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Norbauer & Co.
Handcrafted luxury mechanical keyboards.
Based in Los Angeles, CA.
Key facts
- Joined Tiny
- 2024held 2 years
- Founded by
- Ryan Norbauer
- Based in
- Los Angeles, CA
- Website
- norbauer.com
About Norbauer & Co.
Norbauer & Co. was founded by Ryan Norbauer in Los Angeles as a boutique manufacturer of luxury mechanical keyboard cases and accessories. The category sounds niche because it is — most people type on $20 keyboards and never think about it. A small, obsessive community spends thousands of dollars on mechanical keyboards, and Norbauer makes the cases that community lusts after: milled from solid aluminum and bronze, finished like jewelry, and sold in limited drops that tend to sell out within minutes.
The business is an unusual fit for a public-company portfolio precisely because it's so unapologetically craft-driven. Every case is made to order or in small batches; pricing is premium; and the customer base finds Norbauer through word of mouth in the mechanical keyboard community rather than through paid acquisition.
Tiny acquired a 49% stake in Norbauer & Co. in 2024 as part of Tiny Fund I — Ryan kept majority ownership and full creative control. The company continues to operate from Los Angeles with Ryan Norbauer leading product and creative direction.
Why Norbauer & Co. fits Tiny
Norbauer is a small business by Tiny's standards, but the model is exactly the kind of thing Tiny is willing to own — a profitable, founder-led brand serving a passionate niche, with a moat built from craft and reputation rather than scale.
Tiny's role is to provide patient ownership, leaving the founder to run the brand the way it has always been run. There's no growth playbook to impose; the value is in the work itself.