Mike Sherbakov 10/13/23 Mike Sherbakov 10/13/23

The Veteran Fund Update: Q3 2023

As our country and allies continue to navigate unprecedented global turmoil, we remain steadfast in our mission to protect America through venture capital.

The unfolding events in Israel, including US-citizen casualties and hostages, is a heart-wrenching reminder that the complexion of global conflict continues to evolve. As such, the importance of proactively supporting our warfighters and national defense communities with premier technology is critical.

Despite these challenges, we believe the future of our country remains bright as we serve the leaders of tomorrow, building companies and technologies that will positively impact the world.

As we sprint towards the end of 2023, we are excited to welcome a new portfolio company, introduce our featured Limited Partner, highlight our participation in several high-profile events, and share portfolio company updates.

Let’s go!

🚀 New Investment

We are proud to welcome Haiku to The Veteran Fund portfolio! Led by accomplished founder and Navy SEAL, Eric Basu, Haiku is transforming cybersecurity training for businesses and individuals by teaching real-world cybersecurity skills through a gamified learning platform.

Developed in partnership with the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Haiku has unlocked a fast and effective cybersecurity training process that helps facilitate job opportunities across various demographics. Haiku’s impressive early traction includes over 37,000 users, 100,000 YouTube followers, and several Fortune 500 companies and major universities as customers. Haiku is racking up awards, one award for Cybersecurity Stewardship and another Fast Company award, as it closed its seed capital round in September 2023.

The battlefield of the future is digital, yet there is an alarming shortage of cybersecurity professionals according to the latest studies showing 700,000 unfilled CS jobs in the United States. Haiku streamlines the creation of new cybersecurity professionals who will work to protect America and our allies from online threats.

Ask: Haiku welcomes warm referrals to 1) organizations seeking to cost-efficiently level up their cybersecurity training 2) cybersecurity certifications organizations such as ISC2 to create custom training paths for their certifications and 3) K-12 education partners to teach actionable job skills to students who are passionate about gaming.

🇺🇸 Featured Limited Partner: Chris Kelly

Chris Kelly is a highly-accomplished attorney, investor, and business leader.

Chris was Facebook’s first General Counsel, Head of Global Policy and Chief Privacy Officer, helping lead the company’s unparalleled global growth.

He is a sought-after investor, advisor, and strategist who is passionate about national defense, cybersecurity, and privacy.

Chris is an owner of the Sacramento Kings and recently launched Kelly Ventures to continue supporting transformational technology companies like portfolio company Haiku.

📣 Announcements

Investor Dinner with Four Star General Stanley McChrystal

We were honored to have one of our early Limited Partners and supporters, Four Star General Stanley McChrystal, host an intimate BBQ at his home in the DC area.

To help amplify our mission, we were joined by various family offices, business leaders like Robert Kiyosaki, retired senior military officials, and several members of Congress who all share our deep commitment to protect America through venture capital.

Meaningful connections were made among our guests and we received great feedback about the importance of our mission. Thank you to General McChrystal, guests, and the new Limited Partners who have joined us after learning about our work.

$100,000 Veteran Pitch Competition

The Veteran Fund & the Founder Institute are excited to host our third annual $100,000 Veteran Pitch Competition!

Brad Feld, co-founder of Techstars, will join the event for a live interactive keynote with the audience. Join hundreds of angel investors, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs from the military community to watch the next generation of military-connected entrepreneurs pitch their startups.

Please forward this email to any veteran entrepreneur or investor who may be interested in attending the competition.

The Veteran Fund Sponsors Swim to Support SOF Community

GP Justin Nahama joined nearly 100 SEALs, special operations veterans, and representatives from national defense leaders like Anduril in swimming over 3 miles from Coronado to the USS Midway to support The Honor Foundation’s third annual Swim for SOF.

The Honor Foundation is the world’s premier transition program for our special operators and their families. The Veteran Fund and LP Lucas Rotter helped THF raise over $400,000 for the special operations community and programs.

LP Dr. Provencher Leads Wellbeing Panel to Support Veteran Business Leaders

General Partner Justin Nahama and former head team doctor for the New England Patriots, retired Navy Captain, and LP Dr. Matt Provencher led a panel of accomplished SEALs and wellbeing leaders to discuss the future of human performance and health for business leaders.

The event was well attended and graciously hosted by O’Gara Coach at their La Jolla McLaren, Ferrari, Rolls Royce, and Lamborghini dealership.

