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Josh Manchester is a former U.S. Marine Corps officer who operates Champion Hill Ventures as a solo GP, explicitly backing technology that protects government by consent and the free world as part of his investment thesis. He was among the earlier venture backers in the modern U.S. defense-tech wave, participating in the first round of Anduril and as an early investor in Palantir, establishing his reputation as one of the original investors in defense and national-security startups.
Video Interview
On why taboo ideas make the best investments
"Another great vector along the same lines is just to ask yourself, is taboo in California? Understanding that the vast majority of early stage risk capital in this industry is domiciled in the Bay Area and so what is your typical person there not allowed to think about. That's just a great way for idea generation to happen."
On why multi-stage firms can be a trap for early founders
"In many cases going to a multi-stage firm you only get one bite at the apple and if you're going to ask for that bite at the apple you want it to be for 10 or 20 million dollars or more. You don't want to go to fill in the blank multi-stage famous firm to raise your three million dollar seed."
On what he is actually looking for in the first meeting
"I like to ask, are they breaking a rule? What rule are they breaking? An industry rule, some sort of common, conventional wisdom type rule. What's contrary, if anything, about what they're doing? What do they know that others do not know? What have they figured out that others have not figured out?"
On the advisor slide being mostly worthless
"We have a Nobel Prize winner, a four-star general, and the former ambassador to Germany or whatever. That means nothing to me. That just means maybe you're too well networked for your own good and perhaps actually you're just mimetic, chasing trends."
On what to do right after you close your round
"You've got the money now and you need to be building something. You've got the 1.8, you gotta make it work with that for a while. You should probably go kind of dark. To the outside world you're updating your cap table, but to everybody else you're kind of going dark and you're just building."
About their Fund
Champion Hill Ventures
Sectors
Defense, Space, AI, Biotech, Deeptech / Hardware
Rounds
Pre-Seed - Series A
Avg Check Size
$500k - $1M
Notable Investments
Champion Hill Ventures is a North Carolina-based fund that focuses on large problems hiding in plain sight and non-consensus ideas that other investors are avoiding, with a distinctive concentration in defense, aerospace, and national security technology. Despite being a relatively small fund writing $300k-$500k checks, it has gained access to top-tier companies like SpaceX and Anduril, suggesting an unusually strong network for its size.
Other partners at the fund
Notable Fund
Investments
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