Sam Goodner

Sam Goodner is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and mentor based in Austin, Texas. A dual citizen of Switzerland and the United States, he grew up in Europe and served as a mountain infantry officer (Grenadier) in the Swiss Army before arriving in Austin in 1992. In 1993, at age 26, he founded Catapult Systems with roughly $17,000 in startup capital and built it into what became widely described as the world's leading Microsoft Systems Integrator — a firm of 450+ employees across ~10 U.S. regional offices — before selling it (reported circa 2013–2014). He earned Inc. 500 CEO recognition and an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award during that run.

During his roughly two decades leading Catapult, Goodner also founded and sold two software product companies, PowerDOC and Inquisite, and launched Mobile Alchemy (a mobile application development firm) and Slingrock (an interactive design and marketing agency).

In November 2016, Goodner co-led (alongside serial entrepreneur and angel investor Dan Sharplin) a $3M financing round for Klever Logic, an Austin parking-technology company, and joined as President. Klever Logic was later rebranded FlashParking, where Goodner served as President and subsequently Chief Strategy Officer; he helped scale the company to become the largest parking-technology company globally, reportedly surpassing $100M in revenue and reaching a ~$1B ("unicorn") valuation.

Today Goodner is largely retired from operating roles and is the founder/manager of Four Winds Capital LP, a family investment holding company. He mentors founders (including at Tech Ranch Austin) and in 2025 published *Like Clockwork: Run Your Business with Swiss Army Precision*, distilling his operating philosophy of building systems-driven organizations.

• Stage: Seed / angel — early-stage startups.
• Check size: Roughly $5K–$50K per Signal/NFX, with a typical ~$25K check.
• Sectors: SMB software/SaaS, cloud infrastructure, hardware, consumer internet, and parking/mobility technology — areas mirroring his own operating background.
• What makes him say yes: He is "passionate about solving business problems through the innovative use of technology" (Tech Ranch mentor profile) — favoring founders applying technology to concrete, real-world business pain rather than novelty for its own sake.
• Operator-investor lens: His *Like Clockwork* philosophy emphasizes disciplined, systems-driven execution ("Swiss Army precision"), suggesting he values founders who can build repeatable, scalable operations — not just a product.