Winning the New Space Race: Why We Invested in Proteus Space
Fun Fact: even though Kelly Perdew and I named our company Moonshots Capital in 2014, it wasn’t until 2022 that we made our first investment into a space-focused company called Outpost. And just six months later, Kelly met David Kervin in Los Angeles — via an enthusiastic introduction from TechStars Director Matt Kozlov (Thanks, Matt!) — and Kelly texted me to say, “I just met the CEO of our second space investment.”
After my first Zoom with David, I was impressed, and we started to dig in on the company, Proteus Space. Then we agreed to meet a few weeks later at a military veteran entrepreneur conference in San Francisco. Our Military Fellow, active-duty Army Lieutenant Colonel Chris Mitchum, joined me to meet David and learn more about Proteus Space. Following the meeting, Chris leaned over to me and said, “David knows more about the federal procurement process than any other founder I have met in the last year. This is a good sign.” David, Kelly, and I started to quickly build a great relationship and it was clear he was an extraordinary leader attacking a massive opportunity: designing, building, and delivering custom satellites in less than 180 days. David was receiving significant inbound interest from other, larger VC firms, and we decided that the combination of the founding team’s leadership along with our ability to help the company succeed warranted a term sheet.
David is an experienced business operator who is solving a major pain point for the space industry. His leadership acumen was foundationally developed during his service with the United States Marines. Multiple colleagues who worked with and for him told us that he inspires loyalty and commitment and that leadership shined in his every word and action during diligence. He is ruthlessly passionate about our critical national security mission to win in space.
So, what does Proteus do? They’re developing a software/hardware solution that rapidly designs the mission, designs the satellite, and then optimizes for manufacturing, often using advanced additive manufacturing techniques. While many are focused on standardizing the bus, Proteus is focused on standardizing the process — allowing for rapidly designed modular satellites built around any type of payload.
Proteus’s founding team is a powerhouse of domain expertise in both business and technological leadership. David has over 20 years of experience in bidding, winning, and executing government contracts. Co-Founder and CTO Andrew Shapiro spent decades at NASA’s NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory focused on bleeding edge technology evolution, deep space missions and additive manufacturing of space vehicles. He helped architect systems deployed to numerous high-risk space missions, including the NASA Perseverance Rover on Mars.
Moonshots Capital is proud to have led Proteus’s $4M Seed round, with participation from Lavrock Ventures and my longtime friend, General Partner Steve Smoot, who I join on the Proteus Board. The Veteran Fund, Mana Ventures, AIN Ventures, Capital Factory, and Industrious Ventures also joined this round, as well as a number of strategic angel investors. We’re excited to be a part of Proteus’ journey.
Moonshots Capital is a veteran-founded venture capital firm that invests in early-stage startups with extraordinary leaders.
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