📈 Portfolio Company Updates

Proteus Space is leading a transformative revolution in the satellite industry with novel satellite design and production advancements. Proteus uses powerful AI software to design and build ESPA-class satellites & space “buses” for commercial and government customers to help America win the new space race.

Proteus closed its $4.2M seed round and opened its first facility for Automated Satellite Design and Rapid Manufacturing

Ask: Proteus would love to meet with anyone interested in designing and building satellites and potential advisors who are subject matter experts in the following areas: a) Satellite industrial design software and architecture b) ESPA class satellite design and build c) MEO orbital aspects d) Satellite manufacturing legal and insurance aspects

Firestorm Labs has built a new category of 3D printed, fixed-wing unmanned aerial systems (UAS), which can be manufactured from base materials and deployed within 24 hours – delivering capability when and where it is needed.

Firestorm Labs was selected as part of the industry team on the $46B Eglin Wide Agile Acquisition contract to deliver next-generation munitions technologies in support of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Eglin Air Force Base. Read more here.
Secured a $1.6M direct-to-phase 2 contract through AFWERX with AFSOC and the Air National Guard as customer

Ask: Firestorm is actively working with top leaders in the DoD ecosystem. Please connect The Veteran Fund to leaders in the military who should know about Firestorm’s capabilities.

Cyberspatial is a cybersecurity company who helps cyber practitioners save hundreds of hours of manual processes to quickly visualize and analyze the networks they serve, which can increase work efficiency by 10-100x.

Cyberspatial is starting two pilots with the US Space Force and US Army, to provide advanced network mapping and discovery capabilities for defensive cyber operations.

Cyberspatial is working on several promising commercial enterprise deals in the OT security and critical infrastructure space.

Ask: Please forward this information to any cyber practitioner in your network who may be interested in an enterprise pilot.

Lonestar is a space tech company that is building data centers and communication infrastructure on the lunar surface.

The "Independence Mission” to the moon scheduled for the week of November 15th. The “Freedom Mission” is scheduled for February 15th 2024.
The Veteran Fund is sponsoring the first document to be sent to the moon for storage; the Declaration of Independence.
Lonestar successfully closed an additional round of funding in a “Pre A” round.

Ask: Stay tuned for mission details.

Stitch3D (formerly Candelytics) is an enterprise 3D data company that delivers best-in-class 3D data analytics, workflows, and collaboration tools through its cloud-based 3D data management platform.

Completed US Air Force SBIR and STTR Phase Two R&D obligations, successfully hitting every milestone for the $1.6M award.
Launched their public beta and signed 21 organizations who are actively using their product.
Made several key hires including a 3D engineer and former lead software developer, an R&D lead for Stitch3D's mobile scanning application and senior product designer to UI/UX across web and mobile platforms.
Selected as 1) recipient for this year's MassVentures SBIR START "Stage 1" $100K award and 2) NSA cybersecurity services program which will help bolster their data security and system infrastructure.

Ask: Intros to police or other law enforcement officers. Law enforcement can benefit greatly from 3D digital scanning (traffic accident, crime scene documentation, building inspection, etc) and the team is always looking for introductions to surveyors as well. If any relationships come to mind, please contact: admin@stitch3d.io

Pixly is a Software as a Service (SaaS) technology platform for construction sites and facilities that leverages smart device photo collaboration and AI-enabled organizational tools to document project progress and mitigate risk from conflicts, delays, and safety issues.

Pixly is graduating the PenFed Veteran Entrepreneur Investment Program (VEIP), which will help open up doors to new customers and investors. The demo day is on November 3rd in Bentonville, AR.
USC LA Coliseum is testing Pixly as a pilot customer for facilities management.
Pixly formed a new partnership with Kyocera Mobile to integrate Pixly’s solution into their rugged, built for work devices.

Ask: Pixly is seeking introductions to building owners, architects, construction companies, and facility managers to use their solution. If you have any contacts in these areas, please reply back.

Clusiv is the leading technology platform that empowers blind and partially sighted people to obtain meaningful careers through digital training and employment opportunities.

Clusiv secured four significant statewide service contracts in NV, TX, IA, and MN, unseating legacy providers within a year of launch, a pace unparalleled in government sales.
The company set a record of new student enrollments in Q3 2023, demonstrating robust growth and market acceptance.

Ask: Clusiv is putting together an upcoming impact report, that will unveil comprehensive insights into their progress and strategic advancements. We will be sharing this in the next update.

