We help companies grow and achieve their potential.

Amped is a venture studio for ambitious founders. We bring capital, a team that's done it before, and a playbook to turn great ideas into great companies.

How we work

Meet the team

Why Amped

Shipping

the

product

is

the

easy

part

now

with

AI.

Building

a

great

company

around

it

is

still

an

art

We've spent careers in that part of the work. Amped exists to bring the team, the capital, the playbook, and a partner who actually cares about the customers you serve, the team you build, and the company you're trying to leave behind.

The AI Shift

A new shape for the company you can build today.

01

The barrier to starting collapsed.

What used to take hundreds of thousands and nine months - the prototype, the first customer flow, the early infra - now takes a few weeks of focused work with the right tools and expertise.

02

The barrier to succeeding hasn't.

Customers still need to love the thing. Markets still need to be real. Distribution, retention, pricing, hiring - none of that got easier because the demos got better. The work that actually compounds is unchanged.

03

Small teams, massive leverage.

A handful of exceptional people backed by AI can now build what used to require an army. But they have to be exceptional, and they have to be pointed at the right thing from day one. That's where Amped comes in.

Our mission

To help companies grow and achieve their potential.

Our values

Love your neighbour as you do yourself

A guiding principle we live as a firm and infuse into every portfolio company we help build.

Together as a family

Care deeply enough to challenge directly, share the hard parts, and move as one team.

The pursuit of passion

Stay genuinely stoked by the vision, and ask why when the path forward does not thrill us.

Leave it better than you found it

Every company, room, and decision should be stronger because we were part of it.

Love your neighbour as you do yourself Together as a family The pursuit of passion Leave it better than you found it

How we work

Three ways to work with us.

01

Ideas we originate

We see a problem worth solving. We design the company, place a dedicated operator in the lead, and build it from day one. Studio capital, team, and playbook all in.

02

Ideas you bring

You have the idea. Maybe a prototype, maybe just a spark. We come in alongside you with product, GTM, operations, capital, and the network to open doors so you can move faster than you could alone.

03

Implementation

Running a "boring" but profitable business? We integrate practical AI workflows that cut manual work and accelerate growth. Your team focuses on what matters most—we handle the rest.

Our process

From idea to a company that scales.

A studio framework, not a magic trick. We work the same arc with every venture so the speed compounds.

Ideation

We surface problems worth solving and pressure-test the idea before anyone writes a line of code.

Validation

Customer conversations, market sizing, and a financial model that has to hold up before we go further.

Build

Pair the operator with the studio team. Build the product, set up operations, ship the first version.

Launch & grow

The operator leads. Studio stays alongside for GTM, capital, and the next set of problems.

Who we are

Meet the team.

AI-native, full-cycle experienced operators

Founded Scaled Sold Integrated Bought

We have lived the company journey end to end - and we are building for what comes next.

Partners

Matt Cimino

Managing Partner, Amped Ventures

Matt is a lifelong builder. He has founded and run multiple software companies, and in 2024 sold his most recent, Amped, to Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU). He stayed on post-acquisition to lead the full integration of Amped into the Mailchimp product - powering experiences for hundreds of thousands of businesses and millions of their customers.

His scope then expanded across all of Mailchimp's product serving the ecommerce vertical. He also partnered closely with Intuit Corp Dev from the inside on multiple deals, including the acquisition of Wilmington-based Raleon.

Having now founded, scaled, sold, integrated, and bought companies, Matt brings a full-circle perspective to Amped Ventures.

Board of Advisors

Mike Burns

Principal, Canapi Ventures

Mike is a Principal at Canapi Ventures and has deployed over $100M in capital into both venture and growth stage companies. . Before VC, he served nine years as a Navy SEAL officer, deploying multiple times with SEAL Team Five and finishing his service as Officer in Charge of SEAL Qualification Training. Earlier, he started his career on Morgan Stanley's Sales & Trading desk. UNC Chapel Hill undergrad and Berkeley Haas MBA. Also serves on the board of the Boulder Crest Foundation.

Chase Olivieri

Founder, Listo Labs

Chase is a product-minded engineer and repeat founder. At Listo Labs, he's shipped 50+ ecommerce experiences for leading consumer brands, with hundreds of millions in GMV flowing through sites he's built. Duke University undergrad and MS from the University of Miami. Deep in AI-native product work, ecommerce, and performance, he brings both technical range and market pattern recognition to build and scale from day one.

