The Veteran Fund Update: November 2022
With Veterans Day approaching, we’re overwhelmed with gratitude for the support we received from our tribe last week in Las Vegas at the Military Influencer Conference, where we hosted our second annual $100,000 Veteran Pitch Competition. Please take a moment to watch the highlight video below.
TL;DR: Our tribe is growing quickly based on our shared values. We’re pleased to welcome a new portfolio company to our community and global leader Dr. Deepak Chopra as a Limited Partner and mindfulness advisor. Equally exciting, our existing portfolio companies continue to hit key milestones and rack up awards.
As we discussed on our recent Venture Partner call, we deeply believe that venture capital can be used to protect our country’s future and values during these turbulent times. Based on the feedback shared about our time together in Las Vegas, we know many share our vision.
We had an incredible few days in Las Vegas bringing together our Veteran Fund tribe for a special dinner hosted by First Republic Bank. We were joined by our Limited Partners, Venture Partners, Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and three billionaire thought leaders in the business arena. For those who attended, we cannot thank you enough for bringing The Veteran Fund values to life. The energy was a force to be reckoned with. For those who could not join us, we can’t wait to welcome you next time.
The picture above, from our team dinner, will be sent to the moon, along with the Declaration of Independence, in portfolio company Lonestar’s upcoming mission.
Mike Sherbakov, Lisa Song Sutton, Lee Mills, Monica Fullerton, and Congressman Dan Crenshaw
We welcomed an extraordinary panel of judges and our guest, Congressman Dan Crenshaw, for our second annual $100,000 Pitch Competition. The five very-talented finalists pitched live in Las Vegas to Mike, Ryan, Guy Filippelli (Squadra Ventures), Tim Hsia (Context VC), Mark Rockefeller (Second Service Foundation) and Liz OBrien (TFX Capital). After several rounds of fierce competition with more than 120 founder applicants, Pixly, led by Navy Veteran Lee Mills, was crowned the winner.
Congratulations to all teams involved! We’re thrilled to welcome Lee and Pixly to our community.
Led by seasoned Navy Veteran founder, Lee Mills, Pixly won our 2022 Veteran Pitch Contest! Pixly helps construction and facility project managers save time and money by making it easy to snap, tag, & collaborate on project photos instantly from anywhere. Pixly streamlines construction management workflows by consolidating manual processes through the power of AI, data, and dashboards, which helps reduce the overall risk of project build disputes. Learn more about Pixly in the short video here.
We are excited to welcome Dr. Deepak Chopra as an official Limited Partner at The Veteran Fund! Our core values of leadership, resilience, and purpose are rooted in mindfulness. General Partner, Justin Nahama, is leading a retreat in Dubai this month with Deepak, several Veteran Fund tribe members, and well-being leaders from around the world. We will continue to invite our tribe members to more of these exclusive opportunities and experiences.
Experts Say to Invest In Emerging Managers. Brand-name growth funds may dominate the headlines, but an industry secret is that the best return profile in venture capital has historically been produced by the newcomers and at the early stages of investing. Data from Cambridge Associates shows that new and developing firms are consistently among the top 10 performers in the asset class, accounting for 72% of the top returning firms. Source: Forbes
Instant Teams is proud to announce they are #208 on this year’s Inc. 5000 list! Liza Rodewald and Erica McMannes are the only active-duty military spouses in the Inc. 5000 Class of 2022, growing their company a staggering 2,572% over the past three years! Additionally, Instant Teams was the Diamond Sponsor of the Military Influencer Conference where Erica and Liza received the honor of being listed in the Mighty 25 of military influencers. As part of the conference, The Veteran Fund has committed to hire a Military Spouse through Instant Teams and we invite our community to do so as well. Please reach out to us if you would like to connect with Instant Teams to hire a military spouse or learn more here.
Clusiv closed its $2.25M Seed Round led by ECMC with participation from Western Governors University, Jobs for the Future Fund, Strada Education, Techstars, The Fund Austin, and 550 Capital! This is our first portfolio markup and a great milestone for the fund! Clusiv is now approved in 7 states (MO, VT, IN, CA, TN and PA in September) with ongoing discussions in CA and NY. Thanks to Venture Partner Jason Pessemier, Clusiv is also actively meeting with Microsoft leadership to explore partnership opportunities.
Candelytics won the DataHub Innovation Pitch competition at the DefenseTech Summit in Washington, DC. They had a successful visit to MacDill Air Force Base (despite the hurricane) and completed milestones for both SBIR and STTR. The team is fired up to have their commercial shipping proof of concept pilot that will launch in November. They are currently seeking customer discovery opportunities in insurance, maritime engineering, and aerospace, including partnership or sub-contracting opportunities with government prime contractors.
The Lonestar Lunar team is hard at work gearing up for their first two missions. Lonestar’s first flight to the moon, the “Independence Mission,” will occur in March 2023. Lonestar is working closely with its partners at Cape Canaveral in support of the mission and recently received a signed contract from the State of Florida as they continue to build a customer base. Lonestar also continues to make progress on its payload hardware, which is entering vibration and thermal testing at NASA’s center in Mountain View. There is a small allocation left and Lonestar welcomes introductions to any investors to close out its Seed Financing round.
Despite the headlines and market turmoil, there has never been a better time to be an early-stage founder building a meaningful company and there has never been a better time to be an investor, like The Veteran Fund, backing these resilient founders.
We’re grateful for your continued support and look forward to doing great things together!
- Mike, Ryan, Lisa, and Justin | The Veteran Fund