Instant Teams is the leading military spouse community and talent marketplace that leverages innovative technology and a focus on skills-based hiring to create dynamic talent and outsourcing solutions for employers and remote careers for military spouses.

Scaled and deployed a team of 75 in 3 weeks for enterprise customer, Alight
Expansion of existing enterprise customers (AFLAC and Alight) serves as a strong testimonial of value proposition
Closed two partnership deals for 12M+ with Prudential and Talkspace

Ask: Want to hire a military spouse? Join Instant Teams here.

📆 Upcoming Events

Founder Institute Veteran and Military Family Accelerator:

The next cohort of our Veteran Startup Accelerator begins February 6, 2024 with final applications due January 28th.

Interested veteran and military spouse founders can apply and join for free through our Veteran Fund scholarships. Learn more here: fi.co/veteran

USAA Pitch Competition Powered By Bunker Labs: USAA and Bunker Labs are teaming up again to support the most innovative military connected entrepreneurs. Participants will compete for cash prizes and registration is free to join the pitch competition on October 19, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Vets in Tech Gala: Join Vets in Tech on Friday, November 3, 2023, at the Marines’ Memorial Club in San Francisco to celebrate Veterans’ Day at their 8th Annual Fall Gala. The evening will include an exquisite dinner with entertainment, awards, and a live auction.
Military Influencer Conference: MIC is for leaders, entrepreneurs, content creators, creatives and brands who shape and support the military community. The conference will be held at Resorts World in Las Vegas, November 7-10, 2023.
MilVet Conference: Mark your calendars for February 8-9, 2024 in San Francisco, CA for the “must-go” to event for any founder or investor in the veteran startup ecosystem. Tickets will sell out next year, so make sure you sign up early to attend the Military Veteran Startup 2024 Conference.

In closing, we are honored to be stewards of this great community and look forward to the journey ahead.

We will continue to build this tribe, one individual at a time, and make strategic investments to safeguard our nation's future.

If this resonates with you, please forward this to someone in your network or share our one pager with anyone who is aligned with our mission.

With gratitude,

Mike, Justin, Lisa, and Ryan | The Veteran Fund

Mike Sherbakov 7/13/23 Mike Sherbakov 7/13/23

The Veteran Fund Update: Q2 2023

Independence Day holds special significance for our tribe of military veterans and families. This occasion serves as a powerful reminder of The Veteran Fund's mission and the great potential we possess when we stand united together.

Many of our nation's Founding Fathers were veterans who, anchored by courage and unwavering resolve, created the United States, whose core tenants of freedom and individual liberty have unlocked human potential on a global scale.

Emboldened by this legacy, The Veteran Fund is dedicated to building a greater society by uniting and empowering the veteran community through mindful entrepreneurship. Our ambition extends beyond driving innovation and financial returns for our partners. We are committed to upholding and propagating the foundational values and liberties of our nation, aiming to empower future generations of Americans and our allies.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”

In this spirit, we are honored to share an article written by one of our tribe members titled, “A New Tribe is Born.”

In our update below, we are excited to announce a new investment, highlight our participation in several high-profile events, and share portfolio company updates.

Let’s go!

🚀 New Investment

We are proud to welcome Proteus Space to The Veteran Fund portfolio! Proteus designs and builds ESPA-class satellites & space “buses” for commercial and government customers to help America win the new space race.

Using proprietary algorithms and a revolutionary new kind of additive manufacturing (3D printing) Proteus’ methodology rapidly automates a very human-intensive satellite design process that will deliver a 12:1 time reduction and a 4:1 cost reduction, rapidly producing satellites at scale.

The increasing demand to proliferate new technology into space is severely limited by the cost and build time, with buses in this product range typically taking ~3 years to design and build. Proteus has the mission to turn 36 months into 3 months.

Proteus is servicing both commercial customers and the largest customer in the world, the US Government, with a large pipeline of contracts. The $4M Round was led by Moonshots Capital, a partner of The Veteran Fund. Shout out to Craig Cummings and Kelly Perdew who have paved the way for veteran entrepreneurs and venture capitalists for over a decade.

Ask: Proteus is looking to expand its network in the DoD ecosystem. Please forward this to anyone in your network who might be interested in connecting with their team.

🇺🇸 Featured Limited Partner: Mike Fraser

Mike Fraser is a US Air Force veteran, exited founder, advisor, and the first Limited Partner in The Veteran Fund.

