In “Building Your Career Transition Elevator Pitch,” Craig Cummings shares how his journey from Army Intelligence Officer in Afghanistan to General Partner at Moonshots Capital shaped his approach to leadership, entrepreneurship, and investing. A Bronze Star recipient and West Point graduate with a Ph.D. from Columbia, Craig explains how veterans can craft an elevator pitch that opens doors, the importance of building strong entrepreneurship communities like Austin’s, and why investing in talented veteran founders is a mission for him. His story is a powerful reminder that clarity, curiosity, and community fuel both careers and companies.
For the full interview: https://ocns.co/craig-cumming-general-partner-moonshots-capital/
10 Min Clip Transcript
Craig Cummings: [00:00:00] We have a, a leadership score and there’s so many different personalities of leadership, but we’re, we’re, we start sussing it out like with the very first engagement and we see, you know, are they team, are they a team player? Are we hearing I a lot, are we hearing we a lot? We kick it.
Michael Mitchel: CXO conversations, talks with C-level executives on how they reach the C-suite and what advice would they give those who want to be one. Hi, I’m your host, Michael Mitchell, managing director of OC National Search. As many of my listeners are aware, I’m a Navy veteran. Created and led a veteran nonprofit that raised $2 million for a veteran community center capital campaign and started a veteran nonprofit.
And create a program called Leadership Veteran. My two passions for search and veterans have come together in a quarterly networking events and [00:01:00] series on this podcast called Veterans in the C-Suite. Today, Craig Cummings, uh, moonshot Capital and I are at the Capital Factory in Austin. Craig attended West Point.
After years of distinguished service, he quickly excelled in technology in senior executive roles. But Craig really found this calling as an investor, an advocate for entrepreneurs. He has served on many boards, started as an angel investor and then co-founded Moonshot Capital with an emphasis on funding veteran led startups.
See the show notes for more information on Craig. Welcome to the conversation Craig.
Craig Cummings: Hey Michael. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for, for being here.
Michael Mitchel: Well, you know, um, Austin, I saw the temperature for the record. Yeah, it’s 106 outside. Um, I’m from Denver and when we hit a hundred, we can always say it’s the dry heat.
Yeah. That’s not the case here. I know, but I gotta say I was braced for worse on the air. It’s not as heavy as say Dallas, so
Craig Cummings: I agree that it, it’s really hot. The, the nights are. Like, oddly feel [00:02:00] good, but it’s not oppressive. I mean. If you had me choose a DC summer or an Austin summer, I would choose an Austin summer.
’cause the, no, the humidity that doesn’t exist here.
Michael Mitchel: Well, you weren’t kidding. I’m staying a block away on Congress Street. Yeah. And so I, last night, I’m a watercolor, so I brought my watercolors. I was. Painting the Paramount Theater. Oh, that’s awesome. Nine o’clock at night. Yeah, it was really nice. But it was kinda like being in an open air sauna.
I mean not, yeah, not oppressive. Right. So,
Craig Cummings: but my wife would say at a hundred degrees it, it doesn’t matter the humidity at that point, it’s just, it’s too hot.
Michael Mitchel: Well, it’s let’s type into thing. So what attracted you to technology?
Craig Cummings: I think it was, it’s more around, I think the veteran DNA of seeing a problem and solving for it.
Right. And so often. Just that the way we think and we operate is gonna lead you to technology. If, if, if, if I harken back to my first startup, which was called BTS, it was inspired by [00:03:00] seeing in Iraq and Afghanistan that soldiers, when they would go out and do a mission and they would roll up some, some bad guys, they’d have the phone, they’d have the pocket litter.
And then they’d have to drive it all the way back to an Garrison installation where they could go through that intel. And our idea, it was, it was a small group of us. We said, let’s put a cellular network on the battlefield, which had never been done before. It was still like pushed to talk. Okay. It was circa 2009
Michael Mitchel: that late.
Craig Cummings: And so we said we, we, another West Point grad built PIs grad, this company called Leco, that had this, it was basically a deployable. Mobile cellular network. And so we worked closely with the Army so that soldiers could be onsite, get the data, use cellular, because we had iPhones at the time, but so we weren’t using this on the battlefield.
