August Gildner

August Gildner is a Fort Worth–based finance executive whose investing work has centered on GrowCo Capital, the family-office / investment firm founded in 2014 by Joshua Robertson (founder of National HME) and led alongside Principal George Robertson. GrowCo describes itself as a "full-service investment firm specializing in business management, consulting, and real estate development," backing early-stage businesses, startups, and commercial properties with the stated goal of stimulating local and state economic growth. Gildner is listed as a Vice President at the firm and uses a growcocapital.com email; public records show he served as Senior Vice President of Finance Operations at GrowCo from May 2017 to October 2018, placing him inside the firm's finance and deal operations during an active investing period.

Gildner's academic background is in economics and finance. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and German from Vanderbilt University (2000–2004) and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Texas Christian University's M.J. Neeley School of Business (2013–2015). Building on that MBA, he served as an Adjunct Professor in the TCU Neeley MBA Program beginning in early 2019, teaching finance in the same program from which he graduated.

Beyond GrowCo, Gildner has held corporate finance and development roles in the industrial-distribution sector. He worked at TestEquity LLC in corporate development and is currently Director of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) at Motion & Control Enterprises (MCE), a Fort Worth–area distributor of industrial motion and control products (formerly Ritter Technology) operating in automation machinery manufacturing. He holds the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) designation. His profile is therefore that of a finance-operations specialist who has paired a corporate FP&A/M&A career with early-stage investing through a Fort Worth family office rather than that of a full-time institutional venture investor.

• Invests through GrowCo Capital, a Fort Worth family office that backs early-stage businesses, startups, and commercial real estate at seed / early stage.
• Sector emphasis mirrors the founders' operating history: healthcare and post-acute / long-term care, therapeutic devices, consumer and food products, and real estate development.
• GrowCo positions itself around operator-led partnership — "many years of experience in entrepreneurship, investment, and business management" offering "trusted collaboration, true partnership, and business growth" rather than passive capital.
• Stated mission is to invest in entrepreneurs, ventures, and projects that make a positive impact, including both for-profit and mission-driven ventures, with a bias toward local and Texas / Fort Worth economic growth.
• Gildner's own lens is finance-operations-driven (FP&A, corporate development, CFA), suggesting attention to unit economics, capital efficiency, and a credible path to sustainable growth.
• Check size is not publicly disclosed — consistent with a family office writing flexible, deal-by-deal angel/early-stage checks.