Mike sold his company, Refactr, to Sophos in 2021, where he is now their VP of DevSecOps. Mike’s journey as a founder was one of the reasons we started The Veteran Fund.

During the early years of his company, there was a lack of capital being allocated to military veteran founders at the earliest stages. Through his perseverance and leadership, he grew the company and secured contracts with government and commercial customers. After selling his company to Sophos, the first thing Mike did was commit to serving the veteran community as an investor.

Mike is a model of what the veteran entrepreneur community can do together, and we are lucky to have him on our team.

📣 Announcements

Angel Summit with Jason Calacanis: In June, General Partners Mike and Lisa represented The Veteran Fund at the Angel Summit in Napa, CA.

The event was an exclusive gathering of 120 hand-picked investors and VC fund managers from the U.S. and Canada. We discussed investment best practices and expanded our partnerships with other funds and LPs.

The Veteran Fund also got a shout-out on the top ranking, All-In Podcast! Watch Lisa ask a question for the live Q&A.

JP Morgan VetVC Summit: In June, Mike and Ryan represented The Veteran Fund at JP Morgan’s annual VetVC Summit in New York City.

Portfolio company, Instant Team’s CEO, Liza Rodewald, interviewed Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan, and Dan D’aniello, Chairman of The Carlyle Group as the keynote event. We also spent time catching up with our Veteran VC partners and LPs including General McChrystal.

Shout out to Sherman Williams and Emily McMahan (AIN Ventures), Tim Hsia and Brendan Aronson (Context Ventures), Derren Burrell (Veteran Ventures), Dave Tompkins (550 Capital), Sean Drake (Stony Lonesome), Dan Madden (Squadra), Stephen DiBartolomeo (Scout Ventures), Lenore Karafa (First In), and George Ploss (Netsuite Accelerator). Big thanks to the JP Morgan team for another great event: Hunter Nadler, Ashley Hawkes, Rhett Jeppson, Mark Elliot, and Silvia Kleinle.

Recently-released data validates The Veteran Fund thesis by highlighting the unprecedented amount of capital invested into U.S. defense-centric startups, including new focus from industry leaders such as A16Z and Sequoia Capital: U.S. defense tech startups secured $14.5B in VC funding in Q1 2023, setting a new quarterly record. Q1's tally helped push the total funds deployed in the five months of the year over the $17B mark, more than the sum invested in the entirety of 2019.

What happened: Funding for the industry surged despite a backdrop of VC funding decline due to the global tense political landscape, reiterating the importance of defense startups. As a result, defense startups are expected to rake in a larger share of the U.S. $886B defense budget for 2024.

Where to see the impact: Institutional VCs, such as Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital, that previously shied away from defense startup deals have also begun investing in the sector. Sequoia made its first defense tech investment, leading a $5.7M seed round into Mach Industries. Andreessen Horowitz is the largest backer of Anduril Industries, a defense tech startup valued at $9B. Earlier this April, General Catalyst established a "global resilience" practice to back defense and intelligence startups.

📈 Portfolio Company Updates

Firestorm Labs was selected as part of the industry team on the $46B Eglin Wide Agile Acquisition contract to deliver next-generation munitions technologies. Read more here.
Secured a $1.6M direct-to-phase 2 contract through AFWERX with AFSOC and the Air National Guard as customers
Firestorm was featured in an article from our friends over at Arsenal of Tomorrow and a government customer has asked for an initial 20+ Firestorm systems to be fielded in an area of the world that is currently experiencing conflict.

Ask: Firestorm is actively developing its lobbyist strategy in DC. If you have recommendations of groups to vet, please introduce us.

Cyberspatial is starting two pilots with the US Space Force and US Army, to provide advanced network mapping and discovery capabilities for defensive cyber operations.

Cyberspatial is working on several promising commercial enterprise deals in the OT security and critical infrastructure space.
They released a new product page and new product features: http://teleseer.com

Ask: Please forward this information to any cyber practitioner in your network who may be interested in an enterprise pilot.

Lonestar is a space tech company that is building data centers and communication infrastructure on the lunar surface.

Lonestar signed a Letter of Intent with CDC Data Centers on behalf of both the Australian and New Zealand governments. The governments will be Beta Customers on the Q4 mission and exploring contracts on future missions.
Signed OMEGA as an edge processing customer
Positive meetings with the DOD and DARPA CIOs to facilitate Lonestar’s USG strategy.

