Military Veteran Startup (MVS) Community
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Hi Military Veteran Startup (MVS) Community,
We hope everyone is enjoying the summer! We hope to see many of you all at our events this summer and the rest of the year.
If you’d like us to include an event or news about our community in future newsletters, then let us know by emailing us at leaders@contextvc.com.
As always, there’s a lot to cover—so let’s dive right into it all! There’s so much to cover that here’s a table of contents:
Greylock & Context Ventures
The Military Veteran Career Conference
Service member, Spouse, & Military Veteran Financial Survey
Military Veteran Programs
Military Veteran Events
Startup & Military Veteran Startup News
Context Ventures Overview for Startup CEOs
The Military Veteran Startup Conference 2024 (MVS24)
Military Veteran Startup Book
1/ Greylock & Context Ventures
This Tuesday (7/11), Greylock and Context Ventures are bringing together military veterans & spouses: founders, investors, and operators to discuss startups and technology. This event will take place on Tuesday, July 11th, from 5:00-7:00 PM PT in downtown San Francisco at Greylock’s new San Francisco office. If you absolutely know you can attend, have not received a calendar invite, and really want to attend, then please RSVP here and email us at leaders@contextvc.com and we will see what we can do to add you off the waitlist.
Many thanks to Lee Haney (the first CFO at Service to School, USNA alum, Marine, and Chicago Booth alum) at Greylock for helping to make this event happen!
2/ The Military Veteran Career Conference
Starting a company is like transitioning out of the military - searching for product-market/career fit, unsure of the path, but putting one foot in front of the other. The journey is tough, but doesn't have to be lonely.
It's extremely difficult to make forward progress in the dark.
Not knowing the end goal or how you'll get there is HARD.
It's essential to find a tribe - peers and mentors who can help you avoid traps and support you at your low moments.
The Military Veteran Team has gathered an incredible group of military veterans interested in supporting one another and growing together. This is true of speakers, sponsors, AND attendees. If you're looking for a new tribe OR just need a little fun - join us on 7/20 and 7/21 in SF for a 2-day networking conference for veterans.
We guarantee you'll feel recharged and learn a ton from our great speakers - we always do.
3/ Service member, Spouse, & Military Veteran Financial Survey
At Context Ventures we have a portfolio company of military veteran founders looking to better understand the financial challenges that military service members and their families face while in the military and afterward.
Your feedback will help them build better financial tools and products for military veterans. Please complete the survey here.
We will randomly select a respondent on September 18th to win $500 via Venmo or Paypal. We are collecting names and emails so that we can select the respondent for the prize. If you have any questions or feedback on the survey, then please message us at leaders@contextvc.com. Please share this with other service members, spouses, or veterans that you all know!
4/ Military Veteran Programs
Bunker Labs CEO Circle: Applications are open for the Bunker Labs CEOcircle presented by JPMorgan Chase Commercial Banking. Apply today to join a cohort of fellow Veteran & Military Spouse CEOs for a year-long program. Together, you’ll hear from national business leaders and solve challenges facing your business as you remove obstacles to growing and scaling your business. Apply here by 7/14!
NYU Veterans Future Lab: Vetrepreneurs, are you looking to grow your venture? Join the NYU Veterans Future Lab Apex incubator program for early-stage startups led by veterans & military spouses. Now accepting applications, the program offers NYU + NYC’s top-flight resources, free desk space, access to a massive maker space, and other top-tier benefits (such as access to for-credit interns, free legal hours, award-winning faculty, and more). Zero equity is taken, so you can focus on taking your startup to the top. Apply here by July 10th!
USAA Pitch Competition powered by Bunker Labs. Applications close on 7/14. Learn more and apply here.
5/ Military Veteran Events
July and August 2023
Squadra Ventures get together in Atlanta: When: Tuesday, 11 July, 5 - 8 pm ET. Where: Midtown Atlanta (will receive location with emailed invite). Register here
AmeriVet Securities Veteran networking event in NYC on July 26th, 6- 8PM ET
Context Ventures x The Military Veteran Military Veterans Mixer in Seattle: we are looking to see if there's a critical mass of Seattle veterans who would like to meet on Friday, July 28th, from 5:00-7:00 PM PT in downtown Seattle. If you are interested in this get together then please complete this form! If we have a critical mass of people who sign up then we’ll host an event.
Context Ventures x The Military Veteran Military Veteran Mixer in San Diego: we are hosting a get together in downtown San Diego on Thursday, August 17th, from 5:00-7:00 PM PT. If you are interested in joining us, then please RSVP here.