Announcing soon

Third advisor

An additional advisor joining the board shortly.

Studio Portfolio

A sampling of what we're building.

Generational

AI estate planning

In build

HealthOS

Open-source OS for your health

Coming soon

GitChaOne

Golf scoring

Live

Generational

AI estate planning

In build

HealthOS

Open-source OS for your health

Coming soon

GitChaOne

Golf scoring

Live

In-person events

Join us at the next Wilmington AI Roundtable.

Wilmington's NEW AI Roundtable - Thursday May 28th at 5:30pm at Synply Office, 7th Floor of The Skyline Center in downtown Wilmington. Hosted by NEW and Amped Ventures.

Every quarter, Amped Ventures and NEW (Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington) bring local AI builders, founders, and operators into the same room. No slides. No headliners. Just the work - what people are building, what's working, and what they're stuck on.

Next up: Thursday, May 28th at 5:30pm - Synply Office, 7th Floor of The Skyline Center, downtown Wilmington.

RSVP for May 28th

Get on the list

For the curious

What is a venture studio?

A studio is the build partner at the front of a company. It brings the idea, the capital, the operators, and the playbook into the room on day zero - then stays close as the company earns its next phase.

Venture studio · Amped

Builds the company from day zero.

Pick the problem. Co-found the company. Write the first check, bring the operators, build the product, open the doors that need opening. We're in the operating chair until the company can run on its own.

Starts companies from scratch
Brings idea, team, and capital
Builds the product in-house
Acts as a co-founder
Compresses the path to traction

Venture Studio Thesis

Venture studios accelerate the path to succcess.

Venture studio startups

Traditional startups

Funding rounds shown as one common milestone - the same time-compression shows up whether a company raises, seedstraps, or never takes outside capital. Source: Wood, M. - “Raising Capital for Startups: 8 Statistics That Will Surprise You,” Fundera.

Similar, often confused

These three live next door to a studio and share some of the same DNA. In practice the lines do blur - plenty of accelerators do studio-ish things, plenty of studios run cohort programs. Here's the rough split most of the time.

Incubator

Shapes a raw idea

Desks, mentors, and time. Helpful before there's anything to build - less helpful once it's time to actually build it.
Accelerator

A short, structured push

Cohort, programming, demo day. Designed for a team with an MVP that needs the next nudge - not for starting from scratch.
VC firm

Capital after the market responds

Checks and board seats once a company is working. Most aren't built to sit in the operating chair with you.

Amped sits before and across those handoffs - so an idea worth testing has the team, the capital, and the craft to become a company worth scaling.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Amped actually do?

We're a venture studio. We back ambitious founders with capital, an operating team, and a playbook for getting from "this is possible" to "this is a real company." Three engagement paths - studio-originated builds, partnering with founders who have a spark, and AI consulting for established businesses.

Where are you based?

Wilmington, NC. The studio is anchored here. We work with founders anywhere, but a lot of what we do - the AI Roundtable, the in-person work with founders - happens in Wilmington.

What stage of company do you work with?

From idea to early traction. If you have a sketch on a napkin, a half-built prototype, or a few customers and you want to go faster, we're set up to help. If you're past product-market fit and scaling, we may still be open to a direct investment - or, if it makes sense, working alongside your team to help you keep moving faster.

What industries do you focus on?

Mostly software businesses, but not exclusively. We're not married to a vertical. The filter is whether we have real pattern recognition for the problem and the people we'd build it with. AI is the tool, not the identity - the ventures themselves can be anything that needs to exist.

How do equity and capital work?

It depends on the path. Studio-originated builds and founder partnerships involve studio equity in exchange for capital and the team's time. Consulting engagements are billed work, no equity. We'll talk through specifics on the call - we don't pretend there's a one-size deal.

How do I pitch you?

Email hello@amped.io. A few sentences on what you're working on and what you're trying to figure out is enough to start. No deck required. If we're a fit we'll set up a call. If we're not, we'll try to point you at someone who is.

Wilmington, NC

Let's make it happen.

Get in touch

Pitch us your idea