🇺🇸 The Veteran Fund: Independence Day 2024
The Veteran Fund: Independence Day 2024
This Independence Day, The Veteran Fund is initiating the close of Fund I and we are honored to share a special message with you.
248 years ago, our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, risking their lives to protect our unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Many of these founders served in the military and made the ultimate sacrifice for their beliefs, anchoring a new era of service. Their actions demonstrate that a small group of people, fueled by their conviction to build a better world, can fundamentally change the course of human history.
When we launched The Veteran Fund in 2022, we asked ourselves several questions: Has the world improved over the last several decades? Are people happier, healthier, more prosperous, and more free? Is America still the shining city on the hill?
Our team believes that, in many ways, the world has improved. However, in this age of connectivity, there is unprecedented uncertainty. People are more disconnected than ever, misaligned on common values and purpose, with divisiveness at the forefront of many conversations. Further, our nation’s greatest adversaries think and plan decades ahead. We must do the same.
Our intention with The Veteran Fund is to build a 100-year legacy institution to invest in the best leaders our country has to offer.
We believe exceptional American leadership begins by empowering those who have graduated from the greatest leadership academy in the world, the United States Military. Combined with deep domain expertise and mindfulness practices, these veteran founders are uniquely positioned to build technology companies that will positively impact the world. We are uniting leaders from the military, business and mindfulness communities who share a deep sense of purpose and heartfelt conviction toward improving our country and the world for the benefit of all humanity.
This Independence Day, we invite you to consider: What are you grateful for? What is your life’s purpose? What legacy are you building to improve the world?
Our team is deeply grateful for every member of The Veteran Fund community who supports our mission. Our community of liberty-minded leaders, including our investors, founders, and partners, are helping us build a much brighter future.
With our final close approaching, we ask you to join us. If our mission of advancing America through venture capital resonates, we’d be honored to welcome you alongside us.
Happy Independence Day and God Bless America,
- Mike, Justin, Lisa, and Ryan
The Veteran Fund Update: Q1 2024
The Veteran Fund Update: Q1 2024
The Veteran Fund made history last quarter through its portfolio company, Lonestar, by sending the Declaration of Independence to the moon as the first document transmitted to the lunar surface for storage.
Since our founding, The Veteran Fund’s core principles of leadership, purpose, and resilience have guided our investments in veteran leaders, building dual-use companies that are advancing America and her allies. We strongly believe the future of humanity is deeply rooted in liberty, which is the fundamental cornerstone of innovation. It is up to the builders of the world to ensure liberty continues to proliferate, not just in America, but throughout the world and into the cosmos.
In our Q1 update below, we are excited to share an invitation to LP Deepak Chopra’s premier global event, headlined by Sam Altman and Marc Benioff, and updates about our portfolio company highlights, new investments, and several important events.
As we sprint towards our Fund I final close on July 4th, we reflect on the incredible progress we have made and the invaluable community we have built to support the creation of veteran-technology leaders. We ask that you share our newsletter with the leaders in your network who deeply believe in our mission to advance America through venture capital.
Let’s go!
📈 Portfolio Highlights
On Thursday, February 22nd at 18:23 EST, the Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander named Odysseus landed on the Moon, carrying Lonestar Lunar’s Data Center Payload. This historic event is the first private lunar landing in human history. Lonestar successfully demonstrated the company’s ability to send, receive, and store data on the lunar surface.
Lonestar’s second mission to the moon is scheduled for later this year with customers purchasing all of its data storage capacity. The Veteran Fund participated in Lonestar’s Pre-Series A in January, doubling our investment in the company. We are now actively supporting Lonestar’s Series A. Please reach out for more details.
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Cyberspatial secured a $3.1M contract with the US Space Force to map selected Space Mission System networks! Once complete, the team will have the opportunity to expand to other mission systems in an increased contract size. Additionally, Cyberspatial was also selected for a $1M Defense Innovation Unit Prototype OTA for USCYBERCOM that has the potential to move into a full production OTA upon successful completion.
