Good Growth Capital
Good Growth Capital is a majority women-owned, early-stage venture capital firm based in Charleston, South Carolina that backs deep-science startups across life science, hard science, green tech, and data science. Founded in 2017, its green-tech work reaches into water: as of 2026 it has backed reverse-osmosis membrane developer Nala Membranes.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Good Growth Capital is not a water fund, and that is the first thing worth knowing about it. It is a majority women-owned, early-stage venture firm that hunts for hard-science companies coming out of university labs, across life science, green tech, hard science, and data science. Water turns up inside that wider thesis, never as the whole point.
Good Growth Capital runs out of Charleston, South Carolina, with partners in Boston and New York. Its founders, Amy Salzhauer and Maureen Stancik Boyce, came up turning MIT, Harvard, and Cambridge lab science into companies through their earlier firm Ignition Ventures, and that lab-to-market instinct is the firm's real edge. David Mendez, who co-founded the first venture firm in South Carolina, leads its green-tech work, the corner where water sits.
Good Growth Capital is, in water specifically, an occasional investor rather than a specialist. The one water company I track in my Leviathan database is Nala Membranes, a developer of next-generation reverse-osmosis membranes, supported across three early-stage rounds. It is a classic Good Growth bet: deep materials science with a defensible technical core, the unglamorous kind of hard tech the firm prefers over anything flashy.
Good Growth Capital is the rare deep-science generalist that treats water as one expression of a bigger idea, that patient capital and genuine technical diligence can build real companies straight out of the lab. For a newcomer, it is a useful reminder that some of water's best technology arrives through a green-tech door, not a water-only one. Expect its water exposure to track its green-tech appetite rather than any standalone water mandate.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 1 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Good Growth Capital invest in?
- Good Growth Capital backs early-stage, science-heavy startups in life science, hard science, green tech, and data science, typically companies spun out of university labs. It is a deep-science generalist rather than a single-sector fund, and water technology enters its portfolio through the green-tech part of that thesis.
- Does Good Growth Capital invest in water?
- Good Growth Capital invests in water occasionally, not as a specialist. Within its green-tech work it has backed Nala Membranes, a developer of next-generation reverse-osmosis membranes. Water sits alongside clean energy, life science, and data science in a broader deep-science portfolio rather than forming a dedicated water fund.
- Who runs Good Growth Capital?
- Good Growth Capital is a majority women-owned firm led by founders Amy Salzhauer and Maureen Stancik Boyce, alongside Managing Partners David Mendez, who heads green tech, and Carolyne LaSala, who heads data science. Principal Sophie Hagerty covers green tech including clean energy and resource circularity.
- Where is Good Growth Capital based?
- Good Growth Capital is based in Charleston, South Carolina, with partners working from Boston and New York. Founded in 2017, the firm invests largely across the United States East Coast in early-stage deep-science companies, from life science and hard science to green tech and data science.
- Is Good Growth Capital a growth-capital fund?
- Despite the name, Good Growth Capital is an early-stage venture firm, not a late-stage growth-equity investor. It writes pre-seed, seed, and Series A cheques into young, science-based startups. The word growth in its name reflects its mission, building durable companies, rather than the funding stage it targets.