Elizabeth Cutler
Elizabeth Cutler is the SoulCycle co-founder turned angel investor, backing consumer, wellness, and sustainability startups through her firm Dopamine Ventures. In water she is a one-off backer: her single tracked water bet is Epic Cleantec, the onsite water-reuse startup. As of 2026 she has backed 1 water company across 2 deals since 2016.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Elizabeth Cutler built SoulCycle, not a water company. She and Julie Rice turned a Craigslist studio lobby into a 60-studio fitness brand before leaving in 2016, and it is that consumer-brand instinct, not a water thesis, that she carries into investing. Dopamine Ventures is her personal angel vehicle, formed the year she left SoulCycle to advise, invest in, and incubate community, wellness, and human-betterment companies.
Cutler's water exposure is light, and that is the honest read. She is what (don't) Waste Water calls a one-off water backer: across a portfolio that leans consumer and wellness, exactly one company touches water. Epic Cleantec is a San Francisco startup whose systems recycle a building's own wastewater on-site, so it can be reused for flushing, irrigation, and cooling. Cutler backed it early and again at its Series A, the kind of small personal angel check (her own money, not an institutional fund) that wellness and consumer founders were writing for the company.
The pattern across Cutler's water activity is thin but coherent: one company, in the consumer-facing corner of water where the customer is a building owner or a brand, not a utility. She joins rounds rather than leading them, lending a name other investors price and steer. For a founder, that makes Cutler a credibility and distribution signal more than a lead check, the operator who knows how to build a beloved consumer brand from nothing. For water specifically, she is a name to know, not a thesis to chase.
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
- Who is Elizabeth Cutler?
- Elizabeth Cutler is the co-founder of SoulCycle, the fitness brand she built with Julie Rice from 2006 to 2016. Since leaving, she has invested as an angel through Dopamine Ventures, her own New York firm backing consumer, wellness, community, and sustainability startups.
- What water companies has Elizabeth Cutler invested in?
- Elizabeth Cutler has one tracked water investment: Epic Cleantec, a San Francisco company whose systems recycle a building's wastewater on-site for reuse in flushing, irrigation, and cooling. She backed it early and joined its later Series A round.
- What is Dopamine Ventures?
- Dopamine Ventures is Elizabeth Cutler's personal angel and incubation vehicle, formed in 2016 after she left SoulCycle. It advises, invests in, and helps build community-rooted consumer and wellness companies. It is Cutler's own firm, not an institutional fund with outside limited partners (LPs).
- Is the SoulCycle founder the same Elizabeth Cutler who invests in water?
- Yes. The Elizabeth Cutler named as an Epic Cleantec investor is the SoulCycle co-founder and Dopamine Ventures founder based in New York, not a different person. Water is a small, one-off part of her broader consumer and wellness investing.