The ability to make career moves is important. Cam Watts, a managing partner at Sentinel Ventures joined our podcast to talk about adjustments and leaps that he made over the course of his career. Sentinel Ventures is focused on building a safer world by funding innovative technologies that secure and enhance critical infrastructure. Watts is also a Regional Commander with the U.S. Army Ranger Association (USARA) who promotes relationships amongst Army rangers. His past includes serving under the 75th Ranger Regiment for the U.S. Army, and we discussed how he was able to pivot from 11X under the Army, to Systems Engineering in school, to ultimately choosing a career with a venture capitalist firm.
Katie Keller:
Excellent. So you went from Army Ranger to venture capitalist, which I think is a really interesting story, and there’s a whole military to finance angle that I think may be relevant to some of our audience. And we can kind of pull on that thread. But I thought we’d start with your journey and your military career, if you could run us through that.
Cam Watts:
Yeah, happy to. So as you said, I spent my entire military career at Ranger Regiment. So I did almost six years, five years and some change. And throughout that time, I went in with an 11X infantry contract with a 40 option. So that was to go straight from basic training into Airborne School and then, to RAS, which is the Ranger Assessment Selection program. And did that and then, ended up in Savannah, Georgia at 1st Ranger Battalion. And a week and a half later, I took my first deployment. So from there, I went on four more deployments and was pretty structured, in terms of training, deployment, training, deployment, training, deployment, without much time off. And so, did that. And four deployments and a knee surgery later, my wife and I decided it was time for something else, and I got out and went back to school at UNC Charlotte.
Katie Keller:
Well, yeah, I was going to say 11X to kind of what you’re doing today, really different. So walk us through the schooling and your decision making. Well, let’s back it up a little bit, because I know that a lot of our listeners, like I mentioned, they’re veterans or maybe they’re transitioning through the military. There are a ton of transition obstacles that I feel like are pretty generalized or stereotypical, I guess I should say. But folks are going through their own sort of internal transition obstacles as well, depending on who they are, where they want to go, what they want to do. And so, we have our TAP programs, transition assistance programs, that are preparing transitioners with finance, resumes, what healthcare will mean with TRICARE, and as you’re sort of navigating the job search. So let’s talk about some of your transition obstacles. And then, like I said, when you were deciding on school, what really helped you answer some of those important questions?
Cam Watts:
You make some great points. And so, when I got out in 2014, it was ACAP, so it was the Army Career and Alumni Program, which was kind of the exit process, if you will. And realistically, one of the biggest obstacles that I felt wasn’t until I got to that point, so I kind of just figured, “Okay, cool, they’ll tell me everything I need to know as soon as I am getting ready to go through ACAP.” And prior to ACAP, I basically had a couple of gear checklists, “Go turn this in here, go sign this paperwork there, and the rest of it will be at ACAP.” And ACAP for me was about a week and a handful of classes, like you said, some personal finance classes, what the healthcare transition looks like, et cetera. But as a Ranger coming in, I was surrounded by a lot of other technical skillsets and mechanics and intel officers and I think, medics, et cetera, that I felt had a pretty clean grasp of where they wanted to go.
And when I was going through that process with ACAP, I was like, “Oh man, I don’t have a clue.” And so, from there, I really started to get a little anxious and overwhelmed and started just digging in on Google. Really was like, “Okay, what’s next? What’s next?” I knew I wanted to go to school, so that part of it was at least a little bit calm. But it was, “Okay, hey, now I got to figure out what school.” My family, my wife and I are both from North Carolina, our family was both there, so we knew North Carolina, one of the schools there was going to be the option. And I first applied to UNC Charlotte, because my wife’s folks were in the Charlotte area. And they had a systems engineering program, which I was very interested in. And so, that’s essentially what led me to UNC Charlotte and going through that program was that I was focused on systems engineering, which I did not graduate with.
So we can get into that later, but it was really because I, very quickly I thought I was going to be given, “Here’s all the info you need to exit and go into the workforce.” And I got very overwhelmed very quickly, because as kind of a trigger puller, knuckle dragger, I didn’t feel that it was very easy to equate my skillsets onto a resume, which is what I was really being asked to do at ACAP. So that’s really where it started for me was getting anxious and overwhelmed with what was next, because I didn’t see how to transition being a member of the 75th into anything else, unless it was kind of a defense contractor security related job.