And then to get that data back and immediately action on that intel and you know, [00:04:00] we do that with technology, right? And, and innovation and technology. And so same with Rideout, right? So that was getting. Improving the way we fight and win wards. Ride Scout, which I did with Joseph, er, was a ground transportation app and we were in DC and Joseph was mapping, had to get from Arlington to the Pentagon and he’d say, I can take the bus, I can walk, I could, I could car pull.
I could take a bike. And we said, I said, I think, you know. There’s an app there. And so we built Rideout and it was inspired by what we had seen, and Joseph in particular was 16 months in Iraq, seeing the loss of life, protecting supply lines in Iraq and sort of like minimizing, optimizing transportation.
Mm-hmm. So we don’t, you know, so reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and how do we do that with technology and build an app. A few years later, we sold a [00:05:00] Mercedes-Benz.
Michael Mitchel: You know, you talk about the cell service in the field. I remember in, let’s see, it was, uh, 13. 2013. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, we were, I was the executive director of the FI post one and we were putting together a massive care package to a, a unit.
We were, we were supporting in Afghanistan, uh, Colorado National Guard Unit. And I was messaging in real time with, uh, a friend of mine over there. And I remember thinking, I’m, I’m texting her while she’s in a battlefield, while I’m at my nephew’s high school graduation talking about these packages. And it was this moment where surreal is the only word that comes to mind.
Yeah. Right. I mean, most people think in, in combat field, I’m thinking like World War ii Vietnam. Right. But here I’m, I’m sending her text messages and
Craig Cummings: it’s cra I mean, one of my sort of takeaways moment like that is, you know, leaving. Iraq and Afghanistan, you take [00:06:00] off in the combat zone.
Michael Mitchel: Yeah.
Craig Cummings: And then you land, the next thing you know, you’re in Florida looking at palm trees and just a few hours later and it’s like, how?
Wait, what?
Yeah.
Craig Cummings: Like I just left the combat zone. Now I’m, you know, I’m on the beach. It’s a little surreal. That’s, it makes you realize the world is small. Um. And how grateful we are to live in a country like this. But,
Michael Mitchel: you know,
Craig Cummings: it’s so stark.
Michael Mitchel: Yeah, I was gonna say stark, it, it’s, um, when you think about like, um, folks coming back from World War ii, the whole country was on a war footing.
Yeah. You couldn’t escape it. Yeah. So that might have given them a sense of transition. Mm. ’cause they, you know, things starting to adjust. Right. But coming right back into the world,
Craig Cummings: boom. Land here. Boom. TGF Fridays. Yeah. A burger after being in the, the chow hall at Bagram.
Michael Mitchel: Yeah. And, and when you came back with were being the yellow ribbons, even still at that point.
Yeah, those yellow ribbons weren’t, not very long.
Craig Cummings: No, but I, I mean, they were still, you know, [00:07:00] kids were sending, I even go with the box right of the day. Kids were sending nice letters.
Michael Mitchel: Well, anyway, we can talk, see stories all day long. Um, yeah, you, you served in, while you served in executive roles, investors seems to fit you better.
Did, how did you find your footing? Is that a fair statement to me? Well, I think
Craig Cummings: I like that. You, you believe that and, but we can add you to our moonshots capital commercial, perhaps. I do. I, I do love it. It’s super hard work being an investor. I think. I used to think there was like this big party up in Napa.
And all the VCs would, would go there and, and drink wine and pull down bags of money and then turn around and like start writing, cutting checks, saying it to, to founders. But raising money as a VC is, is even harder than it is as as a founder. ’cause at least I can it. If I’m a founder of a company, I can say, here’s the product.
Look at this beautiful Yeti mug. You know, keeps your tran hot or cold. Whereas in a fund, you’re saying, [00:08:00] I got you. Trust us.
Right?
Craig Cummings: So you gotta build that tre record and it takes you, it takes time. I mean, fortunately I have an incredible partner in Kelly Purdue who I, I. I say is the best military veteran gp.
No offense to Craig Cummings and others, but Kelly is, is a force and we work so hard, but we love it. I think. Same for you, Michael. Yeah. So, um, yeah, I’m now getting to walk into a room, a boardroom or an office at a portfolio company and sort of, you know, connect with that team, think through their problem set.
