Context VC

Last week in San Francisco, VVC's Derren Burrell had the privilege of attending the Military Veteran Startup Conference, where he witnessed firsthand the incredible momentum behind veteran-led innovation in defense, dual-use technology, and national security. The event brought together a powerhouse community of founders, investors, and ecosystem builders, all dedicated to advancing mission-driven ventures. One of the highlights was serving as a judge for the The PenFed Foundation Pitch Competition, where Derren had the opportunity to hear from some of the most promising veteran-led startups. The level of talent, vision, and execution on display was truly inspiring. It’s clear that veteran entrepreneurs are not just solving tough problems—they’re building the future of defense tech and beyond. Congrats on Charles Masters Rodriguez and the Autoket (Techstars '24) team for winning the first prize. Kudos to Lindsey Chrismon & Gabe Chrismon of MyHome and Shante Frazier of WellCapped for taking 2nd and 3rd respectively. A huge thank you to Context VC for curating such an impactful event, and to all the founders who pitched—it was an honor to be part of your journey. Looking forward to continuing the conversations and finding ways to support the next generation of veteran-led startups. #VeteranEntrepreneurs #DefenseTech #NatSecInnovation #MilitaryVets #VentureCapital

Welcome to Warmind - now live in open beta. At Dunedain our platform ambitions run deep, but for today we'll focus our current slate of features for Warmind 0.3.1. 🔷 Form Assistant: Generate and complete operational and administrative workflows with a single prompt. Need to get an Award or OER written in record time with better adherence to doctrine? This is the module for you. 🔷 Orchestrator: Don't see the form you want in form assistant? Simply drop an image of your document, and let Orchestrator automate the process -transforming any form into a ready-to-use template in minutes and saving you hours or days. 🔷 BERTI: A specialized AI model leveraging GPT 4o and augmented retrieval trained specifically on Army Doctrine that considers your context and can accurately draw across the entire corpus of Army publications while providing the referenced doctrine. In this quick demo video you can see a user creating their own agent to quickly draft a counseling form saving them hours of time. Currently functional up to NIPR, try our UNCLASS version of Warmind out here: https://lnkd.in/grC4ETJB Interested in deploying this to your unit to handle controlled unclassified (CUI) data including maintenance and intelligence data? DM me or email outreach@dunedain.ai for an enterprise solution tailored to your unit's needs. All of our system components are IL5 / FEDRAMP low compliant and we've already onboarded to a number of Army Battalions. #ArtificialIntelligence #Automation #MilitaryTechnology #DigitalTransformation #Innovation #DefenseInnovation #AIinDefense #TechForGood #OperationalEfficiency #Leadership

Thanks to Tim Hsia, Carina Cho, and all of the organizers of the Military Veteran Startup 2025 (MVS25) Conference in San Francisco last week, where I had the privilege of being part of a great panel on Defense and Dual Use Investing!   It was a fantastic discussion with Justin Krauss of J.P. Morgan, Bradley C. Harrison of Scout Ventures, and Jeff Eggers of Rsquared VC, where we tackled some of the biggest challenges and opportunities for startups working with the military. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share insights from my work at Dcode and Dcode Capital helping companies navigate this space. #MVS2025 Context VC And huge TY to Lenore Karafa for making amazing intros the whole time!

Thanks for sharing your experiences, photos, and takeaways. It was awesome catching up with you, John Chan, & hearing about the growth of OneRange 👏🙌💯!

One of the biggest highlights for me of MVS 2025 was getting to hear directly from Andrew Ng. He offered his thoughts on Google quietly dropping the AI weapons pledge: “I’m very glad that Google has changed its stance...Frankly, when the Project Maven thing went down … A lot of you [veterans] are going out, willing to shed blood for our country to protect us all,” said Ng. “So how the heck can an American company refuse to help our own service people that are out there, fighting for us?” Getting the right technology in the hands of our warfighters has been a passion of mine since deploying IED Countermeasure Equipment in Iraq 20 years ago. If we are to deter future wars, we need our best and brightest focused on the tools that will ensure that we are keeping our enemies up at night. https://lnkd.in/gwEfcS7Q Thank you to all of our speakers, sponsors, and attendees particularly those that joined us for the first time - Jeff Eggers and Ling Shao. We want to this to be an inclusive community for our veterans and allies. Mark your calendars next year for Feb 11/12. Please check out the links for upcoming events and please register for VetVC Office hours. The next one will be held 28 Feb.