Katie Keller:
No, absolutely. And I think that overwhelming piece that you’re speaking to, we hear so often when it comes to the topic of translate your skills. And it’s like, “What the hell, man? What I did is not going to easily translate,” maybe into what you want to do or where you want to pivot. And so, I think it’s important to note, of course, ClearanceJobs, we are trying to encourage folks to maintain their security clearance after service, because that’s what we staff. But it’s also just, in that overwhelming piece, just thinking about, you don’t have to answer every single question today, just think about a few that you can answer. And it sounds like you did that with, “Okay, we want to be in Charlotte. That’s where our folks are. That’s where we’re from. That’s where I want to go to school.” So you went to school, and then, you talked about systems engineering, but that’s not what you do today, maybe it touches it a little bit. But tell us about after school again answering those important questions, but where that led you.
Cam Watts:
Absolutely. And I want to touch on one more thing about the skillsets and the resume building, if you will, with that is I had just been basically told what to do for the past six years. “Here’s your mission, here’s your goal, here’s how you do it.” And you go about it. So I kind of just assumed that was also going to be part of the exit program. And when it wasn’t, so for that to say I was naive in thinking, “Oh, it’s just going to be the same, but a little different. They’re going to tell me what to do next.” And so, yeah, so systems engineering, I started in systems engineering. And being married and a little bit older, going back to school, I crammed my workloads with 18 credit hours for the first three semesters or so, and basically, got to a point where on paper, I was a junior, but in reality, I was a sophomore.
And being on the GI Bill, they wouldn’t allow me to take any more extracurriculars, any elective classes. It all had to be based on my degree program, but I couldn’t take a junior level class until the following spring. So I took a summer internship. And the first internship I did was with Lowe’s Home Improvement out of their corporate office as an industrial engineering intern. Had a great time there, great project, and just kind of started to see how big of corporations that size were and how much red tape was involved. And what that really led to was understanding, “Okay, I know what I don’t want, and what I don’t want is a huge firm, 10,000 employees with a lot of red tape. I want something where I can go implement and execute.” So that was the first big piece into that. But the next right after that was saying, “Okay, now I’m going into these next junior level classes, and then, it’s still kind of really a five-year program.”
So at about two and a half years in, I’m like, “Man, I don’t know if I really want to spend another three years in school. I kind of want to get out there and start making money.” I was worried about just not moving on to the next thing quick enough. And so, I ended up transitioning my degree program to economics with a math minor and ended up graduating in three years, because I kept up the course load. But throughout that time, I did two more internships, because my goal was, “Okay, I know what I don’t like. Let’s figure out what else I don’t like quickly.” And so, I transitioned from the industrial engineering internship to one at a private equity search fund, out of Charlotte, MCO Capital, that was focused on industrial and manufacturing, basically, an acquisition, and did that. And that’s where I first really dove into the investment financial side of things, but mixed with also understanding the operations and how to grow the business and things like that.
And that really shifted my view of what I thought I was going to do to leaning heavily into the finance, but also, with the tech side of things. So the next logical choice for me was like, “Okay, cool, what does investing in tech look like? Oh, there’s venture capital.” So I ended up interning with a group called TFX Capital out of Charlotte, which is a fund that invests in veteran founders. And did that and again, fell in love with it, the op tempo, the focus. I think I felt like a part of community, again, back with the mission driven veteran founders. And then, that led me to my job outside of school. But that’s really, it kind of was understanding what I didn’t like, moving to the next thing, to start adding those skills into my toolbox, because I was very afraid of being somebody with one skillset and bottlenecking my career options.
Katie Keller:
Well, and I love that, finding out what you don’t like quickly. And I feel like with, especially in the transition, but for any person, have a notebook and write down what you really don’t like. Just in your career journey, we’re always evolving and learning and trying to figure out what’s next, even if you’re happy in your current job. So just keeping a running list of that sort of stuff is important in making decisions on what’s next for you. And so, let’s talk about the benefits of pivoting, as you went through the military transition and then, going to school for systems engineering. What benefits have you seen, as you have pivoted to finance and venture capital?
Cam Watts:
Yeah, so the first thing I’d say is it feels very much like-minded people. The kind of goal-oriented, mission focused, get stuff done type of attitude. And more similarly, that the kind of the op tempo is that quickly moving on, executing your list, and getting onto the next task, it’s very much alive, and at least in my experience with the VC world. It’s never the same job twice. The days aren’t the same. It’s always solving new problems, but it’s doing it efficiently and effectively. So it’s executing them quickly and then, moving on to the next objective. So I felt like it was very similar. And so, to me, it was kind of flowing into the role that I was comfortable with, because it’s what I had done for the previous six years, where being in school and slowing things down and really having to self structure was much more difficult than jumping headfirst into something like VC, where you’re looking at new deals, quickly evaluating, deploying, et cetera. So it felt very comfortable, because of the pace of it, as well as the group and the individuals across the industry.