Ask: Lonestar is in planning for an upcoming Series A financing. If you would like to connect with Chris Stott, Lonestar’s CEO, please reply back to this email.

Stitch3D (formerly Candelytics) is an enterprise 3D data company that delivers best-in-class 3D data analytics, workflows, and collaboration tools through its cloud-based 3D data management platform.

Completed US Air Force SBIR and STTR Phase Two R&D obligations, successfully hitting every milestone for the $1.6M award. Signed 19 organizations (32 users) to participate in a private beta.
Made several Several key hires including a 3D engineer and former lead software developer, an R&D lead for Stitch3D's mobile scanning application and senior product designer to UI/UX across web and mobile platforms.
Selected as (1) recipient for this year's MassVentures SBIR START "Stage 1" $100K award and (2) the NSA cybersecurity services program which will help bolster their data security and system infrastructure.

Ask: Stitch3D is seeking market opportunities in construction (building documentation), law enforcement (pre-incident planning and crime scene digital twin analysis), survey and engineering (3D mapping), and smart city planning.

Acquired 972 app installs and 4 new customers while creating more sales and partner opportunities.
Pixly completed the Bunker Labs Veteran In Residence (VIR) program and the PenFed Veteran Entrepreneur Investment Program (VEIP) Master class opening the door to promising investment and customer opportunities.

Released new video capture feature enabling customers to capture and upload up to 15 seconds of video (with audio) with the same power of tags, comments, and conversations.

Ask: Pixly is seeking introductions to angel investors for its seed capital raise and welcomes warm connections to building owners, architects, construction companies, and facility managers.

Clusiv is the leading technology platform that empowers blind and partially sighted people to obtain meaningful careers through digital training and employment opportunities.

Clusiv’s operational efficiency and effectiveness continue to be demonstrated by its increasing quarterly growth (revenue cycle increasing by 20 percent month over month) while significantly decreasing its state sales cycle timeline.
Currently serve as vendors in 23 states, while continuing to expand its market presence and impact.

CEO, Lukas Simianer, was selected as the Texas Business Hall of Fame recipient for the 2023 Brett Wiggs Innovative Leader Award.

Ask: Clusiv anticipates launching a $2M seed series raise and welcomes warm introductions to potential investors.

Launched their “Twelve Million Plus,” mobile application, which is the first and only verified community for military spouses.
Seeking additional enterprise customers and expanding their footprint across more military installations.

Ask: Seeking additional enterprise customers and expanding their footprint across more military installations. If you’re interested in hiring a military spouse, join Instant Teams here.

📆 Upcoming Events

Founder Institute Veteran and Military Family Accelerator: The next cohort of our Veteran Startup Accelerator begins August 15th with final applications due August 6th.

Interested veteran and military spouse founders can apply and join for free through our Veteran Fund scholarships. Learn more here: fi.co/veteran

Expert Dojo and The Veteran Fund Vegas Investor Event: Join Mike, Lisa, and Expert Dojo, Southern California’s most active startup accelerator, on Friday, July 14th in Las Vegas NV for an event with investors and founders.
Veteran Entrepreneur Investment Program (VEIP): Our partners at the Penfed Foundation are launching their next cohort, August 26 - 29th. VEIP exclusively supports Veteran and milspouse entrepreneurs with highly scalable, startup companies ranging from the idea stage through to Series A and beyond. At any stage, VEIP prepares founders to fundraise, and our team brings clarity to the elusive process of accessing capital. Interested Founders can apply before July 15th
Fed Supernova: Join the Veteran Fund team at Fed Supernova, August 22 - 24th in Austin, TX. We are planning to host a special happy hour event with partner, SBIR Advisors. If you plan to attend, send us an email so we can include you in the event.
MilVet Conference: Mark your calendars for Feb 8 - 9th, 2024 in San Francisco, CA for the “must-go” to event for any founder or investor in the veteran startup ecosystem. Tickets will sell out next year, so make sure you sign up early to attend the Military Veteran Startup 2024 Conference.

In closing, we are honored to be stewards of this great community and are excited to help it flourish.

We believe that mindful veteran founders are the greatest change agent to lead our world in a positive direction. There has never been a better time to be an investor backing resilient founders building meaningful companies.

If this resonates with you, please share our one pager with anyone who supports our mission.

We are excited about the path that lies ahead and appreciate your unwavering support.

