From the military to the boardroom – Bunker Labs Chair Lenore Karafa talks her transition from Marine Corps Officer to venture capitalist

In honor of Veterans Day, in this special episode of Women on the Move Podcast Host Sam Saperstein talks with Lenore Karafa, Marine Corps veteran, venture capitalist, and chair of Bunker Labs. Lenore discusses her military career and her transition into the finance industry, and describes why a military background provides an excellent mix of skills and experiences for success in the corporate world.

Minority female

Lenore started at the Naval Academy in 1996, when it was less than 12 percent women. And in 2000, she was commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps, part of just 5 percent of the officer corps that was female. “In those very early years, you first learn followership and then you learn how to lead,” she tells Sam. “So I really had the opportunity to fail early, fail often, and truly learn from those mistakes.” Another thing she learned was being comfortable as a minority female: “When I step into a classroom in front of a bunch of hedge fund managers and I'm the only woman, it's not a new experience for me. So it's made everything else a lot easier.”

Lenore says she’s intensely grateful for everything she learned in the military, and especially for the men and women she served with. Although she joined during peacetime and expected to serve during peacetime, 9/11 occurred just a year after her commission. She says that shaped the trajectory of her time in the military. She ended up in deployment in Iraq, including time as a military police officer in Fallujah. She tells the story of two women she admired who lost their lives: one, Captain Jennifer Harris, in the course of duty in Iraq, and another, Dr. Kate Hendricks Thomas, of metastatic breast cancer likely caused by exposure to chemicals during her service. “I’m grateful to both of them,” she tells Sam. “Grateful for their sacrifice and truly thankful that I get to be here and be called a veteran.”

Transition to finance

Lenore emphasizes that it was other veterans who helped smooth her transition out of the military and into the corporate sector. Through Merrill Lynch, she applied for a full tuition fellowship at the business school of her choice in 2007. She tells the story of how a veteran helped her in that process: “I literally go from running around the woods of Quantico in a green tree suit . . . to the next day in the most expensive outfit I've ever worn, interviewing on Wall Street. I get brought into the wrong interview room and in that room is a man by the name of Art Gorman. He looks at me and he says, ‘So you're the other Marine.’ He's like, ‘Give me your resume so I can vote for you later.’ Thirty-second interaction, totally serendipitous, doing what Marines do, he absolutely supported me.”

Today, Lenore is the chair and president of the board of Bunker Labs, a firm that provides community programs and courses to help military veterans and military spouses start and grow successful businesses. “We've got stages for early-stage entrepreneurs like our Breaking Barriers workshop and our veterans and residence program,” she tells Sam. “And we also have programs for more senior experienced business leaders who also happen to be military connected. And that's the J.P. Morgan CEO Circle—truly grateful for J.P. Morgan for supporting that particular program.”

She’s also a partner at First In, whose vision is to empower entrepreneurs who secure our freedom and provide opportunity for those who have served. They have a core team of military veterans who invest in early-stage security technology companies. “We all have had unique experiences,” she says. “We have complimentary overlapping skill sets to bring to bear when we think about our investments. Our goal is to ensure that the companies that we invest in are truly positioned for long-term success.”

As Lenore describes, veterans love hiring other veterans, and so there’s what she calls a magnifying effect each time one veteran supports another. She explains that the faith in other veterans is well-placed: “Veterans are used to functioning in high-performing teams in high-stakes environments. Without a doubt, they know how to lead, that's table stakes. But when you're coming into a junior role in an organization, you're not going to get the chance to lead right off the bat. So you're going to have to rely on some other skills, and that is being part of high-performing teams, knowing how to contribute. You do fall back a little bit on that followership initially, and you just perform.”

Disclaimer: The speakers’ opinions belong to them and may differ from opinions of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its affiliates. Views presented on this podcast are those of the speakers; they are as of November 9^th, 2023 and they may not materialize.

 

Full transcript here