Make recommendations that they may or may not listen to. And then, you know, you’re back out. It’s like chopper lifts you up, drop down, and now it’s in a whole new problem set in a whole new direction. And it’s fascinating just pulling your mind in different directions and the different [00:09:00] personalities and, and these are like merit.
These are all like marriages. You know, when you, when we invest, it’s five to seven years usually. At least it can be longer if they go public. And so. We, we choose carefully, but we also choose people that we wanna work with for, for that long time.
Michael Mitchel: Right. You know, like Brad Feld, you embrace the spirit of community building from within the start startup ecosystem.
Is that fair? I mean, you’re not a passive investor.
Craig Cummings: Yeah. I, I believe that Kelly and I are not, we’re not sharp elbow investors and we believe in community and we’re su super active in, in the military veteran community. Kelly and I have been on the board of Bunker Labs, I think continuously for about the last seven years with Kelly coming in like year five now on Bunker Labs and then vets in Tech, um, active here in Austin, and I’m massively engaged in local Austin community.
I’m, I’m. [00:10:00] Speaking to 500 women Friday morning about entrepreneurship and raising money and that a lot of that is, my wife is a, is a huge community person too. So I, I do like, uh, I, I, I believe you know, the rising tides and, and boats and VC can be sharp elbow. We’ve experienced a little bit of it, but.
Doesn’t have to be.
Michael Mitchel: So your, your thesis is investing in extraordinary leaders. Mm-hmm. How do you define those leaders and how do you uncover that within someone?
Craig Cummings: You know, it’s interesting. We’ve, we’ve thought about let’s do a checklist and let’s have, you know, passion, integrity, grit, and. We don’t have an algorithm.
We still talk about should we have an algorithm, should we have a, a leadership score? And it, there’s so many different personalities of leadership, but we’re, we’re, we start sussing it [00:11:00] out like with the very first engagement and we see, you know, are they team, are they a team player? Are we hearing I a lot or are we hearing we a lot?
Right? We’re seeing how they proverbially shoot, move and communicate these mold tanker language, like is it. What are the communications like? How quickly are they, how con concise are they? So, and then you see the domain expertise in that specific area. Like my co-founder Joseph Er and Ride Scout knew everything about transportation.
Like woke up, ate transportation, cereal. Mm-hmm. Went to bed, you know, had transportation dessert. That’s like all he could think about. And then he had his military training as a leader. So we, we start to put the whole package together and, and. Without doubt, nothing is more important to the success of a company ultimately than its leadership.
Michael Mitchel: I wanna talk elevator pitches. Hmm. I have to say, when I think of them, I think of ’em for organizations, my search firm, a CG, your company, moonshot Capital, et cetera. [00:12:00] But a few years ago you wrote on a Medium article for transition veterans developing their own personal innovator pitch. Yeah. What’s yours?
Craig Cummings: Well, I. What I did is I, I sort of laid out my evaluation reports on a table many years ago and, and just sort of looked, stared at ’em, and then I said, you know, I have a bronze star from Afghanistan, a top secret clearance from the National Security Agency and a PhD from Columbia University. What does that mean?
It means I can perform under pressure. I can. Think, write, read, and I can be trusted with the nation’s most sensitive secrets. And oh, by the way, there’s only, and I just made this up, but it’s probably about right, only two of other people in the country who, who have those three things. So that means I can do just about anything outside of the military.
Michael Mitchel: That’s pretty powerful. ’cause we’re, we’re not talking about a personal brand. [00:13:00] Yeah, right. As an emerging leader, executive, yeah. And it’s something that I’m still, I’m getting my seed legs on. ’cause we were talking earlier about some of the stuff I’ve done in the nonprofit community. Yeah. And I was talking to a friend of mine who’s the CEO of a nonprofit and you know, she’s like, you know, you’ve done, you know, this is some significant accomplishments.
And I’m like, I don’t think of it that way. It was just, ’cause that was something I cared about. She’s like, right. That was a passion project. And so that’s not uncommon to have that, um, that disconnect. Between the accomplishment and, and the elevator pitch of it versus how you view it. Right. So I completely, yeah.
So, you know, getting outside, that’s why it’s so hard. Yeah. That’s why they
Craig Cummings: struggle.
