Donavan is passionate about helping mission-driven founders turn hard technical problems into scalable companies, especially those navigating the complex path between national security needs and commercial opportunity. He brings a rare perspective from both sides of that equation, having spent nearly a decade inside the Department of Defense, Air & Space Forces, and the last several years helping dual-use startups raise capital and break into government markets.
Before joining Outlander, Donavan served as the Growth & Transition Manager at SpaceWERX, where he oversaw a $427M portfolio of strategic DoD investments. He worked directly with frontier tech startups to secure follow-on funding, navigate defense acquisition, and scale into operational programs. He also served as a Venture Fellow at First In, where he sourced and evaluated hundreds of early-stage companies and led diligence across investments in space, AI, and cybersecurity.
A graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and former Space Force Cyber Officer, Donavan brings deep operational experience in space-cyber integration and defense innovation. At Outlander, he draws on that background to identify high-conviction investments and back the next generation of founders building category-defining technology.
Jordan has been an entrepreneur, executive operator, and investor/strategic advisor for over 24 years, including eight years in the industrial technology sector as the Founder and CEO of Rapid Robotics. He has founded or led four companies as CEO, with two successful exits to date, and has managed large corporate teams as General Manager over two business units at Adobe following its acquisition of his previous company, Livefyre. Over his career, he has raised more than $125 million across his two most recent companies.
As an investor, Jordan has backed over 50 companies directly and through vehicles via his fund, Intuition Capital. He has also served as a strategic advisor and Independent Board Director for both hardware and software companies, helping lead fundraising, strategy, and M&A transactions totaling over $250 million.
After six years as CEO, Jordan now serves as Executive Chairman of Rapid Robotics. The company delivers AI, hardware, and software automation solutions to the industrial sector, where he secured enterprise-scale contracts with customers ranging from Apple and Medtronic to Peet’s Coffee and contract manufacturers serving the three largest U.S. automotive companies.
Jordan is now bringing his extensive experience in venture, operations, and industrial technology to Outlander as a Senior Partner, where he will play a key role in identifying, investing in, and scaling transformative early-stage companies.
With a passion for backing founders solving real-world problems, Abbie brings a unique perspective to early-stage investing coming from the impact investing space. As a junior partner at Outlander, she seeks out transformative companies with the potential to create meaningful impact while driving financial outperformance.
Abbie started her investment career as a founding member of a leading women’s health fund, RH Capital, and subsequently lead investments at an early-stage gender lens fund, True Wealth Ventures. In those roles she worked closely with foundations and endowments to catalyze philanthropic funding into private sector investments.
A community builder at heart, she has cultivated a network of more than 70 LGBTQ+ identifying investors across major U.S. cities, creating opportunities for collaboration across asset allocators. She holds an undergraduate degree in international business from San Francisco State University and is based in San Francisco.
Deepika is passionate about connecting with founders at the earliest stages — learning about
what makes someone uniquely them and how that fuels their vision is the most energizing part
of her job.
Prior to joining Outlander, Deepika worked at Blu Ventures where she was responsible for
driving early-stage investments in B2B SaaS and HealthTech. Deepika spent her early career
helping underrepresented founders access capital — reworking pitch decks, developing
financial models, and making introductions to an extensive network of investors.
Deepika holds an undergraduate degree from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign
Service, where she supported student-led startups with GTM strategy through the Georgetown
Ventures accelerator and served as the Senior News Editor for The Hoya.
Tal is an experienced CFO, having previously served as the CFO of venture funds (ff Venture Capital, Newark Venture Partners) as well as the CFO of VC- and PE-backed portfolio companies (Flok, acquired by Wix, and Leading Pharma, which he helped scale to over $50 million in sales). Prior to his CFO career, Tal spent 8 years on Wall Street as a buy-side and sell-side analyst. He was also the third employee of Ceragon Networks (NASDAQ: CRNT).
Tal holds an MBA from Wharton, where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar, as well as electrical engineering and computer science degrees.
AJ’s career started with the Office of Naval Research building infrared sensors and winning awards from the American Society of Optics. But the startup bug bit in 2013 (while finishing his Masters at NYU) when he joined the Winklevoss-backed crypto exchange, BitInstant. Since then, AJ has been a 2X founder, 5X CTO/Head of Product, and investor (co-founder/managing partner at LvlUp Ventures).
AJ has collaborated with partners like Fidelity, Charles Schwab, SpaceX, Spin Magazine, and more. He is excited to work with this amazing team to build upon their top-decile track record as they find and support incredible founders. AJ is a true generalist VC and his areas of interest are wide: applied AI, robotics, aerospace, healthtech, defense, climate tech, fintech, logistics, and more.
Fun fact: Prior to leaping fully into investing, AJ had a separate artistic career as a charting multi-instrumentalist musician & songwriter, penning songs that have made it onto Billboard & global music charts and been featured on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Good Morning America, and more.
Leura Craig is a former founder and experienced investor who previously bootstrapped two startups as founding CEO. Her most recent startup, Laurel & Wolf, raised more than $30M from CRV, Benchmark, and other leading investors, and scaled to serve tens of thousands of customers across the United States.
Since 2015, Leura has invested in dozens of early-stage companies and advises founding teams on product strategy, operations, customer growth, design, hiring, and achieving product-market fit. Her investing focuses on sectors shaping the next decade of innovation, including the future of work, future of commerce, hardware and robotics, and AI. She is passionate about expanding access to venture capital and works to fund and support diverse founders and entrepreneurs emerging from non-traditional markets.
Outside of her work in venture capital, Leura is actively involved in community and education initiatives in New York and volunteers with programs supporting her children’s school and the 92NY community. She was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and Goldman Sachs’ “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs.”