Serial Entrepreneur & Silent Investor: Jackson Moses, Founder & Managing Partner of Silent Ventures
”This is a people business; it’s a long-term game. This is not a transactional, short-term, ‘make your money and leave’ business.”
- Jackson Moses
Jackson Moses is a successful serial entrepreneur and early defense tech investor. He currently serves as the Founder and Managing Partner of Silent Ventures, an early stage venture firm that invests in aerospace, defense, and national security startups including Anduril, Castelion, Chaos, Hadrian, and Saronic.
Prior to launching Silent Ventures, Jackson had founded MainStreet and Spectrum Labs, which was later acquired by ActiveFence. Between both startups, Jackson has raised over $120M, employed hundreds of people, and generated $30M+ in ARR.
In this interview, Jackson shares invaluable insights gained from his experiences as a serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor. From navigating the complexities of the defense tech sector to advising startups and venture firms on investment strategies, Jackson offers practical advice and actionable takeaways for aspiring entrepreneurs and seasoned investors alike.
Key Takeaways:
1. Be Mission-Driven. A lot capital is allocated to pursuits with minimal impact. Focus on addressing significant challenges that create real-world change.
2. You Can’t Teach Entrepreneurship. However, you can you work with people who have been there and can look around the corner for you. Find those people to recruit as mentors or advisors. If Jackson didn’t have the investors and board he did at his first company, the company would have likely failed.
3. The Best Founders Have 3 Winning Traits - Persistence, Resilience, and Curiosity. Any founder trying to do something really impactful needs an exceptional level of resilience because the lows are deep and frequent. You have to get comfortable being constantly uncomfortable.
4. The Blueprint for Success in venture capital is delayed gratification & relationship building.
Topics Covered:
Jackson’s Background 6:52
About Silent Ventures 9:36
How Jackson got into Aerospace and Defense 11:05
How Jackson built domain experience 15:50
What Jackson looks for in every investment 20:03
Lessons from the early days of investing 25:31
Chewing glass as an entrepreneur staring into the abyss. 29:40
What the best founders get right 39:30
The blueprint for Silent Ventures’ success 43:03
The best advice he’s ever received 46:51
Favorite book 47:06
Jackson’s ultimate vision for Aerospace & Defense 47:30
Parting advice 48:06
