Context VC

Executive Summary: DiverseVC 2024 is in two weeks 1/ This year’s DiverseVC Conference will be held in downtown San Francisco at the Marines Memorial Club on 09/12/24 (Thursday). This is our second conference; we believe it’ll be even better, more fun, and larger than DiverseVC 2023. 2/ Here are some of our panels at DiverseVC 2024   🚀 9:30am - 10:30am: Fundraising in a Challenging Non-ZIRP Economy 🚀 11:00am - 12:00pm: From Emerging to Established Venture Funds 🚀 1:00pm - 2:00pm: Closing Your First Institutional LP 🚀 2:30pm - 3:30pm: VC Best Practices from the Institutional LP Perspective 🚀 4:30pm - 5:30pm: Why LPs Invest in Emerging Managers 3/ Here are some of the fantastic people attending: We have over 150 LPs, GPs, and sponsors who are attending. Here are a few of the LPs and GPs attending DiverseVC. David Aung w/ San Jose Retirement Tarrell Gamble w/ ACERA Pamela Pavkov w/ TPG Next Trey Hart w/ 50 South Capital (Northern Trust) Aakar Vachhani Vacchani w/ Fairview Capital Nate Leung w/ Sapphire Ventures Rilwan M. w/ American Student Assistance Renata Aráuz-DeStefano w/ Pivotal Ventures Daniele Viappiani w/ GC1 Ventures Derrick Tang w/ IBank California Jiwon Song w/ Hanwha Life Rudy Hobson w/ The Colorado Health Foundation Keith Spears w/ Tides Jim Lockheed w/ BrightSky Partners Rachel ten Brink w/ Red Bike Capital Shruti Gandhi w/ Array Ventures Vijay Chattha w/ VSC Ventures Mike Sherbakov w/ The Veteran Fund Vincent Diallo w/ Interlace Ventures Aaron Samuels w/ Collide Capital Anup Goel w/ Creative Capital Christa Williams w/ Cherryrock Capital Cindy Padnos w/ Illuminate Ventures David Tswamuno/ Fairbridge VC Desiree Vargas Wrigley w/ Velocity Initiative Edward Suh w/ Alpine VC Lisa Yu w/ 99VC Marcos Fernandez w/ FIAT Ventures Megan Ruan w/ Gold House Ventures Veronica Juarez w/ Dahlia VC Yohei Nakajima w/ Untapped Capital 4/ How to attend: Registration link can be found in the comment section. 5/ Thank you to all of our fantastic and awesome sponsors who are making this event happen: ⚡Citizens Private Bank ⚡Sidley Austin LLP ⚡Juniper Square ⚡BDO ⚡Stifel Financial Corp. Neil Devani, Helen King, and our Context VC and Necessary Ventures teams are looking forward to seeing you all at this year’s DiverseVC!

Executive Summary: From Stanford University to United States Marine Corps Combat Infantryman in Afghanistan to Startup Founder - Emery Wager, the Cofounder & CEO of Confido Legal 1/ At Context VC, we primarily invest in military veteran founders at the preseed and seed stage (we also separately invest in fintech and consumer startups agnostic of founder background). More than 80% of our capital to date has gone into investing in military veteran founders. 2/ We look to highlight some of the fantastic founders we are fortunate enough to partner with, and today, we are featuring Emery Wager. 👔 Role Title: Cofounder & CEO of Confido Legal 🏡Hometown: Seattle, WA 🎖Military Background:  United States Marine Corps infantry officer. Two combat tours to Afghanistan, one as a platoon commander and one as a company XO.  ⚡ Why did you join the military: I had a nagging feeling that I wanted to serve, but I didn’t come from a military background and was on a completely different life track: Go to a top-tier college, get the most prestigious job etc., etc. That nagging feeling became all-consuming, and I eventually had to give in.  🎓 Educational background: B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University. What are you building at Confido Legal (what does your startup do)? Confido Legal is an integrated finance platform designed to help legal technology companies embed payments, disbursements, and financial services features into their applications. Confido Legal provides a legal-specific embedded finance toolbox that speeds time to market, maximizes revenue, and ensures compliance with the rules of professional conduct. What gets you excited about building Confido Legal? There is such a small percentage of the population that can afford the civil justice system in the U.S. Building integrated financial tools at Confido Legal allows us to add financial flexibility in exactly the right places to increase, ever so slightly, the pool of people who can access the justice system. 📚 Favorite Books: - Dove by Robin Graham & Derek Gill - Shoe Dog by Phil Knight - Open by Andre Agassi 📽 Favorite Movie: Tombstone ✍️ ⛷️🏊 Hobbies: Writing, reading, kitesurfing, skiing, swimming. 💪Favorite Sports Teams: I like doing, not watching. 💡What advice you have about startups: - Try to decouple your success from time as much as possible. What matters most is the direction and the goal. It’s less important when you get there. - At Confido Legal, we try to avoid using the word “help.” We don’t need team members who will help out. We need team members who will take ownership and make sure the job gets done. Try changing “How can I help?” to “What can I take responsibility for?”