Michael Mitchel: Yeah.
Craig Cummings: And I, I, it’s amazing. I talked to Chris Manic yesterday. He’s one of the, he’s the special operations soldier that I highlight in that article. And this is my test. This is what I do when I help transition. I’m like, I need to see your elevator pitch.
And [00:14:00] he wrote, it was like a page and a half. I’m like, Chris, dude, this is not El. This is, unless, unless you go into the, you know, the space. And then I just looked at it and I said, 5, 15, 75, you’ve commanded over 5,000 soldier sailors, marine airmen, and women. You’ve deployed 15 times in a combat zone and you commanded the Army’s most elite unit, the 75th Ranger regiment.
5, 15, 75 and that was it. Yeah, we talk about it all the time. Yesterday. I’m like, what’s up? Five 15? Seven five. Literally yesterday I talked to him and he said, and he, this sound, this is a little self-promoting, but it gets to this article. He said that you helped me more than anybody else in my transition.
And part of it was this exercise of, you know, get the pitch down, develop your board, share the introductions, and away you go. What I can do, what you can do for vets is get them in the door and they, they just have to get in the door and you need to sound interesting enough to get inside that door and then you can take it from there and they’re gonna fall in love with you.
Michael Mitchel: [00:15:00] Yeah. Yeah. I, I mean, you’re also getting to, you’re getting ’em to think different and embrace the leadership and the cuff them skills that the military instills in all of us. And I think being able to articulate that in a pitch really hones your focus with others.
Craig Cummings: As the veteran talks, like it comes out like there was, Ross Gibb is a very close friend.
He, he was, last job was, he was the exo to General Mike Murray Army Peaches command. And I looked at what he’d been doing and he had been like. Special advisor to like three star, four star civilian SES. I’m like, Ross, you’re like the most trusted guy on the planet. And then we add ’em up. It was like 43 stars or whatever.
And like nobody has, has been a special advisor and that, so that’s, you know that again, that becomes like a little bit of a north star from identity of the massive amount of trust that people have placed in him.
Michael Mitchel: Let’s talk networking. Yeah, because I’ve always believed move over Ivy League. Right. [00:16:00] Hmm.
We’re all part of the greatest, uh, worldwide alumni network There is. Yes. What advice would you offer when it comes to professional networking?
Craig Cummings: Well, I, I, tying it to transition and to life at large. Nothing is more important than network like, but when, you know, when it comes to even advising, transitioning veterans, I’m like, okay, you know, this is all about the network use.
Indeed. Use the platforms, use the West Point. You know, gatherings, job gatherings are the local ones, but it’s all about your network. So I think a way to do it is, and you, you have to engage yourself in the community. And that community can be local community or it could be like what you’re doing with the veteran community, that and that.
And you just continue to like stack these chips, these community chips, one on top of each other. And next thing you know, you have this massive network. Like I, I think Kelly and I, my partner Kelly and I. There’s like literally nobody we could, we could not get [00:17:00] to. And speaking of the, the power of the network, which you just did, if you say like, I’m a vet and oh, by the way, I have this founder’s name is Michael, he’s a Navy vet and he is doing this company that you’re gonna like, like 9.8 times outta 10, you’re gonna get that connection.
Yeah.
Craig Cummings: So it, it’s especially powerful and I think you, you, you have to. You really have to get out there and just be present and go to these things. And
Michael Mitchel: I, I think when it comes to networking, yeah. Yeah. It’s all about building relationship on an authentic level. Yeah. I, I think that some folks overthink it and view it as maybe something like bigger than it really is Denver, no one’s from Denver, so it’s a coffee town.
I can call anybody up. Yeah. And nine times outta 10 they’ll have coffee with me. I gotta believe Austin’s the same way. But regardless of where you’re at, once you do that vet to vet approach, who’s gonna say [00:18:00] no?
Craig Cummings: Well, one thing, one thing you can do in Denver potentially is you make it smaller. Denver’s a very big city.
Austin’s small.
Michael Mitchel: I don’t think Denver is big all, and I think,
Craig Cummings: and I and I, it it is because you live right in the middle of it. Right. So it’s small to you. Austin’s sort of like. For those who can’t see, I’m like just holding this Yeti mug in my hand. Right. It’s, it sort of just fits right in your hand.
