This Veterans Day, in the 250th anniversary year of America’s founding, we ask you to take a moment to deeply reflect on the trajectory of our great nation.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, the future of America was anything but certain. 

On Christmas night in 1776, George Washington led his men across the Delaware River. Cold, exhausted, outnumbered, and facing a formidable enemy, these American military veterans pressed forward with the fate of our country hanging in the balance.

There was no guarantee America would prevail then, just as there is no guarantee of our success today. 

The liberty we inherited was not given freely. It was earned through the courage, conviction, and sacrifice of generations of military veterans who understood that freedom was worth fighting for.

When the torch of liberty was lit in America, the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness spread throughout the world.

Our operating system of free markets and capitalism extended the human lifespan, conquered devastating diseases, built technologies that connected the world, put a man on the Moon, and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. 

When liberty expands, humanity flourishes. 

Today, we stand together at the precipice of a new American Renaissance. The convergence of critical technologies across AI, quantum computing, robotics, autonomy, and space will reshape civilization at an unprecedented rate.

For example, on February 22, 2024, as part of a mission with SpaceX, The Veteran Fund portfolio company, Lonestar, successfully became the first private company with an operational data center on the surface of the Moon. To honor the American principles upon which our country was founded, we chose the Declaration of Independence as the first digital document in history to be stored on the Moon and transmitted back to Earth.

We the People must not simply inherit America’s future. We must actively build the future toward which our great nation advances.

There are few causes more noble than the advancement of liberty for the benefit of humanity.

At The Veteran Fund, we call this American Abundance: the belief that liberty, guided by American principles, leads to innovation, productivity, and abundance for all.

It is our sacred responsibility to ensure that our children and grandchildren inherit a world with more freedom, more opportunity, and more abundance than the one we inherited.

Throughout our nation’s history, a tireless minority defended our country and advanced the founding principles that made the United States of America the greatest country in the world.

The Founding Fathers refused to accept the limits of their time; they imagined a future that did not yet exist, and then they risked everything to build it.

Now, it is our turn.

As beneficiaries of the blessings of liberty, it is our solemn duty to honor the men and women who gave their lives defending this country by ensuring that their sacrifice was not in vain. We must prove ourselves worthy of that sacrifice by becoming the tireless minority willing to protect the freedoms they gave everything to defend. 

At The Veteran Fund, our mission is to advance America through venture capital, by investing in veteran leaders building the critical technologies that will lead to American Abundance.

We invite you to join our mission as we unite a tribe of the best entrepreneurs, investors, and leaders to build a 100-year institution that will secure America’s future.

This mission, however, is bigger than any one company, fund, or generation. It belongs to all of us.

Just as General George Washington crossed the Delaware on a cold Christmas night, with destiny uncertain and the odds stacked against him, we must build the next 250 years with courage, conviction, and a vision to secure our American destiny.

Together, we will achieve an era of unprecedented American Abundance, serving once again as the shining city upon a hill.

It is with firm reliance on Divine Providence that we have pledged our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor to fulfill our mission.

This Veterans Day, on the 250th anniversary of America, we ask you to consider a simple but profound question:

What will you do with your liberty?

With gratitude and conviction,

Ryan, Mike, Justin, and Lisa
The Veteran Fund Team

Watch the Full American Abundance Speech Here