Max Brickman

Max Brickman is the founder of Heartland Ventures, a Columbus-based venture capital firm he founded in 2016. Heartland was built around a model of connecting technology startups, often from coastal markets, with established Midwestern industrial businesses that can validate products, become customers, and help companies scale revenue.

Before Heartland, Brickman was entrepreneurial from an early age. Heartland’s bio says he bought his first investment property, a duplex in northern Wisconsin, at age 14 with money from a landscaping company he had started, and eventually grew that into a 450-unit residential portfolio. The Org and Forbes also describe his work with Peloton Investors and a Midwestern construction company, including a reported 20x revenue-growth outcome in that construction business.

Brickman studied Finance and Entrepreneurship at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, graduating with a B.S. Heartland says that while in college he won an Edison Award for a patented academic software product; The Org identifies the company as CleanSlate, a technology intended to prevent cheating on written exams. LinkedIn lists his education at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business from 2010 to 2014.

In his current role, Brickman oversees Heartland’s VC strategy, relationships with venture partners, and key investment decisions. Heartland reports over $100 million under management on its team page, while its January 2026 Fund III announcement said the firm would surpass $140 million in total capital across funds and investment vehicles.

• Heartland invests in “cutting-edge technology for legacy industries,” with explicit sector focus on manufacturing, logistics, real estate, construction, and supply chain.
• Stage focus is Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A. Heartland’s venture page lists a $500K-$3M investment amount; the January 2026 Fund III announcement says Fund III typically targets $2M-$3M checks.
• The firm’s core differentiation is customer-led diligence: its network of nearly 1,000 Midwestern industrial owner-operators helps stress-test startup assumptions, validate product-market fit, and become early commercial buyers.
• Brickman’s stated view is that “the customers and insights startups require are right here in the heartland region.”
• Heartland looks for companies that solve practical operating problems in industrial markets and can benefit from direct access to decision-makers and power users in those industries.
• The firm says its portfolio companies “earn a seat at the table” with relevant buyers, making sales readiness and a clear industrial use case especially important.