Mm-hmm. It’s not too small, it’s not too big. So we’ve all really gotten to know each other and so we’ve built a strong community. Now, my job, I have a hard job. We, we don’t have to be a veteran for us. Invest. We don’t have any, we don’t have any, um, goals, 0% goals, but about 38% of the companies. Of our fund investments have a veteran on the founding team, but for most veterans, I say no to them.
I’m like, we’re, we’re only investing in the top, like literally 0.25% of companies. So in fund two, [00:19:00] 5,901 deals we reviewed and we invested in 16. So it just ties back to the being in a community of vets, it it, it’s hardware. I’m saying no almost all the time, but I’m also saying, oh, but you ought to talk to Michael about that.
Or you ought to go to Bunker Labs as having this event and you ought to get to know Bunker Labs or go to Vets in Tech. It’s gonna be, so it’s, it’s opening up the network, but Austin identifies with Austin. You know, there’s not, when I was in the DC Metro, you know, Utah. Maryland looks down his nose of Virginia.
Virginia looks down his nose of Maryland, and then you have North Arthur and South Arlington, Chevy Chase, Bethesda. You know, like, it, it kind of, it’s very fractionalized, but here everybody just is, um, from Austin. And so you, and, and I think that’s special, and I think you have that in Denver. You just see it just more spread out outside of the downtown.
And so how do you, how do you get those vets together in Denver? I think what you’re doing with the VFW and [00:20:00] all the things you’re doing with, uh, leadership. Veteran in, in Denver. You like you are, you’re gonna be one of the, the founders of the veteran community. You are. You already are. You have been. And it’s around having those anchors.
And I’d like to consider myself as one of ’em here in Austin and Joseph Cop is one of ’em here in Austin. And there’s, and there’s others who you just, you’ve taken, you’ve picked up the guide on, you have guide on ships. Right? You’ve picked up that guide on We have penance. Okay. Okay.
Michael Mitchel: No, I, I’m, I don’t know.
I, I guess I’m. I’m not really comfortable with that label. I, I mean, personally for me, it’s just, it’s,
Craig Cummings: yeah. It’s, it’s, you’re, you’re standing on the shoulders of many veterans. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, is it, but, but part of the, the founding team who brought, who brought it back together,
Michael Mitchel: I like community building.
Right. Um, Denver. Like one out of five is a quote unquote native now. Mm-hmm. Fast forward 20 years, you have this whole new demographics. But I, I just, [00:21:00] it, I don’t know how to respond when someone says that because I like the impact we make collectively for me.
Craig Cummings: Well, I like that. I, I mean, like the way you answer that question.
Is what we look for in leadership teams, right? We look for the we and not the I, you know, CEOs, a little bit of ego like powers them, but. I not too much ego. It’s, it’s, it’s the right amount of ego. So for you, that’s the, there may be a little balance there, right? Like you, like, in order to lift your cause, you may have to like, lift your brand and, and not use the wrong words, but just say you’re the, you’re, you’re championing this.
And it’s for a great cause.
Michael Mitchel: I struggle with it. ’cause I. Well, we know who this person is. We all know people like this. Mm-hmm. I call it the i Veteran Syndrome.
Mm-hmm.
Michael Mitchel: Right? Yes. Someone’s on LinkedIn. There’s a picture, you know, Hey, I’m proud to be ing blah, blah, blah, but here I am with Tom Hanks like, okay, come on.
Are, are we just your vehicle as a [00:22:00] community for mm-hmm. For whatever opportunities you’re seeking? I, I, I don’t know. Mm. So maybe because of that and that, that’s the. It’s small minority, but maybe because of that I swing the pendulum so far. The other way, well look
Craig Cummings: here, here’s the deal. People figure it out,
Michael Mitchel: right?
Yeah.
Craig Cummings: And we know the I veterans. I like that, that phrase, people suss that out in one meeting. Yeah. They’re like,
Hmm.
Craig Cummings: That veteran just talked about. Himself Herself. What I, the entire time? Oh, I’m here. I’m in a podcast talking about myself. But you know what I mean. No, I know, but, but, but you know what I’m saying, but
Michael Mitchel: I came after you.
