Michael Boyle

Mike Boyle is a Managing Partner at Ecliptic Capital, an Austin-based early-stage venture firm that positions itself as a team of ex-Fortune 500 operators who work alongside founders as co-founders rather than passive investors. He brings roughly 30 years of financial services and insurance-technology experience, having spent much of his career as a technology and operations executive at large enterprises before moving into venture investing.

Prior to venture, Boyle held senior C-suite roles including CIO at Aflac, CIO & COO for Allstate's Financial Services businesses, and CIO & COO at Robertson Stephens, the well-known Silicon Valley investment bank. He is also an operator-founder in his own right, having co-founded the healthtech company Sempulse, and he serves on corporate boards — including a board seat at National Auto Care (NAC). He earned a B.S. in economics from the University of South Carolina.

Boyle is one of the operating/managing partners who joined Ecliptic Capital near its founding. The firm was launched around 2018–2019 by Mike Erwin and William "Whurley" Hurley, raising a debut fund of roughly $125M (with a cap near $150M), and built a team of operator-investors that included Boyle alongside partners such as James Puckett (Managing Partner / CFO) and Mike Millard (Operating Partner). He is also affiliated with Optimal Symmetry, likewise based in Austin.

Beyond investing, Boyle mentors military veterans through Bunker Labs and lends his cybersecurity and insurance experience to startup advisory roles — for example, he was appointed to the advisory board of ApexaiQ, a cybersecurity/asset-intelligence company, in August 2023.

• Operator-led, hands-on model. Ecliptic backs early-stage companies with a team of former Fortune 500 operators and engages "as co-founders rather than passive investors." The firm's stated strategy, per co-founder Mike Erwin: *"We saw a huge opportunity around operational inefficiency. So our strategy is to use our operational experience to reveal and capture value."*
• Stage: Pre-Seed through Series A, targeting companies that have a validated product and customers but haven't yet scaled.
• Check size: roughly $50K–$5M, with core initial checks typically in the $1–2M range; the debut fund was designed for ~50 investments.
• Sectors: deep tech / hardware, climate & energy transition, material science, life sciences / med tech / digital health, cybersecurity, and identity/data sovereignty.
• Geography: national but Texas-centric, reflecting the firm's Austin roots.
• What makes them say yes: teams solving hard, technical/operational problems where the firm's own enterprise-operator experience can add value.