Emily McMahan has found her next gig — and another way to support veteran entrepreneurs.
The West Point alum and former military police officer has co-founded and launched an investment group for U.S. Service Academy graduates, called the Academy Investor Network. The plan, she said, is to syndicate capital from alumni of the five publicly funded service academies: the U.S. Military, Naval, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine. That funding will back early-stage companies — including veteran-led startups across industries, and civilian-led startups in the government-technology space.
“Let’s really try to get this next generation of veteran entrepreneurs off the ground, or how do we get veterans who are connected to the startup space and help them vet the next generation of companies that might impact the government,” McMahan said. In doing so, the group aims to show “a different side to venture,” to include diverse founders and businesses, “and not fund the same companies over and over again,” she said.
It builds upon the work McMahan was doing with Capitol Post, an Alexandria nonprofit she started to connect service members with the region’s business community. Capitol Post was shut down last summer and folded into the D.C. chapter of Chicago-based Bunker Labs, a national nonprofit that connects veterans to the civilian entrepreneurship ecosystem. McMahan left Bunker in an official capacity but remains informally involved.
The Academy Investor Network continues that work, she said, “just very hyper-focused more on the investment piece of it.”
That’s because “there’s really nothing for service academy grads in terms of angel investments, and there are so many service academy grads here in D.C. that are doing fantastic things,” she said, adding: “Veterans are still considered a minority, believe it or not, so we realized one of the best ways to get this group and help raise it is to have the people in it fund it.”
For now the investor network will make special purpose vehicle investments, but plans to raise a dedicated fund of about $25 million to $50 million within the next year or two. Its investments will be small tranches of capital for young startups, between $50,000 and $250,000.
“Our goal is to then hand the baton off to other veteran funds that are looking to write checks of $1 million, $2 million, a little bit bigger,” McMahan said. “We’re hoping to fill that gap.”
She and her team — which includes co-founder Sherman Williams, a former Naval officer and investment banker — are now recruiting service academy graduates who might be interested in investing. And they’re working with both accredited and nonaccredited investors.
McMahan is also now director of programs at the Common Mission Project, an Alexandria-based nonprofit with educational programs for mission-driven entrepreneurs. There, she works with Alex Gallo, its executive director, to teach curriculum for Hacking for Defense, a Department of Defense-sponsored university course.
An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the organization. It is called the Academy Investor Network.
