American re-industrialization
A lot of people talk about American decline; few act.
Charlie Cafazza already backs companies willing to re-industrialize and shore up necessary production in the United States. Building as loyalty. Atoms, not apps.
About
01
I am an operator, angel investor, and technology enthusiast. I co-founded ClearChecks, a background screening and compliance platform, and now serve as Co-President of BackgroundChecks.com. That work gave me a practical bias: systems matter, trust matters, speed matters, and the boring operational details usually decide whether something actually works.
I look at this as a business operator trying to understand where technology is changing real-world capacity: how companies build, how markets allocate capital, how institutions learn, and how America competes.
As an angel investor, I focus primarily on the re-industrialization and hardening of American infrastructure: energy, defense, manufacturing, hard tech, and software that increases capacity. I look for founders solving hard problems with conviction and clarity, people who combine vision with operational discipline and moral grounding.
Midwest roots. St. Louis born. All things Cardinals and Blues.
Thesis
02
Self-determination as first principle. Covid was a wake-up call. A country that cannot make what it needs is not deciding for itself.
Not nostalgia. Not doom. Not empty optimism. The long piece is the article. Read that before you write.
Canonical · May 19, 2026
My Case for American Re-Industrialization
x.com/cafazza
Portfolio
03
These are companies he has backed, listed so a founder can see the neighborhood, not a promotion.
ATHANORAmerican specialty nitrogen chemistry
Industrial control panels
- DURIN
Mineral discovery
- GALVANICK
Industrial cybersecurity
Venture firm for an American civilizational alternative
- RMFG
US sheet metal fabrication
Heavy equipment intelligence
Income and employment verification
Next-generation nuclear energy
- WESTERN CHEMICALS
Wastewater to synthetic fuel
- Boomtown Accelerators
Accelerator
What he funds
04
US production. Hard tech. The industrial base. Founders who will put steel, silicon, or a process on American ground and take the risk that comes with it.
- Energy
- Defense
- Manufacturing
- Logistics
- AI
- Aerospace
- Robotics
- Infrastructure
- Chips
- Supply chains
- Factories
- Ships
- Power
What he will not fund
05
Weightless software
Apps, ads, and arbitrage with no factory floor, no yard, no grid, no hull. Atoms, not apps.
Nostalgia plays
This is not a costume of 1955. Re-industrialization is work in the present tense.
Doom
Decline-as-content is cheap. He is not funding a eulogy.
Empty optimism
Slogans without a plant, a process, or a bill of materials are not a company.
How he decides
06
He reads. He diligences. He writes a check.
This is not a contest. There is no public vote, no poll, no raffle, and no leaderboard. Nobody else picks the check. Applications stay private. They are not published. A no is usually silence.