Carl Labanz

Carl Labanz spent his venture career at CincyTech, one of the Midwest's most active seed funds, which invests in disruptive human-health and technology companies rooted in the Ohio innovation ecosystem. He joined as a Venture Analyst in 2019 and held that role through 2023, supporting deal sourcing, diligence, and portfolio work across the firm's health and technology practices. In 2023 he transitioned to Manager of Process Innovation at CincyTech, focusing on internal operations and workflow improvement rather than pure investing.

Before venture capital, Labanz worked at the Daniel Morgan Graduate School of National Security in Washington, D.C., an independent graduate school of national security and intelligence, where he served as board treasurer and director of finance and helped a small team advance the school toward accreditation candidacy. This finance-and-operations background carried into his analyst and process-innovation work at CincyTech.

He holds bachelor's degrees in History and International Studies from Xavier University and an MBA from the University of Cincinnati's Carl H. Lindner College of Business. He also earned a 2021 certificate from Rouxbe Online Culinary School and has served as a director and treasurer of the Cincy Soccer League. As of 2026, his LinkedIn lists his current role as Solutions Architect at Zapier, indicating he has moved from venture investing into a technology solutions role — so treat the CincyTech contact details as potentially dated.

• Invests at the earliest stages — pre-seed and seed — where CincyTech partners early to "transform ideas into world-class companies," often before a product is commercialized.
• Backs founders with novel and defensible technology aimed at urgent problems in health and tech; CincyTech's portfolio skews heavily toward digital/human health, life sciences, and deep tech.
• Comfortable with capital-intensive science: CincyTech-led rounds have funded preclinical research and clinical trials (e.g., vaccines, therapeutics), not just software.
• Seed checks generally in the $500K–$1.5M range, with the firm frequently leading or co-leading and syndicating alongside regional and national investors.
• Strong bias toward the Ohio / Southwest Ohio ecosystem, translating university and hospital research (Cincinnati Children's, University of Cincinnati) into scalable companies.