Craig Cummings: Um,
Michael Mitchel: but no, but you know, when we like leadership veteran, what I love about that program is that it addresses a, a, a white space of need at a systematic level to the point that we’re supporting veteran nonprofit organizations who are supporting veterans. So the end result is collectively, everyone involved in this is helping veterans that we will never meet.
And instead of focusing on an organization that’s supporting, you know, [00:23:00] a couple hundred veterans, yeah, we’re helping organs help thousands of veterans long term. ’cause we’ve all seen lots of veteran organizations come and go. And why do they go? Why do they fail? That’s what we’re trying to figure out and prevent.
I, I think you’re
Craig Cummings: onto something. Yeah. Um, but I love it.
Michael Mitchel: But, you know, we, we digress. Austin
Craig Cummings: next city.
Michael Mitchel: Yeah. Austin next city. Austin next city. So, you know, I wanna go back to personal brand ’cause we’ve talked about the elevator pitch. We talked about networking. Mm-hmm. What else are elements of a personal brand that people should be thinking about?
Craig Cummings: You know, it, it, you’re always. Building the brand. I mean, it’s like we tell founders you’re always fundraising, right? Yeah. As a vc, we’re always fundraising and, and so you just have to be mindful that in, in the word deed, people are watching. And that is, and that is brand building. You know, I’m north of 50 now and 50 years of age, and I’ve just come to own all my truths and be as [00:24:00] authentic as possible.
And I think that. People figure it out. Like I was telling you about this story, about this call I got from the Pentagon. I, I wasn’t branding Moonshot’s capital to the Pentagon within this group of senior, you know, 21, 3 and four Star said, we wanna meet Moonshot’s Capital. Mm-hmm. This is next week. And I’m like, that’s just an honor.
So you don’t, you can’t put your finger on like, what, what was it, that sequence of events. But it’s always, I, I think my brand, I. Is is around a, a pay it forward and ’cause I’ve benefited from so many people mentoring me and helping me, and I think people know, like, when you’re sincerely trying to help them.
And, and so it’s like, like it’s basically what you’re saying, Michael, like building community, helping others. That is brand building.
Yeah.
Craig Cummings: When you deliver, you gotta, you gotta do it. Hey, I’m gonna intro you to Joseph Zer, right? I gotta do that. Yeah, I gotta do that. If I forget you, [00:25:00] send me a text, Craig.
Michael Mitchel: Don’t forget, beginning of the day, I’m still, I still. So I think authenticity, authenticity is the key
Craig Cummings: to the brand. Yep. You know, and, and that just is infectious. When it’s, when it’s, it’s good.
Michael Mitchel: Oh, I won’t let you forget the end of the day. I’m still a executive search. I like, yeah. Yeah. I like networking. I like cold calling.
Yeah. Anyway, um, so we’re talking elevator pitch. Yeah. We’re talking networking, community building, mentoring. These are all aspects of your personal brand. And you put ’em all together and organically, people are gonna know who you are. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. I mean, if you’re coming across as self-promoting, people are gonna suss that out.
Yeah. But if you’re authentically a servant leader or helping others that you’re right, you’re, you’re looked in the boat
Craig Cummings: tie, you know, I, yeah. I, you know, I thank you. I, I like to believe that. And then, uh, you know, sometimes like. Just this morning as we get ready for another potential [00:26:00] national natural disaster of tropical Storm, Lee, I think becoming hurricane.
What time of day
Michael Mitchel: is it? They’re, they’re kind of starting to pick up. Yeah, and I
Craig Cummings: think about, and I, and then you think about Maui, what’s happened in Maui and to just like pick your. Event your fire and I, and I think about the people that are out there cleaning up, providing aid, providing shelter, providing food, and that’s where I’m like, man, I’m not doing enough.
Sure. I’m helping Veterans Transition. But these people like, how about, thank you for your service for, for the, the unsung heroes. So I I, it’s something on my mind.
Yeah.
Craig Cummings: Like. So I don’t have anything actionable from it, but I
Yeah,
Craig Cummings: fair enough. I, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m modest about my, you know, servant leadership, so to speak, compared to others.
