Thomas Hillman

Thomas J. “Tom” Hillman is a St. Louis-based entrepreneur and investor. Lewis & Clark Ventures identifies him as Founding General Partner, and Lewis & Clark Capital identifies him as Managing Partner of Lewis & Clark Holdings and Lewis & Clark Capital, as well as Founding Partner of Lewis & Clark AgriFood.

Hillman’s firm bio says he has owned more than 100 businesses across a wide range of industries, with 16 successful exits. Lewis & Clark Ventures separately describes him as a former founder and serial entrepreneur who formed the firm to partner with bold entrepreneurs building companies in the central U.S.

His notable early investing history includes Answers, where he was an early investor and remained on the board through its nearly $1B exit, and Hoover’s, Inc., where he was a founding shareholder and board member. His listed alumni companies include Answers, AWHR, FTL Finance, Gateway Blend, Hoovers Online, Ovation Holdings, Pulse Therapeutics, Rainforest Aquaculture, Rise Solar, Sendouts, SureCam, Teachers-Teachers, The Fresh Fish Co., and Valley Minerals.

Hillman is also active in St. Louis civic and institutional leadership. Lewis & Clark Capital lists him as Chairman of the Board of Barnes-Jewish Hospital, a BJC Healthcare board member, a Washington University in St. Louis trustee, and a lifetime board member of COCA. Washington University says Hillman earned an AB in 1978 and serves on the university’s Board of Trustees.

• Lewis & Clark Ventures states its mission is “to partner with visionary founders to build iconic B2B software companies.”
• The firm targets late seed through Series A B2B software companies.
• Lewis & Clark Ventures typically invests $2M–$3M initially and prefers to lead rounds, although leading is not always required.
• The firm looks for overlooked geographies outside traditional coastal capital centers.
• The firm looks for founders with “a big vision, a bold idea, and a strong ability to build and lead a great team,” especially teams with prior startup experience, domain expertise, or proximity to the problem.
• The firm leans toward companies with $500K–$1M in revenue, accelerating growth metrics, close customer relationships, and an emerging repeatable go-to-market process.
• Hillman emphasizes operational substance: “There’s no substitute for hard work, high drive, and high productivity.”
• Hillman says Lewis & Clark’s value-add is helping founders at inflection points, especially when there are systems, controls, customers, and signs of product-market fit, and the founder is ready to scale faster.