September 2023
VeteranVC Office Hours on 9/1, Friday, 1600-1800 ET and on 12/9, Friday from 1600-1800 ET, RSVP here.
SaaStr (9/6-9/8 in the SF Bay Area): SaaStr is committed to having the most inclusive community in Cloud and SaaS. We want our events, and the community and companies who participate in them, to include, encourage, and recognize people of all races, ethnicities, genders, ages, abilities, religions, sexual orientation, and military service. To support those goals, among other initiatives, we offer 1,500+ VIP Equality + Inclusion Passes a year at no cost. A confirmation email will be sent if selected. RSVP here. If you are attending this event, then let us know as we are also planning to attend.
If you’d like to attend The Consumer Commerce Conference (which we host) in San Francisco on 9/15/23, Friday, then please contact us at leaders@contextvc.com.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2023 at Moscone Center from 9/19-9/21/23. TC Include Founders | TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, Get 75% Off Founder Passes With TC Include.
October and November 2023
2023 West Point Entrepreneur Summit (10/17-10/18) in San Francisco at the Marines Memorial Club, Tim at Context Ventures is a co-chair for this event so he hopes to see many of you all at the event! Anthony Noto, the CEO of SoFi will be the keynote speaker and we have other fantastic speakers lined up!
Context Ventures x The Military Veteran Military Veteran Mixer in Denver: we are hosting a get together in downtown Denver on Friday, November 3rd, from 5:00-7:00 PM MT (this is the day before Army-Air Force’s football game). If you are interested in joining us, then please RSVP here.
We are hosting The Diverse Venture Capital Emerging Managers Conference on 11/9/23 in San Francisco at the Marines Memorial Club. If you are a military veteran VC who is a general partner, then we encourage you to register.
Just like last year, Context Ventures, The Military Veteran, & Matt Johnson are hosting a Veterans Day Get Together in Palo Alto on 11/10/23, Friday from 5pm-7:30pm PT. Please RSVP here.
Here's a link to all the events we are organizing, co-hosting, or attending. If you’d like us to consider adding an event to this document, then email us at leaders@contextvc.com
6/ Startup & Military Veteran Startup News
Pyrra Technologies Closes Successful Seed Round | Business Wire, Congratulations Welton and Pyrra team!
The Military Veteran Podcast has interviewed a number of founders and operators from our community, including Riley Rees, Morgan Hitzig, Sonny Tai, Vineet Rajan, and Rob Huberty. Listen to episodes (and please leave a 5 star review!) here.
First Cut — State of Private Markets: Q2 2023: Across all funding stages, Q2 valuations came in above those of Q1. Series B and C in particular saw substantial gains over recent lows in median pre-money valuations. Median round sizes saw more muted increases across the venture ecosystem. Although the final numbers on total rounds and capital raised are not yet
Defense Tech or Dual Use News
Start-Ups Bring Silicon Valley Ethos to a Lumbering Military-Industrial Complex
Tech Startup Targets Missile Motors as Silicon Valley Moves Into Weapons - WSJ
J2 Ventures Collects $69 Million Toward Fund for Civilian, Government Tech
7/ Context Ventures Overview for Startup CEOs
If you are a military veteran founder looking for pre-seed or seed capital, then contact us at leaders@contextvc.com. Here’s a Context Ventures Overview for Startup CEOs.
8/ The Military Veteran Startup Conference 2024 (MVS24)
MVS24 planning is already in high gear! The Military Veteran Startup conference is the premier event that brings together military veteran founders, VCs, institutional LPs, operators, and founders. There were several unicorn founders at our 2023 event and there will be several at our 2024 event. In February 2024 we have some big name speakers attending and a good number of well known and established civilian allies attending. In the coming weeks to months we can share some VIPs who have confirmed they will attend. We are excited about MVS24. Here are videos and sessions from MVS23
See here for some of our speakers and to sign up here for the event!
9/ Military Veteran Startup Book
In the next few weeks we’ll be publishing a book we’ve been writing on Military Veteran Founders. We believe it’s the first book focused entirely on Military Veteran Founders and are excited about sharing the research and writing we’ve done on these fantastic founders who have started Fedex, GoDaddy, Nike, AOL, Berkshire Hathaway, Blackstone, Sport Clips, Wal-Mart, etc…
If you’d like us to include an event or news about our community in future newsletters, then let us know by emailing us at leaders@contextvc.com.
Thanks and Onwards,