Michael Mitchel: So again, the podcast is titled CXO conversations. Mm-hmm. So for someone who’s seeking the C-Suite mm-hmm. And they’re a senior manager VP right now, emerging executive. [00:27:00] What should they be doing now to position themself for the C-suite eventually, whether it’s a founder or coming into a private equity company or whatever that situation is.
Craig Cummings: Sometimes there, there can be an expectation depending on where you, you transition out, out of the military, but that you should, you should, you were very successful. You should transition to C-Suite and that may not be the case. You know, I, I often talk about. Two stepping or one stepping. And it may be like in the case of Joseph Copps or Rideout left service, CEO co-founder Rideout literally sells it to Mercedes-Benz 14 months later.
That was a one step, like there wasn’t, I’m gonna go company A and then where I’m gonna go to startup, learn how to startup works. That was like boom. Right at it in high success. Now I was his partner, so, and I had been out for a while, but I think I, let’s call it like the two step getting in the door and then.
You know, proving, you know, doing all the things you’re supposed to do, but then doing all the things that [00:28:00] shows that you’re like a plus, plus plus type employee, then that sets the condition for being in a C-suite. But one thing, especially for this audience with a lot of veterans, like we’re moving every two to three years, right?
So I say sometimes you gotta put yourself in play. Mm-hmm. Like you and I say this to freaking generals, I’m like, like. Why don’t you take a look and come out like, well, I can’t, you know, you can’t do that. It’s, you know, they have like, it’s, it’s like a, it’s a code of conduct. You don’t talk about getting out as a general, like you have to, and I say this to everybody in uniform or out, say, you’re gonna look at your options.
It’s just healthy. It’s not, and I think we get stuck on the loyalty. Like, wait, if I’m gonna go look around for the jobs, I’m disloyal. And I think one of the ways you do get that promotion is. Do you let that boss of yours feel? The fomo and people who know me know I love to talk about FOMO and that I’ve written about it.
It’s, I believe FOMO [00:29:00] powers everything.
Oh, interesting. It’s
Craig Cummings: more than just investment. It’s like the relationship, like great relationships. Like I cannot imagine, I have such high fear of missing out on my wife. I love her so much. We were her for 30 years. I think she feel like relationships. Mm-hmm. Just fomo, like you feel grateful to be with that person and I think.
You get in, you do well, you do a little extra pulse. Pause. Pause, and then you, you, you look around and that’s people. ’cause you, you want leaders that, that have that sort of schitz that they’re gonna negotiate. They’re not just gonna work there for 20 years and hope that the door’s gonna open into the C-suite or five, whatever.
Yeah.
Craig Cummings: So I, I think fomo.
Michael Mitchel: All right,
Craig Cummings: there you go.
Michael Mitchel: What are one or two key points our listeners should take away from this conversation?
Craig Cummings: You know, I, I feel no different than probably everybody listening to this conversation. Like I possibly that’s [00:30:00] imposter syndrome that I’m talking about, but, um, I, I. I hope people feel like, yeah, I could see Craig as my next door neighbor.
You know, or, or somebody I, I know that I wanna get to know that I, that I trust, I mean, or, or my whole brand, our whole moonshots capital brand is built on trust. So I, I hope that they would, would think that they could trust and they, they know that if Abel, I’m gonna help them.
Michael Mitchel: All right. Well, um. I wanna thank CXO conversation, sponsor A CG Denver for their support of this podcast.
As a board member, I’m proud of the Association for Corporate Growth, for quality networking, its education opportunities, and our events. I also like to note that Brad Elliott, the board president, is an Army veteran. Uh, I wanna thank our listeners. I wanna definitely thank Craig for being such a great guest.
Thank you, Craig. Thanks, Michael. That was a lot of fun. Yeah. Um, it was a really good conversation. We could go on for a lot longer. Trust me. We could. I know. Uh, please, uh, listeners leave five stars on Apple so others can find it. Thanks to [00:31:00] the almighty social media algorithm, it really does matter. And if you wanna find me on LinkedIn, it’s Michael Mitchell with one L.
That’s the test. Mm-hmm. I’m in Denver. And also I wanna thank John Crossland for allowing me to use your amazing music on the show and the special shout out. And thanks to my engineer, Kyle Moore, thanks for being on the show, Craig.
Thanks.
