Alex Moore (8VC) / VC Breakdown & Contact

About Alex Moore

Alex Moore was Palantir's first employee before moving into venture capital, and he now runs defense investing at 8VC while incubating companies through its Build Program, drawing on experience that also includes co-founding BackerKit and serving as CEO of NodePrime before its acquisition by Ericsson. He focuses on building defense companies to real scale, aiming to create large public companies in the space rather than just quick acquisitions, and stays closely involved with mission-driven boards like Palantir, Saronic, and Epirus.

Where they've Worked

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Video Interview

On why energy in the room beats reading the deck line by line

"The Dekas idea in the in-person is like energy. Like if you don't if you're not like lit on fire, like I'm just like looking at your face, studying you, like are they are they like, you know, kind of animate like like not cartoonishly, but like are they turned on, turned on by their own idea or not? Like, do you believe that? Why should I believe it?"

Alex Moore

Partner, 8VC

On running the raise in waves instead of blasting thirty firms at once

"I like to just kind of set it up in like what I call like waves. So like I you know, let's let's make a list of thirty VC firms or whatever and let's put them in like waves of like eight to ten, and then I'm gonna like email the first eight to ten wave... without like being overwhelmed with like 30 tickets at once... so it's like a way I would call it like a slow boil. I'm I'm not a big fan of like pressure tactics, but you can add a little bit of structure to it."

Alex Moore

Partner, 8VC

On why you should ask investors about their childhood before you pick them

"Go have dinner with people and like, you know, if you drink wine, have a glass of wine and talk about your childhood and make them talk about their childhood. This is my secret. I'll give it away... and then the mistake is to optimize for valuation and to cut off everything I just said because now you will get the money... but now you have this person who's not like a mission or values aligned."

Alex Moore

Partner, 8VC

On why the first ten hires dictate the company and founders owning over thirty percent is a negative

"I think because like in my opinion, it's like the first ten hires dictate the outcome of the company. It's like that severe... I'd be like less on the founder's equity, more on the early employee equity, and now you have partners... Like if you own like over 30% of your company, like that's a negative for me."

Alex Moore

Partner, 8VC

On Palantir's three years with no revenue in a hospital basement

"Palantir got its first revenue check the fourth year in the company. So we had three years of no revenue, and the first revenue check was for a hundred thousand dollars... we're in the basement because we couldn't afford the regular level... Everyone kinda goes through it, it's a rite of passage, you'll just make you stronger."

Alex Moore

Partner, 8VC

About their Fund

8VC

Sectors

Enterprise, Biotech, Health, Logistics, Defense

Rounds

Pre-Seed - Series B+

Avg Check Size

$500K - $50M

Notable Investments

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8VC operates as both a venture capital fund and internal venture studio, dedicating 25-30% of their capital to co-founding startups through their "Build" program while assembling teams of top-1% specialists like Navy SEALs, Nobel winners, and Palantir alumni rather than conventional generalist VCs. The firm focuses heavily on "national capability" companies in defense, industrials, and bio-infrastructure—building companies like autonomous naval vessels and biomanufacturing platforms—while positioning itself as part of an "American industrial renaissance" through formal partnerships with large asset managers and corporates.

Other partners at the fund