OUR TEAM

Beau Laskey

Beau is a retired Marine who served for 25 years as an intelligence officer with the Marine Corps. Following his retirement in 2014, Beau served as a senior manager on Amazon’s Military Affairs team. During his 7 years at Amazon, Beau was responsible for creating scalable veteran programs, developing policies and strategic planning for military recruiting and outreach efforts. Beau left Amazon in April of 2023 and specializes in helping companies find Veteran talent. He serves as a VP for OPlign, a SaaS platform that has mapped the labor market and aligns Veterans to open jobs and serves as a Senior Client Partner for The Military Veteran, specializing in placing Veteran talent into executive roles within Private Equity backed portfolio companies.

Mike Steadman

Operating Partner

“IRON” Mike Steadman is a former Marine Corps Infantry Officer and three-time national boxing champion. A U.S. Naval Academy graduate, he deployed to Afghanistan, Japan, and the Philippines before earning a Master’s in American Studies from Rutgers–Newark.
Mike is a nationally recognized category designer and business coach for the Underdogs & MisFits—Military Veteran Founders and CEOs- who don't wait for a seat at the table. They build their own. He’s the founder of The MisFits, a category design studio helping veteran-led companies define new markets and own the space they were born to lead.

Will Swenson

Will Swenson is an Advisor at Context Ventures. He is retired from the US military after over twenty years of distinguished service. His career spanned multiple combat deployments to the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as diplomatic assignments throughout Latin America. As a result of his actions in combat overseas, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama. 

Will is now involved with private equity and venture capital, bridging the divide between industry, innovation and national security. He is active on numerous veteran non-profit boards and holds leadership positions in several. He is a graduate of Seattle University, and the Naval Postgraduate School. He and his family reside in Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA.

Helen King

Helen King is the Chief of Staff at Context Ventures, where she helps with behind the scenes event operations and special projects, leveraging her background in accounting, data, and finance. Helen holds a BBS in Accounting and Finance from Southern New Hampshire University. She also contributes to the partnerships team at Media Mobilize. She is based in Raeford, North Carolina. Helen enjoys small family adventures with her husband (Air Force veteran), two children, and two dogs.

Warren Cheng

Warren Cheng has been an investment analyst specializing in Consumer companies the last fourteen years at hedge fund Elm Ridge Capital and investment bank Evercore ISI. Previously, Warren was a management consultant at Oliver Wyman. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Operations Research & Financial Engineering. Warren lives in New York with his wife and two daughters.

Holden Lindblom

Holden Lindblom is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Context Ventures. His career transitioned from serving in the US Army as a Forward Observer with the 173rd Airborne to studying at Stanford University, where he embraced entrepreneurship. He co-founded a startup in the ZX Venture's incubator and established Picomart, a VC-backed company that innovated in fresh produce accessibility with smart-fridge kiosks.

Carina Cho

Carina Cho is an associate at Context Ventures. With a background in VC, marketing, and design, she enjoys meeting with founders & entrepreneurs across different industries. Carina has a BBA in Strategic Design & Management from The New School and is also the COO of Media Mobilize (an online ad network, marketing agency, and media company). Based in New York, she is very attached to her dog, Sunny.

tIM hsia

Tim Hsia is a distinguished honor graduate of West Point and was commissioned as an infantry officer in the US Army. Tim deployed twice to Iraq: he served as an infantry platoon leader in combat with 1-24 Infantry, 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division in Mosul, Iraq. As an executive officer with 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment (3/2 SCR) he helped the unit move from Ft. Lewis, WA to Vilseck, Germany. He then served as a logistics officer for 3/2 SCR during its fourteen month deployment in support of the surge in Iraq and earned a Bronze Star.

Tim transitioned from active duty in 2010 and graduated from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School in 2014. While at Stanford he taught ROTC to cadets at Stanford and Santa Clara University.

Tim is the CEO & Founder of Media Mobilize (an online ad network, marketing agency, and media company).

Tim is the founder and Managing Partner of Context Ventures, a venture fund that invests in military veteran founders and also in consumer startups. Tim’s startup investments prior to Context Ventures include Workflow (acquired by Apple), Morning Brew (acquired by Business Insider), The Hustle (acquired by HubSpot), Thredup (IPO), Proterra (SPAC), Bright Cellars, FabFitFun, Verb Energy, Lime (scooter), and Secureframe.

Tim is a board member at Service to School (co-founder), Bunker Labs, and the Marine’s Memorial Association (Marine Memorial Club and Hotel in San Francisco). He is also a Pat Tillman Foundation Scholar.

Tim is a published writer in the Infantry Magazine, Small Wars Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times (two op-eds and first military writer for the New York Times At War blog).

Tim and his family live and work in San Francisco. He enjoys running, reading, and spending time with his family.

Email Tim at timhsia@contextvc.com