Executive Summary: Waymo, Way Cool, and the AI Revolution 1/ Technology is really cool, especially when it’s really useful. As an early stage investor at Context VC I have learned that so much of being a venture capitalist is about saying NO often and only saying YES to a few opportunities that stand out. As a result, one gradually builds a fair bit of skepticism about the promise of any new technology. 2/ Artificial intelligence is getting all the hype in tech right now and the hype feels real. I believe the most compelling/interesting/innovative artificial intelligence right now is not OpenAI's ChatGPT, Midjourney, or other software applications, but actually Waymo. My kids agree, and even now when we ride in a Waymo we are so impressed with the technology. I just read on TechCrunch that “Waymo disclosed…it’s now giving more than 100,000 paid robotaxi rides every week across its three main commercial markets in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix.” 3/ If you had asked me five years ago if I thought Waymo would actually work you would have found a skeptic. There are a lot of skeptics about AI and I’m not one of them. We might be at the top of the hype curve but eventually this hype will be fully realized/actualized. One Waymo ride convinced me of the incredible computing power, use cases, and applications that AI will have on humanity. My kids will still likely learn how to drive but my grandkids probably won’t. Driving could become a hobby much like horseback riding – something done for fun rather than a necessary skill. 4/ My first ride with Waymo reminded me of similar first tech times: - playing Mario on the original Nintendo console - printing on a laser printer - connecting my phone to a bluetooth speaker - riding a rental e-bike around Manhattan Waymo is such an intriguing-interesting experience that when I have out of town guests I like to take them on a Waymo trip, because only a few cities and people have gotten to experience it. I’m glad Waymo is doing rides in San Francisco because it further establishes San Francisco as the current center of AI innovation/revolution. 5/ There are always tradeoffs to new technology. One of the Waymo tradeoffs right now is that their parking lot has endless honking as the cars communicate with one another.

