One seed-stage angel. Not a fund. Not a contest. Applications are private.
Founder Intake FormAtoms,not apps.
A lot of people talk about American decline; few act. I already back companies willing to re-industrialize and shore up necessary production in the United States. Building as loyalty. Atoms, not apps.
About
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 a seed-stage 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.
Thesis
A country that cannot make what it needs is not deciding for itself.
Self-determination as first principle. COVID was a wake-up call.
Factories are necessary, not sufficient. Re-industrialization also takes outsized intelligence, culture, youth, ambition, and a government that lets builders build.
My job is to help move the dollars and the votes so ambitious American builders can out-compete China.
Portfolio
These are companies I have backed, listed so a founder can see the neighborhood, not a promotion.
ATHANORAthanor Inc. builds American specialty nitrogen chemistry. Its stated mission is American independence in critical nitrogen chemicals, starting with defense. The company is developing a platform for faster, scalable, modular production of those materials.
BlitzpanelBlitzpanel designs and builds custom electrical control panels for engineers, OEMs, and integrators. Every panel is designed and assembled in its UL508A-certified shop in Austin, Texas. Teams upload an IO list or spec and the factory takes the job through quote, design, and build.
DurinDurin builds and operates automated drill rigs to accelerate mineral discovery. It is developing remotely operated, semi-autonomous rigs and sending data from the rig to geologists. TechCrunch reported a $3.4 million pre-seed in April 2025, led by 8090 Industries.
GalvanickGalvanick is a behavioral threat detection system built for operational technology environments. It correlates endpoint, network, infrastructure, and application data to find attackers before they can disrupt industrial operations. The founders say they built industrial security at Amazon and investigated OT intrusions at Mandiant.
New FoundingNew Founding is a venture firm focused on critical civilizational problems. It invests in early-stage founders, typically at pre-seed and seed through a fund, and uses SPVs for special opportunities. The firm partners with builders working across business, technology, culture, and politics.
RMFGRMFG laser-cuts, bends, and welds custom metal parts and assemblies at its factory in Fort Worth, Texas. The shop makes parts to a customer's design, from a single prototype to production quantities. It ships across the continental United States.
Tex SoftwareTex Software builds Tex Intel, market intelligence for the American heavy equipment industry. The product maps equipment ownership, demand, and contacts for dealers, brokers, and lenders. The company says its software, sales, and customer support are based in the United States.
TruvExitTruv is a consumer-permissioned platform that verifies income and employment from payroll and employer sources. Lenders, landlords, and screeners use it for mortgage, consumer lending, tenant screening, and background checks. The company says verifications typically return in under 30 seconds.
VashonVashon is modeled after early merchant banks. It invests in technology and strategic assets that the firm describes as critical to national sovereignty. The company says it is a firm built for the post-globalist era.
Blue Ocean MaterialsBlue Ocean Materials supplies precision-cut engineering plastics, including PEEK, PEI, POM, Nylon, and G10. Orders ship with mill certificates and lot traceability for machine shops and hard-tech OEMs. The company is based in El Segundo, California, and states that the material is made in the USA.
Valar AtomicsValar Atomics is building high-temperature gas reactors using HTGR design principles and TRISO fuel. It plans clusters of reactors on gigasites for hydrogen, data center power, heavy industrial power, and clean hydrocarbon fuels. The company is working with the Department of Energy, the San Rafael Energy Research Center, and the State of Utah on the Ward 250 research reactor.
Western ChemicalsWestern Chemicals turns wastewater into fuel. The company states that it is producing the world's cheapest fuels from wastewater.
- Boomtown AcceleratorsBoomtown Accelerators
Boomtown Accelerators, also presented as Boomtown Innovation, runs US innovation platforms for early-stage companies. Its programs cover health, sports, and connectivity, including a SportsTech platform with Comcast NBCUniversal. The firm says it manages multiple funds with more than 200 investments.
What I fund
US production. Hard tech. The industrial base. I invest at the seed stage, in founders who will put steel, silicon, or a process on American ground and take the risk that comes with it.
Energy
Valar Atomics
Defense
Athanor
Manufacturing
RMFG
Logistics
Tex Software
AI
Software that increases capacity
Aerospace
Hard tech
Robotics
Durin
Infrastructure
Galvanick
Chips
Steel, silicon, or a process
Supply chains
Blue Ocean Materials
Factories
Blitzpanel
Ships
The industrial base
Power
Western Chemicals
What I will not fund
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. I am not funding a eulogy.
Empty optimism
Slogans without a plant, a process, or a bill of materials are not a company.
How I decide
I read. I do the diligence. I write 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. If I want to look closer, you will hear from me within 10 business days. No reply in 4 weeks means no. How I work with founders.
When you apply
Applications stay private. They are not published. Nobody else picks the check.
Building something on American ground? Read how I work with founders, then apply.
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