investment

LunaCap’S Paul Capon On "Veteran On The Move" Podcast

“Investing in Military Owned Companies with Air Force Veteran Paul Capon” Ep. 238

Paul Capon has over a decade of experience in managing teams, investing in and running companies, in both start- up and distressed situations.  After serving as a U.S. Air Force Captain responsible for 150+ personnel and convoy commander for over 100+ missions in Kabul and Logistics lead in Kandahar, he joined Capstone in early 2013 and worked in the  restructuring industry. He worked on multiple cases representing both company and lender side helping recoup lent capital or helping companies secure DIP financing.

In early 2015, Paul founded LunaCap Ventures, a Venture Debt  firm focused on hybrid growth capital investing. As Managing Partner of LunaCap, he has led and executed a number of investments and distributed capital to LP’s within the first year.  

Paul Capon – Leveraging Your Network

Paul sits on the board of one portfolio company as vice chairman and helped guide it out of distress to its first profitable year and subsequent sale.  He is also the CEO of Wessex Press, a LunaCap Ventures portfolio company.  Most importantly, Paul increased LunaCap Venture’s revenue four times and turned the company to its first profitable year since inception within in his first three years.  

Paul holds a B.S from the United  States Air Force Academy, and MBAs from Columbia Business School and London Business School.

He is a founding member of the New York City Military Officers Club, and also sits on the advisory boards of Comply First and the Joint Service Academy Network.

We invest in US based Military, Women, and Minority (MWM) owned companies through venture debt and warrants. As investors, we facilitate and help our companies by leveraging our network and expertise as entrepreneurs ourselves.”– Paul Capon

Transitioning to Civilian Sector

The transition from the Air Force to business school was relatively easy for Paul.  He always knew that he would go into the civilian sector and finally go to business school. Business school gave Paul the foundation that he didn’t get in the military.  As a result, quickly learned that there was an established pipeline and most hire from the pool of business school graduates. Paul knew leadership, team building and soft skills from the military. Hence, Paul wanted to learn the numbers.

“We want to serve, we love leadership, we love camaraderie, we love building things and I think it lends itself very much and translates into the civilian world.” – Paul Capon

—From www.veteranonthemove.com

Venture Debt vs. Preferred Equity

The low-interest rates over the last 6 years created an unbalanced risk-to-reward ratio which ballooned already over-capitalized private equity and venture capital markets; inflating valuations and producing a bubble. Hybrid investment in the form of debt plus equity allows investors a better compromise of risk to reward in today’s startup market situation.