Aaron Rudenstine

Chief Executive Officer ButterflyMX

Last Reviewed: September 28, 2026

Executive Summary

Aaron Rudenstine is Chief Executive Officer of ButterflyMX, the New York company that began with a smartphone-connected video intercom for apartment buildings and has grown into a property access and security platform used in some 20,000 buildings. He is not its founder: Cyrus Claffey started ButterflyMX in 2014, and Rudenstine took over as CEO in 2019, bringing the experience of a founder who had already built and sold a company of his own, the mapping start-up Citymaps, acquired by TripAdvisor in 2016. Under his leadership ButterflyMX raised a $50 million round in 2021 and, in January 2025, a growth equity investment led by FTV Capital.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer of ButterflyMX since 2019; SEC Form D filings list him as an executive officer and director, signing as President and Chief Executive Officer.
• Signed the December 2021 Form D recording $50 million sold in ButterflyMX’s round that year.
• Announced the January 2025 growth equity investment led by FTV Capital, with Lead Edge Capital and Fifth Wall participating and existing investors JMI Equity and Volition Capital keeping their positions.
• Co-founded Citymaps in 2011; the company was acquired by TripAdvisor in 2016.
• Angel investor in companies including Reddit, Button, Omaze and Pinata.

Professional Journey

Rudenstine co-founded Citymaps in 2011. SEC filings from the period list him as an executive officer and director of CityMaps, Inc., alongside chief executive Elliot Cohen. Citymaps was acquired by TripAdvisor in 2016. Alongside that work he invested as an angel in a range of consumer and technology companies, among them Reddit, Button, Omaze, Henry The Dentist, Parallel Wireless, Clear Ballot, Pinata and FilmRise.

In 2019 he became Chief Executive Officer of ButterflyMX, which Cyrus Claffey had founded in 2014 around a simple premise: opening a building’s front door should be as easy as using a smartphone. Claffey remains listed by the company as its founder. ButterflyMX’s securities filings from 2020 onwards list Rudenstine as an executive officer and director, and he signed them as President and Chief Executive Officer, including a December 2021 filing recording a $50 million raise.

The business widened considerably in that period. ButterflyMX acquired CloudKeyz in 2022 and extended from intercoms into access control, elevator and gate access, and integrations with property-management and smart-lock systems. In January 2025 it announced a growth equity investment led by FTV Capital, with Lead Edge Capital and Fifth Wall co-investing, at a point when it reported nearly 17,000 buildings and 1.5 million daily users. Rudenstine described the company then as having grown “from just a video intercom to a fully integrated suite of access control and security products.” The company’s own review of 2025 records the launch of a QR code intercom, new integrations, reaching 20,000 buildings, and new offices in Toronto and Southern California.

ButterflyMX is headquartered in New York, with Canadian headquarters in Toronto and European headquarters in Croatia, and reports more than 300 employees.

Education

Harvard University

MBA. The year of the degree was not found.