Executive Summary: Join Us at the DiverseVC Conference 2024! We are just a little under a month away from our 2nd annual DiverseVC Conference. Neil Devani and I are excited to co-host the DiverseVC Conference, a one-of-a-kind event that empowers and connects the diverse emerging VC community. Last year, we saw an incredible turnout with over 150 attendees, including fantastic LPs, GPs, and sponsors. The feedback was outstanding, and we're confident this year will be even more impactful, given those who have already signed up! 📅 Date: Thursday, September 12th, 2024, 9am-6:30pm PT 📍 Location: Marines’ Memorial Club & Hotel, San Francisco, CA 1/ Why Attend? 🤝Connect with a vibrant and diverse community of VCs, LPs, and industry leaders. There's no other event that brings us together like this. 🌟LPs Attending David Aung of San Jose Retirement Tarrell Gamble of ACERs Pamela Pavkov of TPG Next Trey Hart of 50 South Capital (Northern Trust) Aakar Vachhani of Fairview Capital Nate Leung of Sapphire Ventures Rilwan M. of American Student Assistance Renata Aráuz-DeStefano of Pivotal Ventures Daniele Viappiani of GC1 Ventures Derrick Tang of IBank California Greg Feldman of Spring Creek Octavio Sandoval, CFA, CAIA of Illumen  and many more! ✨ GPs Attending Jenny Fielding of Everywhere Ventures Jim Lockheed of BrightSky Partners Rachel ten Brink of Red Bike Capital Shruti Gandhi of Array Ventures Vijay Chattha of VSC Ventures Mike Sherbakov of The Veteran Fund Vincent Diallo of Interlace Ventures Aaron Samuels of Collide Capital Alice Loy of Relevance Ventures Amanda N. Heyman of Tundra Ventures Andres Morin of Vamos Ventures Antonio Key of Sunset Ventures Anup Goel of Creative Capital Arthur Karell of First In Ben Stokes of Chasing Rainbows VC Christa Williams of Cherryrock Capital Cindy Padnos of Illuminate Ventures David Tswamuno of Fairbridge VC Dawn Dobras of Capital F Desiree Vargas Wrigley of Velocity Initiative Edward Suh of Alpine VC Genevieve LeMarchal of Suncoast Ventures Jessica Karr of Coyote Ventures Lisa Yu of 99VC Marcos Fernandez of FIAT Ventures Megan Ruan of Gold House Ventures 2/ What Past Attendees Are Saying: ⚡“This was one of the best events for emerging fund managers I've seen all year. Great audience and specific panels, and it was clearly very intentional.” - Mandy Bynum, Bay Street Capital Holdings ⚡“The conference was the right balance of networking and learning in a candid, interactive manner from those who have been there before.” - David Tswamuno, Fairbridge ⚡“This was an excellent gathering of top minds in VC, and it was great to connect with some LPs in person that have been a bit hard to catch up with outside of Zoom.” - James Norman, Black Operator Ventures 3/ Register to attend! Don’t miss out on this opportunity to be part of a transformative event in the venture capital ecosystem. Link to register will be in comment section. We look forward to seeing everyone!

Executive Summary: From Army Officer to Startup CEO, highlighting Luke Hutchison of Perfect Venue 1/ At Context VC, we primarily invest in military veteran founders at the preseed and seed stage (we also separately invest in fintech and consumer startups agnostic of founder background). More than 80% of our capital to date has gone into investing in military veteran founders. 2/ We will be highlighting some of the fantastic founders we are fortunate enough to partner with and today we are featuring Luke Hutchison, the CEO and cofounder of Perfect Venue. 💼 Role Title: Founder & CEO 🏡 Hometown: St. Paul, MN 🎖️ Military Background: US Army Infantry Officer ⚡ Why did you join the military: I wanted to serve my country after 9/11 and help others enjoy the same freedoms we enjoy in the US. 🎓 Educational background: United States Military Academy at West Point 🥾 Your journey from military to startup leader: In between deployments to Afghanistan, we had Hail & Farewells and Battalion Balls. Like many new Lieutenants I was tasked with planning a few of these functions. In the process, I learned that many venues were booking hundreds of thousands of dollars in private events on word documents, spreadsheets, and handwritten docs like it was 1999. So I launched Perfect Venue, an all-in-one event management tool to help venues increase sales, reduce admin time, and streamline the guest experience. 📚 Favorite Books:  - The Hard Thing About Hard Things - Founding Sales - Shape Up - Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability 📽️ Favorite Movies:  - Cool Runnings - The Godfather 💻 Hobbies: Working ⚾ Favorite Sports Teams: San Francisco Giants 💡 What advice do you have about startups: 1. There has never been a better time in human history to start a company. Don’t waste your opportunity to put a dent in the universe. 🪐 2. Listen to what your customer needs, which may not be exactly what they want. Always try to dig deeper to solve the underlying need. 👂 3. Startups are personal development journeys disguised as businesses. It's painful to constantly be challenged, but it is also really rewarding to grow through each new challenge once you're on the other side. 🌱