Katie Keller:
Cool. Yeah, finding a group that fits your pace, that’s a great way to evaluate things or evaluate teams. Again, what’s next for you? And so, in my intro, I mentioned that you’re a part of the United States Ranger Association, so I wanted to take a moment to talk about mentorship and just really how important and critical it is, as you are going through your own career journeys or even personal journeys, for anything. So let’s talk about mentor groups and sort of what role that they’ve played for you, whether being a mentor or even on the other side of that relationship of mentoring. Talk about how important that’s been throughout your journey and any tips you might have for folks that are listening today.
Cam Watts:
I’m so glad you’re bringing this up, because it is, for me, it has been the most valuable piece of my journey. So getting out of the military and going back to school at Charlotte, one of the first things I did was transferred… Actually, I had my wife do it, because I didn’t really know what LinkedIn was yet or anything like that, so she kind of took the bullet points from my DD214 and created a LinkedIn page for me. Started digging around on there, and one of the first things I started doing was looking for groups in Charlotte. So I would look up ranger, ranger professionals, et cetera, things like that. And I started reaching out to those people that I found in there. Were like, “Okay, this career is interesting, how they got there. I like what their resume says, what they did, et cetera.”
And I started reaching out to people, “Can I get lunch? Can we get coffee? I’d love to pick your brain, know how you got there. It seems like you have an interesting background, et cetera.” And almost each one of those individuals that I reached out to said yes to at least a call, if not coffee or lunch or things like that. And then, would also, throughout our conversations, would also introduce me to other people. So the network effect really expanded there. And that’s how I met the group that was doing the search fund in Charlotte. And that’s also how I met the group at TFX, the first venture fund that I worked at. And it put me in those places where people were giving me opportunities.
And it still, to this day, is things that I do. I still reach out to everybody and try to keep up with all the people who have been mentors to me, as well as trying to open myself up to people who are in my position. Because it’s hard to focus on that when you’re doing your day job and everything else, and life gets in the way. But it’s extremely valuable. So the USRA program as well, the association there is just a way that I can help in that aspect, but I wish I could do more and would love to do more, because it has absolutely been a critical piece of getting me to where I am today.
Katie Keller:
Well, and we talk about, in networking, sort of making that meaningful connection with people is obviously important on an individual level, but I love how you noted finding groups. That’s an easy part to get connected with like-minded individuals or even individuals who may have a different experience than you and can help propel you into a different part of your career or something like that. So I love hearing experience on mentors, because I think it’s just so critical to have a mentor or have a group of people that you sort of lean in on when you’re looking for a sounding board. And so, let’s talk about…
And again, Cam, thank you so much for joining me today and talking a little bit about your journey and sort of a different angle or sort of where you landed, because we talk about the Security Clearance Careers Podcast. You’re not necessarily using your clearance, but I think it’s important to hear about different experiences from a veteran perspective. And so, let’s talk about a good rule of thumb, in your opinion, for our audience, for our audience that might be embarking on their own transition, what sort of advice would you share for them today?
Cam Watts:
Absolutely. So honestly, the first one is reach out, ask for help and find mentors, groups, et cetera. Because if you’re looking for it, people will help, and people want to help. We all want to kind of pay it forward a little bit. And if you go seek it, it’s out there. And the first thing that I would do, if I were redoing everything, would be to probably dive even deeper to getting myself into different groups and different organizations, where you want to be or where you think you want to be. And be curious, ask questions, really dig deep into how somebody got there or what led them to this, because we learn so much from not only our own experiences, but others’ experiences. And so, I think, honestly, the mentorship piece and finding mentors and individuals is the golden rule, in terms of starting your transition, because there’s so many obstacles that come up and different variables of life that come into play.
And you’re not the first person with those problems. Somebody else has had those, somebody else has gone through those, and they just may have the solution that you haven’t heard yet. So really, is just reaching out, finding individuals that can help you get there, and talk to you. And for anybody listening who wants to hit me up, my network is your network. If I can help in any way, I’m more than happy to do so. But that’s really kind of the first rule of thumb for me is reach out to people you either have a similar background or are in a place that you think you may be interested in and ask for a quick conversation, a little bit more about them, and how they got there. And if you have questions or need help, ask for it, because people are there. And they will help.
Katie Keller:
Absolutely. 100%. Well, Cam, thanks again for joining us for this episode of Cleared Cast. For more information on navigating your military transition or for more information on mentorship, you can visit news.clearancejobs.com.
