Investing in exceptional entrepreneurs with world-changing ideas.

Kelly Perdew

Kelly is the Managing General Partner of Moonshots Capital – a VC fund that invests in early-stage technology companies and leans in heavily in veteran founded companies.  He was a co-founder & Managing Partner at DuMont Project – a consultative agency that helps accelerate the growth of direct-to-consumer brands and sold to Cart.com in 2021.  Prior to DuMont Project he was the CEO of Fastpoint Games, a venture-backed leading developer of live data-driven games for the fortune 500 brand set that sold to WePlay. 

After winning Season 2 of the NBC hit show, The Apprentice, Kelly served as an Executive Vice President in the Trump Organization in New York, where he managed several real estate projects and worked directly for Donald Trump for one year following the show.  

Kelly is a nationally recognized speaker on leadership, technology, career development and entrepreneurship.  He earned a BS from the US Military Academy, West Point, a JD from the UCLA School of Law, and an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA.  Kelly served in the US Army as a Military Intelligence Officer and completed Airborne and Ranger training.  Kelly is author of “Take Command: 10 Leadership Principles I Learned in the Military and Put to Work for Donald Trump,” that provides guidance on how anyone can develop their leadership capabilities and he donates a percentage of the royalties to the USO and was host of GI Factory on the Military Channel. He has also served as a national celebrity spokesperson for Big Brothers/Sisters and The National Guard Youth Challenge Program.  Kelly received a Presidential Appointment from President Bush to the President’s Council on Civic Participation and Service in 2006 and was re-appointed in 2008. 

Kelly also serves as an investor, advisor and/or Board member for Scopely, ID.me, Red 6 and a dozen others and was previously an advisor or board member for LinkedIn (LNKD), eteamz (ACTV), Pandora (P), Ustream (IBM), Harvest.ai (AMZN) and Bitium (GOOG). He lives in Florida with his wife Dawn and twins – Grant and Grace. 

Craig Cummings

Craig actively invests in technology start-ups, many of which are founded by military veteran entrepreneurs.

Craig’s current and recent board positions include Cartwheel, Copper Labs, Shep (acq by Flight Center) Zabo (acq by Coinbase), Threatcare (acq by Reliaquest), Able, Realize Me, BTS, and Stealth Power, and he serves on the Advisory Boards of VetsInTech, Texas Venture Labs (of the UT McCombs School of Business), and DivInc. He is also the Director of Military and Veteran Affairs for Capital Factory, Austin’s center of gravity for entrepreneurs in Texas.

Craig is the Co-Founder and former Chief Operating Officer of RideScout, a mobile app that showed users how to get from point A to point B by providing real-time ground transportation information. RideScout was acquired by Daimler (maker of Mercedes-Benz) in September 2014.

Before he became an entrepreneur, Craig spent 17 years in the Army, most of that time as an Intelligence Officer serving in support of the National Security Agency (NSA). Craig deployed to Afghanistan with the Joint Special Operations Command where he earned the Bronze Star. He also served as an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, NY.  Craig received a B.S. in Political Science from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he was their first Truman Scholar, and he received a Ph.D. in Political Science (minor: Econometrics) from Columbia University in 2005.

In 2015, Craig was selected by HillVets as one of the 100 most influential and impactful veterans in the United States and, in 2016, Inc. Magazine named him as one of the Top 20 Military Veteran Entrepreneurs in the US. In 2022, Craig was selected as one of the Top 100 Entrepreneurs in the country by Alumni Spotlight. Craig is a member of the 2016 Class of Henry Crown Fellows with the Aspen Institute. In 2023, he was named a Future Texas Legend Veteran by the Texas Business Hall of Fame.  

Craig is married to Lawton Cummings, a General Partner of the Capital Factory. They have two children, Addison (20) and Cooper (18), and reside in Austin, TX.

Chris Hoyt

Chris Hoyt is a Venture Partner and CFO at Moonshots Capital and is the CEO of KeifeRx, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological conditions.

Charis was previously the Co-Founder and CFO at Upskill, Inc., a software company providing augmented reality solutions for large manufacturers. Upskill raised $65M in venture funding led by NEA and sold to TeamViewer AG in 2021.

Chris has spent the last 10 years in the start-up ecosystem as a serial entrepreneur in the technology and government contracting space and has served on multiple start-up boards.

Farah Daou

Farah is an Associate at Moonshots Capital – a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage technology companies and leans in heavily in veteran founded companies.

Prior to Moonshots Capital, she was an Associate at VU Venture Partners, a multi-stage venture capital fund focusing on Consumer, Enterprise, FinTech / Blockchain, HealthTech, Frontier Tech, and Real Estate Tech.

Farah’s passion for entrepreneurship and the startup ecosystem began while working at an investment bank, helping advise companies in the Consumer and Healthcare industries. From there, she went on to start her own company, a vegan bakery in Los Angeles.

Farah holds a B.B.A in Finance from Loyola Marymount University, where she currently serves on the Entrepreneurship Advisory Council.

Aliya Friedman

Aliya is an Associate at Moonshots Capital, with a passion for people and ideas. Before her current role, she worked in investor relations with various companies from Pre-Seed through Series A in Sports, Wellness, Entertainment, and more assisting with their fundraising. She is enthusiastic about the venture ecosystem. Aliya graduated with a degree in Sociology from the University of Texas. In her free time, she enjoys playing tennis, cooking, and spending time with her dog, Moose.

Milica Iličić

Milica is the Director of Communications at Moonshots Capital. She is responsible for social media, events, marketing and communications, and assists the investment team with portfolio communications and research. 

Before joining Moonshots, she taught literature, language, and critical theory at Columbia University. Her textbook for the Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian language is used for instruction at three Ivy League universities. Prior to her academic career, she served as Editor in Chief for an arts and culture based in Belgrade, Serbia. Her liberal arts academic background fosters her relentless curiosity about the frontiers of innovation, and a passion for developing and communicating big-picture ideas.

Milica holds a B.A. in Comparative Literature and Linguistics from Queen Mary, University of London, and a Ph.D. in Slavic and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She is currently based in New York City.