Executive Summary: Hosting Civilian Allies & Military Veterans during the Sweet Summers in Seattle 1/ Yesterday evening our teams at VetraFi, The Military Veteran, & Context VC hosted a military veteran get together with our friends at Perkins Coie during Seattle Tech Week. It was a fun & fantastic gathering as we met talented veterans across a cross section of experiences, industries, and military branches. ⚡There were some veterans who were on the cusp of transitioning off active duty ⚡Several veterans who were at consulting firms, including Bain & Company and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) ⚡Several veterans in the defense tech space including Anduril Industries ⚡Several veterans who are engineers whether it be software engineers or physical infrastructure engineers including Microsoft ⚡A number of veterans working in private equity and a healthy number of veterans pursuing startups. At our events I’m always pleasantly surprised at the breadth and depth of military veteran talent. I’m optimistic about America’s future because of how many capable, competent, and high character individuals we meet. 2/ What gets us MOST excited about our events is that increasingly more civilian allies are joining our events. The military veteran community can help one transition, find a new role, find new business opportunities, find your initial set of investors, but the ONLY way to really succeed is to branch out and find civilian allies/mentors/sponsors. A major reason we host events is that building a network is essential regardless of industry or point in one’s career. 3/ We are thankful that Perkins Coie hosted us yesterday evening at their office with fantastic views of the sweet Seattle summer that overlooks the Space Needle. 🙌Thank you David Martinez, Dan Austin (US Army veteran), & Matt Oshinsky for helping make this happen. They are a great team that supports veteran business leaders and also hires fantastic military veterans. 4/ I’m especially grateful to our team for making this happen and attending the event: Sukin Yang, Angie Parker, & William Swenson 🙏💯💪. Will and I continued to discuss several startup ideas after the event. 5/ Here are some personal highlights of my evening: 👏Catching up with Brian Thomas, who served with me as my team leader when I was a platoon leader in Mosul. I’m glad I got to introduce him to Will. Congrats on the new baby! 👏Seeing two fellow G-1 Greeks: Frank Hahn & Xander Bullock 👏Learning how several military veteran founded startups are starting to see success: Stephiney Foley, Jon Brewton, Brian Ruane, Eric Mammano & Ryan Baldwin 6/ At VetraFi, The Military Veteran, Context VC we have so many upcoming events and we hope to see many of you all at these upcoming events, RSVP links in the comment below: 🤝8/30, San Antonio, TX 🤝9/12, The DiverseVC Conference in San Francisco 🤝9/20, Dallas, TX 🤝9/27, Austin, TX 🤝2/5-2/6/25 (Wednesday and Thursday), Our 4th annual Military Veteran Startup 2025 Conference

Executive Summary: Seattle, Startups, System 2 Thinking, & Type 2 Fun (with Mt St Helens) 1/ On Wednesday, our team at Context VC finished our first offsite that we held in Seattle, and it was great seeing all of our teammates ⚡! We had healthy discussions about how to evaluate startups along with how we can best assist existing portfolio companies. After those discussions, it dawned on me that our favorite startups are those that feel like great investment opportunities when they satisfy both System 1 and System 2 thinking. 🧠 "System 1" involves fast, instinctive, and emotional thinking, whereas "System 2" involves slower, more deliberative, and more logical thinking. Many thanks to all of our teammates who were able to join the offsite this week in Seattle: ➡William Swenson ➡Carina Cho ➡Lenore Karafa ➡Warren Cheng ➡Sukin Yang ➡Brendan Aronson ➡Angie Parker (thank you for organizing the offsite & Mt St Helens trip) ➡K. Holden Lindblom ➡David Lee ➡Helen King 2/ ⛰ After the offsite, some of us drove down to Mt St Helens and hiked up the mountain yesterday/Thursday. On the hike we were joined by Emery Wager & Trevor Hanus, the cofounders of Confido Legal as well as my two boys, Gary (14) and Ben (11). It was a fantastic day to hike the mountain 💪. On the way down, I mused as to why we found the physically strenuous hike up and down the mountain to be fun, and Emery commented that it was Type 2 fun. 🎉“Type 1” fun is actually fun at the moment. While you’re engaged in a Type 1 fun activity, you don’t want that experience to end, and you remember it fondly afterwards. 🙌“Type 2” fun only becomes fun in retrospect. It’s great after you stop, but at the moment, it usually involves a lot of stress and suffering. 🌄The views on top of the mountain were incredible. To get to the top we went through three very different types of terrain: 🌲Woodland (the most pleasant hiking area), rocky areas (that involve scrambling, 🧗♂️), and then sandy areas near the peak⌛. The older I get, the more I’m drawn to both System 2 thinking and Type 2 fun. I’m so happy that I was able to hike up and down the mountain with teammates, startup founders, and my two boys🙌🎉💯. 3/ This evening our teams at The Military Veteran, VetraFi, & Context VC are hosting a civilian allies and military veteran get together in downtown Seattle, from 5pm-7pm at the Perkins Coie office. Over 90 people have registered to attend and we look forward to seeing everyone. I’ve dropped the registration link in the comment section below. If you are in the Seattle area, then we hope to meet you all this evening!

