Cliff Sirlin

Biography

Cliff Sirlin is an adjunct professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, where he teaches Entrepreneurship through Acquisition (“ETA”), a course focused on teaching student how to identify, value, and acquire an existing business in the lower middle markets.

Cliff is a Partner at the Buy Build Fund (2022- present), a lower middle market private equity firm focused on teaming up with talented entrepreneurs to help acquire and grow smaller, cash flow positive companies. In this capacity, he also serves on the Board of Directors of Prints of Love, a leading print & design services business.

Cliff is also a Venture Partner at LaunchCapital (2024-present), an early-stage venture capital fund that is part of Karen Pritzker’s family office. Prior to his role as Venture Partner, he served as the Managing Director of LaunchCapital (2016-2024). Over the past 15 years, LaunchCapital has invested in over 200 companies throughout the United States. During his tenure at LaunchCapital, Cliff has led investments in Alloy, BentoBox, PeopleGrove, Revel, and many other up & coming technology disruptors. Additionally, he has served on numerous boards of early-stage companies.

Prior to his role at LaunchCapital, Cliff was a career entrepreneur and early-stage investor who has founded, invested in and operated a portfolio of high growth businesses. Over the past 25 years, he has focused on creating marketplaces and disrupting inefficient supply chains. The companies he has co-founded and invested in have spanned a broad diversity of industries, including technology, energy, food services, e-commerce, drycleaning, media and real estate. Two of his pre-seed stage investments have achieved unicorn status – inVision & Seamless. Other pre-seed investments include Pond5, Living Social, Transactis, Big Fuel, Galileo and many others that have achieved meaningful returns.

Immediately preceding his tenure as Managing Director of LaunchCapital, Cliff was the Co-Founder & CEO of the Domino Media Group, Inc. (2011-2016). The Domino Media Group published domino magazine and ran domino.com. Originally a Conde Nast owned media property, domino was spun out of Conde Nast to marry content to commerce in the digital age. Domino Media Group was sold to Multiply Media in 2018.

Prior to the Domino Media Group, Cliff served as the CEO and co-founder of mdenergy. Formed in February 2001, mdenergy was one of the largest independent energy advisory firms in the United States managing more than 1,200 megawatts of electric demand. mdenergy clients included Disney, Barclays, ESPN, The McGraw Hill Companies, Tishman-Speyer, Vornado Realty Trust, The New York Times, and Whole Foods. mdenergy was acquired by EnerNOC, a publicly traded energy services firm based in Boston, Massachusetts in September 2007.

Earlier in his career, Cliff served as Vice-President of Delivery for Zoots, a national dry-cleaning company based in Boston, MA founded by Tom Stemberg and Todd Krasnow, the respective Chairman and President of Staples. Mr. Stemberg & Mr. Krasnow purchased Cliff’s first startup, Cleaner Options in 1999. Cleaner Options reintroduced pick-up & delivery drycleaning to the market in the mid-1990s. The acquisition and subsequent developments at Zoots were captured in the Harvard Business School Case Study "Zoots - Financing Growth" ( Harvard Business School Case 807-139, June 2007).

Cliff received his law degree from The New York University School of Law in 1992. While at NYU, Mr. Sirlin also studied at the Stern School of Business. He earned his undergraduate degree in History from Colgate University in 1989.

Mr. Sirlin is currently the President of StartUp Westport, a Public-Private partnership whose mission is to activate, engage & grow the technology and innovation ecosystem in Westport, CT and the great Fairfield County area (2023-present).

Courses Taught

• Introduction to Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition & Search Funds