Chris Nolet

Chris Nolet is an Australian-born, San Francisco–based serial founder and engineer. He studied Mechanical Engineering at RMIT University in Melbourne (2006–2008) and began his technology career founding Skiggle Pty Ltd (circa 2009–2012), a Melbourne startup building consumer applications for iPhone, iPad, Facebook and Android — the origin of the `skiggle.com.au` email tied to his profile.

In 2012 he co-founded Kickfolio alongside Edward Dowling and Diesel Laws, a startup that let iOS apps run in the browser via HTML5. The company was accepted into 500 Startups' fifth accelerator batch, rebranded to App.io in 2013, and raised just over $1 million (led by Quest Venture Partners with follow-on from 500 Startups and PALgenesis). As CTO, Nolet was the first team member to relocate to App.io's new San Francisco office while the rest of the team remained in Melbourne — marking his move to the Bay Area.

Nolet went on to serve as a Venture Partner at 500 Startups, giving him a seat on the investor side of the early-stage ecosystem, before joining Apple as a Staff Software Engineer, where he worked on the Vision Pro spatial-computing headset alongside future co-founder Ryan Burgoyne.

Most recently, Nolet is a repeat Y Combinator founder. He is Founder & CEO of Button Computer (YC W26), a hardware startup building a clip-on, pin-shaped wearable for voice AI that promises roughly half-second response times, and was also behind Vibe Code Go (YC S25). His GitHub profile confirms his current company (Button Computer), personal site (buttoncomputer.com), and San Francisco base.

• Invests and advises primarily at the seed / earliest stages, consistent with his classification as an angel investor and his years as a 500 Startups venture partner.
• Strong affinity for technical founders and product-obsessed teams — his own bio emphasizes "a deep passion for product design" and building for "a world" reshaped by LLMs.
• Sector gravity toward what he has built himself: consumer mobile apps, developer tooling, spatial/voice computing, and AI-native hardware.
• Bridges Australia and Silicon Valley, having taken his own company (Kickfolio/App.io) through 500 Startups from Melbourne to San Francisco — a natural fit for cross-border, US-bound antipodean founders.
• Stated mission for his current work: he is "excited to bring voice AI to the masses," signaling conviction in conversational, AI-first interfaces.