Executive Summary: Information, Insights, & Inspiration at the Context Ventures Offsite (Day 1) 1/ Yesterday, we held our first offsite at Context VC in Seattle, and it was a packed day full of information, insights, & inspiration. It’s been 3.5 years since we started investing, and it’s fantastic to see the growth of the startups we’ve supported, how much we have improved, and how with each passing day, we have become even bolder in our goals, vision, and mission. 2/ We kicked off the day with Brendan Aronson of The Military Veteran (TMV) providing an update on the company. It’s growing fantastically, and the momentum of the business is strong. Brendan and team have 1) helped fantastic companies hire incredible military veteran talent and 2) hired fantastic military veteran talent for his team. More about TMV here: ⚡ The Military Veteran helps high-growth companies hire exceptional business leaders who previously served in the military. Our clients include PE and VC-backed companies who believe that talent is a key differentiator in growing their business and building a winning culture. 3/ We then went straight to Holden Lindblom, who provided an update on VetraFi. With VetraFi, much is being done on the backend of the business. We are encouraged and excited about what has been done and hope and believe that this company will greatly benefit the military veteran community. More about VeraFi here: 🔥 VetraFi is built for the unique needs of servicemembers and veterans, and we seek to empower your financial stability. We put more money into your pocket every month through our high-yield savings accounts, and offer best-in-class features and benefits designed for our fellow troops and veterans. 4/ We then visited the 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, U.S. Army, and had a great conversation with two leaders in the Ranger battalion. Thank you Pete Leszczynski & Zak Knowles for hosting our team 🎖💪🤝! 5/ We finished the day by attending the National Security Happy Hour with Point72 Ventures, IQT (In-Q-Tel), & Vannevar Labs. It was a fun get-together in downtown Seattle, and it was fantastic getting to meet so many great founders, leaders, & operators building in the national security space. Thank you Daniel Gwak, Chris Morales, Sarah Hess, Graham Littlehale, CFA, Sri Chandrasekar, George Hoyem, & Diana Keenan, CFA for hosting such a great event! 6/ Today is day 2 of our offsite. It’s a day full of meetings with fantastic startup teams. We look forward to meeting many more people at our networking event this Friday in Seattle at Perkins Coie! RSVP link below! 7/ Many thanks to the ENTIRE Context Team and Context founders for all their contributions and for joining us this summer in Seattle! We are excited about all of their goals & our initiatives for the remaining part of 2024. Onwards! ➡William Swenson ➡Carina Cho ➡Lenore Karafa ➡Warren Cheng ➡Sukin Yang ➡Brendan Aronson ➡Angie Parker ➡K. Holden Lindblom ➡David Lee ➡Helen King

Executive Summary: Top Gun Navy Fighter Pilot to Startup CEO: The Journey of Atomic Insights Co-founder and CEO, Lucas Babbitt 💼 Role Title: Co-Founder and CEO of Atomic Insights 🏡 Hometown: Pepperell, MA 🎖 Military Background: United States Naval Academy Class of 2000 (the Class of the Millenium!). I was designated a Naval Aviator in 2002, and after replacement training in the F/A-18 Hornet, I reported to the VFA-27 Royal Maces in April ‘03 while the squadron was supporting OIF from the USS Kitty Hawk, on station in the Northern Arabian Gulf. After 3 years in the Maces, I received orders to attend the US Navy Top Gun Course and to serve as