We founded CIC by forming a brain trust. Both our investment edge and operational differentiation come from our diverse investor membership. In practice, we rely on each other's varied skill sets to both evaluate startups and offer specialized support. At the end of our diligence process, each member democratically bears the responsibility of voting with their dollars. And after investing, members with fitting connections or areas of expertise leverage these to further be a source of strength for portfolio companies.
If we don't have at least one investor with domain expertise, we don't consider ourselves the right partners for a startup team. This filter ensures we only work with teams we can challenge in the right ways and support in a uniquely helpful manner. There are many founding teams on track for financial success and measurable impact that still wouldn't be the right fit for us.
On the other hand, we don't limit ourselves geographically. Our team is spread all over the United States, with strong ties in Chicago, Philadelphia, Indiana, Northern New England, and South Florida. These are places that value work ethic and put people first. If those values resonate with you, then it doesn't matter where you are, we'd love to hear from you.
in federal contracts awarded to small businesses through NextStage
paid out to middle-class musical artists through Songfinch
beauty and wellness professionals earning through LISA App
smoothies sold in 2023 through Realm Foods
Fortune 500 companies trust generative AI music from Tuney
workouts completed with Caliber
pints of planet friendly, vegan cookie dough enjoyed in 2023 from Doughy
participants supported in mental health research through Apoth
restaurants minimizing their food waste with ClearCOGS
in fair loans deployed to local business through Honeycomb
of equity being protected with Aption
Greg is a Managing Partner at CIC and co-founder & CPO at portfolio company, Apoth. His main areas of focus are vertical ML/DL, HealthTech, B2B SaaS, and DTC subscription businesses.
Before Apoth, Greg developed bespoke software for precision cytometry, scientific computing, and multimodal depression prediction. Before that, he served as Head of New Verticals and Sr. Manager of Business Performance at Piano, where he helped the company to 10x revenues and achieve profitability for the first time. Greg’s first job was peeling vegetables in a Michelin star kitchen, where he learned early the value of hard work and quality focus.
Being the son of a serial entrepreneur, Greg always knew he wanted to collaborate with founders to build the future. Greg holds an MS in Computer Science from Northeastern University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, where he launched a NASA-supported pitch competition. In his time off, Greg loves getting outside and traveling with his fiancée.
EJ is a Managing Partner at CIC. He recently sold his tropical fruit farm and is solely committed to finding and partnering with visionary and data driven founders. His main areas of focus include consumer products, SaaS that improves on inefficiencies and legacy systems, and businesses that uplift communities.
Prior to CIC, EJ’s experience spans from being a co-founder of a Chicago based parking app, headhunter placing IT executives, and small business owner of a commercial pressure cleaning company. He grew up in a household with entrepreneurship at its core and really caught the entrepreneurial bug growing up working on his family farm.
EJ’s superpower is his ability to break down barriers quickly with his deep interest in human connection and building strong relationships. He holds a BA from Florida Atlantic University, where he participated in the University’s pitch competition as a finalist and found his passion for collaborating with entrepreneurs to create the future of how we live and work.
Michael is a Venture Partner at CIC. He is taking a break from operating after an unforgettable 6 year run on the Tesla Finance team. He is keen to learn about, fund, and support the next generation of clean tech mavericks and other impactful hardware companies as they cross the chasm from revenue to profit.
Over his time at Tesla, Michael led the business through pulling enough cost out of the Semi-Truck to enable a path to profitability and earmark the investment required to build a high volume factory. He led similar initiatives to improve cost in the ~$100M-$B/yr order of magnitude across the SX3Y, CyberTruck, & undisclosed next gen vehicle powertrains (Battery, Motors, etc.) He also forecasted ~$10Bn/year of vehicle-wide material cost with >99% accuracy, and built the required data infrastructure to do so.
Michael holds a BS in Economics from Wharton. He also started but dropped out of a masters program in Robotics & AI at Penn Engineering. At Penn, he enjoyed being part of the Ski Team and Outdoors Club.
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