FirstIgnite

Former VC investor in university research (Illinois Ventures) and corporate innovation (TechNexus). Very focused on building tools to help scientific companies grow faster.

Cody is the Co-Founder and CTO of FirstIgnite: the #1 tool for university-industry collaboration. While attending UIUC, he cofounded his first startup, Convey, and ultimately dropped out to pursue the venture full-time. The social listening platform predicted major elections such as Brexit and netted partnerships from political campaigns to drive outreach strategy. He's now focused on using AI to help research institutions partner with industry—getting more breakthroughs to market.