an instructor at the Strike Fighter Weapons School in Virginia Beach Virginia. From 2008-2010, I was the Training Officer in the VFA-15 Valions during which time we completed one deployment in support of OEF in 2008-2009. I transitioned to the US Navy Reserves in 2010, and retired from the Naval Reserve in 2020. ⚡ Why did you join the military: Both of my grandfathers were pilots in WWII, and when I was a kid I wanted to be a pilot like them. When I was 8 years old I saw Top Gun and after that I wanted to be a US Navy Fighter Pilot. I was very fortunate to have made that dream come true. 🎓 Educational background: Pepperell public schools, United States Naval Academy ‘00, where I was a Distinguished Graduate, Top Gun Class 03-06, Stanford Law School and Stanford University Department of Management Science & Engineering in 2013 (where I was definitely not a distinguished graduate…). 📚 Favorite Books: ➡The Right Stuff ➡The Best and the Brightest ➡The China Mission ➡Flight of the Intruder ➡Tales of the South Pacific ➡We Were Soldiers Once…and Young 📽Favorite Movies:  ➡Top Gun ➡Top Gun Maverick ➡The Right Stuff ➡The Bridges at Toko Ri  ➡Midway, Braveheart ➡The Thin Red Line  ➡Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ⛷️🏄Hobbies: When I’m not working, I enjoy skiing and surfing with my family 🏈Favorite Sports Teams: Go US Navy!, Boston sports teams, and any teams that my family members are a part of. 💡What advice you have about startups: I’m pretty early in the startup journey, so my advice is to take the leap if you have the ability to do it, but know that you are about to learn a lot of great life and business lessons… the hard way…

Executive Summary: Summer Military Veteran Startup News & Events 1/ We just sent out our July Military Veteran Startup Newsletter which has grown to over 2,975 subscribers 🚀📧😎! Our average open rate hovers around 75% 👓! 2/ Since Context VC started in March of 2021 this has been one of the busiest summers when considering both events AND dealmaking. We’ve made several new investments, some portfolio companies have raised new rounds, and we’ve been traversing the country meeting new founders/startups. 3/ This Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday we are looking forward to our first team offsite in the Seattle area. ⚡William Swenson ⚡Carina Cho ⚡Brendan Aronson of The Military Veteran ⚡K. Holden Lindblom of VetraFi ⚡Angie Parker And additional team members! We are capping the week off with a military veteran and civilian allies networking event in downtown Seattle at the Perkins Coie office on 8/2/24, Friday, from 5pm-7pm. 🤝Thank you Perkins Coie and team for hosting us (cc David Martinez, Dan Austin, & Matt Oshinsky). 4/ We look forward to our many upcoming events and podcast recordings we’ll be doing in the near future. Here are just a few we can publicly share now: 🔥Live podcast interview with Mike Maples, Jr & Peter Ziebelman on 8/13/24 🔥National military veteran & civilian allies networking events in San Antonio (8/30), Dallas (9/20), Austin (9/27), & San Francisco (11/8) 🔥DiverseVC Conference on 9/12/24 at the Marines’ Memorial 🔥Military Veteran Startup on 2/5-2/6/2025 Conference at the Marines’ Memorial Podcast interviews with: 🔥Ilya Strebulaev co-author of The Venture Mindset 🔥Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic 🔥Richard Clarke, 12th Commander of the US Special Operations Command 5/ We look forward to meeting, contributing, and supporting the fantastic military veteran startup community! Comment below if there are any cities we should visit, startups we should meet, or podcast guests we should invite.