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Firestorm closed their $12.5M Pre-Series A round led by Lockheed Martin Ventures. The Veteran Fund doubled our investment into the company and attended the ribbon cutting ceremony with Congresswoman Sara Jacobs for their new 15,000 square foot manufacturing facility in San Diego. Read the Forbes article on Firestorm here.
🚀 New Investments
We are thrilled to welcome the team at Vatn Systems to The Veteran Fund portfolio!
Vatn builds affordable, autonomous underwater vehicles that act in cooperative swarms, enabling a multitude of use cases for the military and law enforcement. At the core of Vatn's R&D efforts is advanced navigation software that is effective in GPS, vision, and comms compromised environments. Vatn’s modular building block structure allows its vehicles to be tailored to the ranges, accuracy, and sensors required for every mission at the lowest cost. In addition to previous SBIRs, the team was recently selected for Phase 3 of the Office of Naval Research’s Advanced Capabilities Experiment.
As the US Navy navigates “contested logistics” and “attritable mass”, we believe the team at Vatn is leading the way in building the future of autonomous underwater vehicles. Learn more about Vatn: www.vatnsystems.com
Foresight is the winner of our third annual $100,000 Veteran Pitch Competition, with keynote address from Brad Feld, cofounder of Techstars.
Led by Jannae Gammage, a former Army Intelligence Analyst and serial entrepreneur, Foresight is utilizing AI to reshape lending products. Foresight’s intelligent application software for financial institutions eliminates manual intake and application processes. Unlike incumbent digital application softwares that solely collect data, Foresight's AI driven intelligent application underwrites applicants before they even click apply, producing an accurate, verified, and de-risked application in less than 15 minutes.
With the tailwinds of their successful pre-seed round and support from Bank of America leadership, Foresight has 15 banks as customers and is quickly expanding to the 300+ in their pipeline. Learn more about Foresight: www.tryforesight.io
🇺🇸 Featured Limited Partner: Lieutenant Colonel Joshua “Cabo” Gunderson
Joshua “Cabo” Gunderson is a former combat pilot who started his career at the United States Air Force Academy. During F-15 pilot training, he received several awards including Distinguished Graduate and Top Gun.
Josh executed multiple combat deployments throughout the Middle East in support of Operation Inherent Resolve and earned the Raytheon Award, the Air Force’s top honor for aerial combat squadrons.
Since leaving active duty, Joshua serves in the Nevada Air National Guard as an F-22 Subject Matter Expert, works for a private company as a corporate pilot flying the Challenger 300 aircraft, and consults for aviation clients. Connect with Joshua on LinkedIn and Instagram.
📆 Q1 Event Highlights
The Veteran Fund Annual Summit in Las Vegas (February 2024)
The Veteran Fund hosted an incredible two day summit in Las Vegas with our Limited Partners and portfolio companies. We enjoyed intimate team building through dinners and an offsite event at Prairie Fire, where we had a special audience with retired 4-star General Scott Miller.
In addition to strategic fund updates and working sessions with our LPs, Dan Magy, CEO of portfolio company Firestorm, provided an inspiring & confidential presentation, leading into their now publicly announced $12.5M closed seed round, led by Lockheed Martin Ventures.
Lisa Spoke at SXSW For Women in Venture Panel (March 2024)
GP Lisa Song Sutton was invited by Dell for Startups to represent the fund on a Women in Venture at SxSW in Austin, Texas. She connected with young female investors and educated them on defense tech investing.
How to Build a Moonshot with Chris Stott, CEO of Lonestar (April 2024)
GP Ryan Micheletti and Lonestar CEO, Chris Stott, had a great conversation about the lunar landing and the future of space tech in front of a global audience. Watch the replay here.
📣 Upcoming Event Invites
FI Veteran and Military Family Accelerator Graduation with Kelly Perdew
General Partners, Ryan and Mike, are excited to host the graduation of the Founder Institute Startup Accelerator on May 21, 2024 at 10am PT.