Last week, I had the honor of sitting alongside Mike Sherbakov and Craig Cummings to watch David Kervin, founder of our shared portfolio company Proteus Space™, share his insights on building a space company at MilVet Startups. One of the biggest takeaways? Founders on nearly every panel emphasized that their drive isn’t financial—it’s mission-driven. As an investor, my job is to generate returns, right? Sure. But the reason I got into venture capital wasn’t just to make money—it was to back brilliant people building game-changing (and often life-changing) companies. I recently came across a quote that stuck with me: “Whatever you’re not changing, you’re choosing.” This conference was full of people refusing to accept the status quo—choosing instead to build, to lead, and to drive real change. Beyond being incredibly motivating, MilVet Startups was a powerful reminder as to why veterans stand out as founders. I met an impressive group of sharp, determined individuals—the right people, building in the right spaces. And for some, like David, I mean that quite literally… 🚀☄️🛰️🪐🔭 #SAICProud #SAICVentures #defenseinvestor #MilVetStartups

Congratulations Charles Masters Rodriguez to you and the Autoket (Techstars '24) team along with ALL of the fantastic military veteran founders who participated in The PenFed Foundation pitch competition! It's so awesome to see your success and to watch your entrepreneurial journey. We believe the best is yet ahead for you and the many fantastic military veteran founders who are starting companies.

#MilVetStartups: When you’re able to, showing up matters. It takes time, money, & energy to say yes to networking events. Small business owners, entrepreneurs, and startup founders are constantly weighing “if I say yes to this, that means I have to say no to that” and “I just need this to make that happen.” Advice: ⭐️ If you have the available time to attend, look at your budget & compare it to the expenses it will cost you and your company. Can you fiscally afford to go? Can you afford to be away from other obligations? If Yes: ⭐️ Study the agenda, speakers, vendors, and panels ahead of time to maximize your time on the ground. ⭐️ Go with very specific and realistic goals and intentions and work to meet those goals. ⭐️Be frugal on travel, accommodations, and split expenses with others who may be in the same boat. ⭐️Connect with people. Genuine interactions & curiosity can make a big difference. ⭐️Capture the moment & send people photos. It’s a great way to connect and remember people when you are meeting dozens of new people. ⭐️ Say thank you to speakers and moderators - especially if you heard something that resonated or you connected to. ⭐️Follow up. If No: ⭐️Study the agenda, speakers, vendors, and panels ahead of time and reach out. ⭐️ Determine if this is a repeating event and make plans to attend the next one. ⭐️If you know others who will be attending, ask them about their experience. (And say thank you for taking the time to share.) ⭐️Follow up. By chance are you here in #SanFrancisco at the 2025 #MVS? Let me know - I’m always up for connecting! —— Thank you to Brendan Aronson for the invitation to attend & Tim Hsia, Lenore Karafa & The Military Veteran team for the warm welcome! (As a military family member & former spouse, sometimes we don’t know if we are actually welcome, but the #MilVet team has been welcoming!) Great 1st Day panels & speakers: Jim Delaney Ruth Ann Clark Rob Huberty Bradley Genser Grant Demaree Paul Madera Ryan Clinton John Drew Bill Draper Adam Draper ⏻ @pitch johnson Carina Cho Isaac Oates Steve Gilman Jake Wood Kevin Milgram Quil Lawrence Derek Herrera Ling Shao Nicholas Kovalsky And it’s always good to connect with friends and colleagues from #BunkerLabs Institute for Veterans and Military Families - IVMF & NYU Veterans Future Lab : Kandis Porter, MBA MSPM PMP, John Rochford, "IRON" Mike Steadman 🥊🏴☠️ , Dean Wegner, Jake Tozier, Emily McMahan, Haotian Bai, Christin S. Rod Loges Reggie Ordonez

This was a panel I was looking forward to at MilVet! It’s an honor to hear these Founders insights, and as an HR Tech Leader…hearing insights in market volatility around empowering the human workforce. HROps Learning and Development Employee giving And all founded by #Veterans Thank you, Carina Cho Context VC Steve Gilman OneRange Jake Wood Groundswell, Inc. Isaac Oates Justworks

🇺🇸 I had an incredible time this past week at the Military Veteran Startups Conference in San Francisco! 💪 🪖 The veteran startup ecosystem remains strong here as the result of the Hurculean efforts by the teams at Context VC and The Military Veteran. 🙏 🤝 I had the opportunity to meet impressive founders, experienced investors, and fellow professionals all motivated to ensure their businesses grow and thrive. 📈 🤜 It was also great to reconnect with friends, clients, and fellow veterans that continue to ensure this community remains vibrant and laser-focused on driving financial results through a powerful network and education. 💡 👥 The panels were exceptional and topics ranged from the state of dual-use defense tech to effective marketing solutions in the age of #AI, with everything in between. 👨💻 🚧 I'm excited to get back to work and implement the lessons learned from my time here! 📝 #MILVET #startup #entrepreneur #venturecapital #vc #military #veteran