(Cover Image by Melissa Ambrosini)
By the time Michael Sherbakov visited the tiny apartment he grew up in back in Moscow, it felt less like visiting an old home and more like just visiting a foreign country.
Home is the United States for him, the place his parents bet everything on when they immigrated there when he was five years old. It was also the country he swore to protect and defend as a Marine.
Sherbakov’s story is one of faith in God’s plan and a servant’s heart.
“We immigrated to the U.S. when I was five, and that’s something I will just forever be grateful to my parents for having made that decision,” Sherbakov shared. “We moved to the Bay Area, and I watched my parents really in one generation accomplish the American dream.”
His oldest sister went to Stanford and the other got a full ride to William and Mary, earning a doctorate degree in neuroscience. His youngest brother attended Berkley for his graduate studies and made his way to companies like OpenAI.
“That was the path for the Sherbakovs, and I took a very different path,” he laughed.
Rather than head off to college, Sherbakov chose to become one of the Few and the Proud: a Marine.
“9/11 hit very close to home for me, and it felt like a personal attack. To be quite honest, it felt like someone attacked a country that provided so much for me, my family, and so many other people, and I thought at 18, ‘Well, I’m healthy, you know. It’s my responsibility to go defend this country.’ So I joined the Marines in 2003,” he said.
He spent five years on active duty before transitioning into full-time student to finish his undergraduate degree in San Diego. As he put it, Sherbakov fell in love with entrepreneurship.
The Road to The Veteran Fund
“I built my first business when I left college,” he shared. “I really think that’s what makes America special. Is not only the freedoms and liberties we have, but specifically as it relates to celebrating entrepreneurship.”
He sold his health and wellness company in 2015. It was then that he decided to figure out what his personal focus would be on building going forward.
“That was the year I made my first angel investment. That was 11 years ago, and I also wanted to make sure that I was a really good investor with my own capital before I ever took anyone else’s,” he explained.
“Fast-forward, I ended up starting the veteran vertical of the world’s largest startup accelerator. I partnered with my best friend and business partner Ryan Michelletti, who actually started the very first veteran startup accelerator in the country almost a decade ago.”
The duo brought JPMorgan Chase in as their title sponsor to provide veterans a fellowship to go through their program for free. He ended up building a personal portfolio that was home to 130 companies, and in 2022, they started The Veteran Fund.
“We aimed to do a proof-of-concept fund, $10 million. We ended up oversubscribing that first fund at $20.2 million. We looked at over 5000 companies. We made 26 investments, and right now that fund is just based on performance. The top 1% of VC funds from that vintage of 22,” Sherbakov shared.
“We’ve backed some really amazing founders, some really great companies that our country really needs, and so now we are investing out of our second fund, a $50 million vehicle. We’ve already made four investments, and we’ve really built out an amazing network. I think that’s kind of our specialty: our secret sauce is the network.”
Though the firm has grown tremendously since its founding four years ago, Sherbakov admits it’s not always pretty. But despite the highs, lows, and everything in between, he wakes up every morning excited to get to work.
“We have this unique opportunity to build and to support builders,” he said. “And I think everyone should kind of think about what their role is in playing a part in ensuring this republic lasts for the next 250 and beyond.”
When you ask him why he keeps pushing, he doesn’t talk numbers but rather miracles.
“There have been too many miracles in my life to just notch it up to coincidence,” Sherbakov explained. “It is 100% our responsibility to take advantage of the opportunities and really stand on the sacrifices my parents made.”
Leaving the Marine Corps to build something new wasn’t easy, but when Sherbakov mentors other veterans, he wants to point out that there are scarier things.
“Sure, it’s scary. In many ways, what we’re doing is still scary. But there’s a certain risk tolerance woven into the DNA of someone who raised their right hand,” he explained. “What’s even scarier is getting to the end of your life and wishing you had done something different.”
When he isn’t investing in veteran-owned businesses, you can find him seeking adventure through kiteboarding and paragliding. And playing a lot of pickleball.
“Don’t start, or you’ll get addicted like me,” Sherbakov laughed.
However the next decade unfolds, Sherbakov is clear on what he wants his role to be. Call it service or, as he refers to it often, God’s plan. Whatever it is, he just thinks it’s his responsibility.
“For me, it’s that sweet spot, that north star at the intersection of three things. Passion, strengths, and impact,” he said.
Don’t Miss the Best of We Are The Mighty
• No one showed up for rural military towns like hers. Michelle Lang did.
• Richard Brookshire sued the VA for its own data. It proved Black veterans right.
• Kenneth Fisher’s relentless commitment to America’s military families
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