Join us to see an inspiring keynote from Kelly Perdew, a military veteran and venture capital investor at Moonshots Capital, and watch several founders from the new graduating cohort pitch their startups. Register to watch here.
The Veteran Fund House Building Project in Mexico
To commemorate the upcoming close of Fund I, The Veteran Fund invites you to join us for an impactful team building experience, constructing a home for a deserving family in Mexico, July 26-28, 2024. GP Mike Sherbakov has been leading these impact trips over the past decade and we are excited to spend a weekend giving back alongside our community. All are invited; please indicate your interest here.
The Return of Deepak Chopra’s Acclaimed Sages & Scientists Symposium at Harvard University
Highlighting the Veteran Fund’s commitment to infuse mindfulness into the premier veteran-led teams we support, our LP Deepak Chopra is uniting global leaders in wellbeing and technology on September 14-15, 2024.
Headlined by Deepak, Sam Altman, and Marc Benioff, the symposium brings together thought leaders and experts who offer groundbreaking solutions to unlock the greatest human understanding and potential. Veteran Fund partners will have access to a private event with Deepak at the symposium. With limited spots available, please email our team if you’re interested in attending.
We are deeply appreciative of great individuals like you that have come alongside us to support The Veteran Fund.
We planted a flag in the ground to advance America through venture capital and will continue to use our platform to unite our community and build a brighter future for all.
Please join us before our final close on July 4th 2024, and forward our update to the leaders in your network who believe in our mission.
With gratitude,
Ryan, Lisa, Justin, and Mike | The Veteran Fund
The Veteran Fund: Lonestar’s Successful Moon Landing with SpaceX, NASA, & Intuitive Machines
The Veteran Fund: Successful Moon Landing with Lonestar Lunar, SpaceX, NASA, & Intuitive Machines
The eagle has landed!
Today marks a significant day for humanity. We are honored to share that through the incredible leadership of our portfolio company, Lonestar, The Veteran Fund is officially on the moon as part of the first American moon landing since 1972.
On Thursday, February 22nd at 18:23 EST, the Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C lunar lander named Odysseus landed on the Moon, carrying Lonestar Lunar’s Data Center Payload.
This historic event is the first private lunar landing in human history; a monumental achievement that has officially unlocked the lunar economy as a new frontier for innovation, laying the foundation for humanity to become an interplanetary species.
Together with a group of Lonestar’s visionary investors, including IronGate Capital and Scout Ventures, The Veteran Fund proudly sent the Declaration of Independence to the moon lander as the first document to be transmitted for storage.
This successful transmission demonstrates Lonestar’s ability to send, receive, and store data in space. More significantly, this historical event represents the proliferation of liberty and American values into the cosmos.
The Lonestar team is led by CEO Chris Stott, whose vision and deep expertise have led us to this moment. The Veteran Fund community played a significant role in supporting the team at Lonestar, investing in and helping close their Seed and Pre-Series A rounds. According to Stott, “The Veteran Fund has been truly amazing to work with. They have put so much energy and focus into our mission, our team, and our success.”
Nearly 250 years ago, the American people declared their independence based on the principles of liberty, individual rights, and free markets. In that spirit, The Veteran Fund has planted the flag for the next generation of liberty-minded founders and investors who are building the frontier of American innovation to create an era of unprecedented prosperity for all humankind.
We dedicate our small part of the moon landing to those who believe a handful of mindful individuals can unite together to change the world.
We ask you to stand with us by sharing this update with anyone in your network aligned with our mission to advance America through venture capital.
Additionally, please join us for “Moonshot to Moon Landing: A Conversation with Chris Stott, CEO of Lonestar,” a global event on April 1st at 10 AM Pacific, which will be broadcast across 200 cities through our global network.
This is just the beginning of our journey together and we are incredibly grateful to have you alongside us.
- Ryan, Mike, Justin, and Lisa