With gratitude,

Mike, Ryan, Lisa, and Justin | The Veteran Fund

Mike Sherbakov 4/13/23 Mike Sherbakov 4/13/23

The Veteran Fund Update: Q1 2023

As we reflect on an eventful first quarter, we are delighted to present The Veteran Fund's Q1 update, showcasing our continued progress in the midst of a dynamic market landscape.

The recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank sent shockwaves through the venture capital sector. We are grateful to report that The Veteran Fund had no exposure to SVB, and as a result, we and our portfolio companies have remained unaffected and continue to thrive.

We are proud of our unwavering progress and remain enthusiastic about supporting the growth of innovative ventures led by exceptional military veterans. We have strong confidence that their distinctive backgrounds and skill sets will enable them to achieve success and create significant innovations in the current global conditions.

TL;DR: We welcomed two promising new portfolio companies to The Veteran Fund tribe, successfully onboarded several world-class Limited Partners, bolstering our resources and expertise, and continue to participate in high-profile events, fostering new strategic partnerships and enhancing The Veteran Fund's presence in the ecosystem.

Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to keeping you updated on our journey.

🚀 New Investments

Firestorm Labs is building a new category of 3D printed, fixed-wing unmanned aerial systems (UAS), which can be manufactured from base materials and deployed within 24 hours – delivering capability when and where it is needed.

This new category of modular UAS product lines promises radically affordable hardware and scalability through the use of open-system architectures and additive manufacturing. Firestorm’s products are the first completely Modular UAS that is 3D printed and payload agnostic to support our warfighters on the ground.

Firestorm was recently selected for the Eglin Wide Agile Acquisition Contract (EWAAC) Vehicle. This $46B contract allows small businesses like Firestorm to develop next-generation capabilities alongside some of the largest defense companies in the world.

The team is led by seasoned cofounder Daniel Magy, whose previous company, Citadel Defense, recently enjoyed a large exit, and Chad McCoy, USAF Chief Master Sergeant with 20+ years of military service at the highest levels of the Special Operations community. Firestorm completed several successful launches, as they continue to build a powerful team of drone and aerospace leaders.

Ask: Firestorm is looking to expand its network in the DoD ecosystem. Please forward this to anyone in your network who might be interested in connecting with their team.

Cyberspatial is a cybersecurity company led by three exceptional US military veterans with over 20 years of direct offensive and defensive cyber operations experience.

Their flagship product, Teleseer, allows cyber practitioners to save hundreds of hours of manual processes to quickly visualize and analyze the networks they serve in minutes instead of weeks, which can exponentially increase their work efficiency. The net result is a fast and easy way to gain a complete understanding of enterprise networks without needing a 7-figure cybersecurity budget.

Cyberspatial has tailwinds in the Department of Defense with a SOCOM contract and is seeking additional pilot projects with enterprise customers.

The team was co-founded by Lawrence Nunn and Ricky Tan, two of the top cybersecurity experts in the US Military. They were among the first Cyber Officers commissioned out of West Point for the US Army, with experience leading high-performance military units for 20 years, spanning combat deployments, overseeing top-secret Pentagon cyber capabilities, and leading incident response teams at US Cyber Command.

Ask: Please forward this to any cyber practitioners in your network who may be interested in an enterprise pilot.

🇺🇸 Featured Limited Partner: Mark Divine

Mark Divine is an accomplished Navy SEAL, multiple NY Times best-selling author, entrepreneur, and human performance expert. After 20 years of service and retiring as a Navy SEAL Commander, Mark founded several highly successful enterprises including SEALFIT, Unbeatable Mind, LLC, NavySEALs.com and a globally-recognized CrossFit gym. He also co-founded the Coronado Brewing Company in Coronado, CA. Mark’s integrated training system–which involve physical, mental, emotional, intuitional, and spiritual training–has yielded unprecedented outcomes and is now taught to executives and corporate teams, professional sports teams and athletes, business professionals, first responders, and warrior-leaders from all walks of life.

Mark is offering a free month of his renowned Unbeatable Mind course to The Veteran Fund community: unbeatablevet.com

📣 Announcements and Events

MilVet Conference: The Veteran Fund team participated at the Military Veteran Startup Conference in San Francisco in February, led by Tim Hsia at Context Ventures. Mike spoke on a panel of veteran-focused fund managers and we hosted a well-attended happy hour where we were joined by several LPs and supporters. We were grateful to learn from and strengthen relationships with industry leaders such as Trae Stephens (Anduril/Founders Fund), Steve Bowsher (In-Q-Tel), and Raj Shah (Shield Capital). The conference was one of the best gatherings of military veterans in the tech industry and is a “must-go” event for any founder or investor in the veteran startup ecosystem. Tickets will sell out next year, so make sure you sign up early to attend the Military Veteran Startup 2024 Conference.

