring 2026 with a waitlist already open and early-bird pricing locked. Moving from first product to unicorn-target fundraise in under two years, with a second SKU already in production, reflects genuine execution velocity and not just founder hype.

   
   

3. Nostalgia

   The retro gaming market is a generational wealth transfer play hiding in plain sight. Millennials and Gen X consumers who grew up with the Game Boy and N64 are now in their peak earning years, and they are paying premium prices to relive their childhoods at higher fidelity. ModRetro is meeting proven, durable demand with a hardware standard its competitors have struggled to match, and doing so with a brand and storytelling apparatus anchored by Neistat and art director James White of Signalnoise Studio that no other retro hardware company can replicate.

Notable Investors

ModRetro is backed by a blue-chip cap table, giving it an unusually strong institutional foundation for what is ostensibly a niche consumer hardware company, including:

1. 776

2. Founders Fund

3. Human Capital

4. Bezos Expeditions

5. Trousdale Ventures

6. SC Master Fund

7. Shrug Capital

8. Exits Capital

9. Logan Paul

10. Casey Neistat

11. Nirav Patel

Deck and additional information available upon request.

Press

1. Palmer Luckey’s retro gaming startup ModRetro reportedly seeks funding at $1B valuation

2. An Early Hands-On With The ModRetro M64

3. TBPN: Check out Palmer's full interview below

Learn more at ModRetro.com

______________________

Notes

1. LFG+ Membership: LFG+ Members receive priority access to limited allocation and reduced economics — here are our membership details. To receive LFG+ benefits for this deal, you must activate your membership before the commitment deadline.

2. Limited Information: the information available to us and what we can share will be limited due to the nature of this deal.