The State of the Global Investment Community, featuring the CEO of Angel Capital Association: Join General Partner Ryan Micheletti and Pat Gouhin, CEO of the Angel Capital Association, for an interactive event to discuss The State of the Global Investment Ecosystem. Register here.

Lake Nona Impact Forum with Deepak Chopra and Global Innovation Leaders: Mike, Justin, and several of our LPs attended the Lake Nona Impact Forum in Florida, which is an invitation-only summit that brings together 300 of the nation’s premier CEOs, healthcare innovators, and global thought leaders. In addition to Deepak, speakers included industry leaders in the venture capital, family office, and technology sectors.

Founder Institute Veteran and Military Family Accelerator: A new cohort of our startup accelerator kicked off the Spring 2023 cohort, led by GP Mike Sherbakov, with 48 founders. The Founder Institute’s rigorous program will graduate the top 10 in June 2023.

Is there a veteran startup founder in your network you would like to recommend for a scholarship? Learn more and apply for our Fall 2023 cohort here: fi.co/veteran

🎉 New Tribe Members

Ken McElroy
Founder: MC Companies

$3B in real estate assets, author, and business partner to Robert Kiyosaki

Resides: Scottsdale, Arizona

Chuck Heath
Founder: Horizon Design

Entrepreneur and investor with specialties in multi-family and resort projects

Resides: Park City, Utah

📈 Portfolio Company Updates

Lonestar is a space tech company that is building data centers and communication infrastructure on the lunar surface.

Lonestar closed their oversubscribed $5M Seed Round!
Generating first revenues for storage and edge processing customers under contract.
NASA changed date of first mission from March to June and will now be going to the moon’s South Pole.

Ask: Lonestar will be opening their Series A later this year. If you would like to connect with Chris Stott, Lonestar’s CEO, please reply back to this email.

Stitch3D (formerly Candelytics) is an enterprise 3D data company that delivers best-in-class 3D data analytics, workflows, and collaboration tools through its cloud-based 3D data management platform.

Stitch3D has opened their $3M Seed Round.
Take a look at their Product Demo to see 3D data in action.
Established pilot projects with the USAF and nine beta customers.

Ask: Stitch3D is seeking additional enterprise pilots. If you know anyone in the drone, 3D printing, augmented reality, 3D scanning, or intel/surveillance communities, please forward this to them.

Pixly is a Software as a Service (SaaS) technology platform for construction sites and facilities that leverages smart device photo collaboration and AI-enabled organizational tools to document project progress and mitigate risk from conflicts, delays, and safety issues.

Strong revenue opportunities. Paid customers include All State Insurance and a 10-year Sharp Hospital project.
CEO, Lee Mills, will be competing in a $400K pitch competition at eMerge Americas on April 20 - 21 in Miami. Shout out to Venture Partner, Carlos Romero, for the opportunity.

Ask: Pixly is seeking introductions to building owners, architects, construction companies, and facility managers.

Clusiv is the leading technology platform that empowers blind and partially sighted people to obtain meaningful careers through digital training and employment opportunities.

Clusiv is driving new revenue and growing 20% month-over-month.
CEO, Lukas Simianer was featured in a full segment on Austin’s NBC affiliate.

Ask: Clusiv is seeking additional PR opportunities to expand their reach to empower more blind and partially sighted people.

Launched their “Twelve Million Plus,” mobile application, which is the first and only verified community for military spouses.

Ask: Seeking additional enterprise customers and expanding their footprint across more military installations. Want to hire military spouses? Join Instant Teams here.

Our enthusiasm for supporting our expanding portfolio of companies has only intensified as we accelerate into Q2, and we are grateful for your steadfast support.

In spite of the headlines and market turbulence, there has never been a more opportune moment to invest in resilient founders who are dedicated to building impactful companies. We are proud to be a part of this journey, fostering innovation and growth during these challenging times.

We encourage you to share our one-pager with anyone who aligns with our mission or is aware of an exceptional startup that matches our investment thesis.

With gratitude,

Mike, Ryan, Lisa, and Justin | The Veteran Fund