A married couple with a common background in survival training, Erik joined the Army and joined Special Forces, similar to the instructor who had led their survival training. In for ten years, Rebecca was getting her education and job in accounting and business while Erik served. After completing his service, Erik started a web company and his entrepreneurial instincts turned to what Rebecca was doing. He saw an opportunity for her, which eventually turned into an opportunity for the two of them...
Mar 14, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Another crazy path to the military, as most are, says Donald Coolidge. He wanted to be a New York Yankee and a Navy Seal as a kid, and since the Yankees didn't seem all that interested, 9-11 motivated him to join the service as a Marine. A meeting with a tech guru got him thinking about a startup and he went all in, jumping out of his grad program, quitting his job at a law firm and taking the big risk. His partner did the heavy lifting on the coding, and Donald handled the user experience and s...
Mar 14, 2019•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Growing up picking fruit and living in a migrant camp, David's Mom and the rest of the kids made a move up to northern Washington with basically nothing. They kept working the fields the rest of David's youth and the family continues to work the fields. He worked his way through college and since he lived in Mt. Vernon Washington, there happened to be a lot of Hispanic military and veterans. He got to know and respect them and wound up enlisting with a friend. After his service, he wanted to use...
Mar 07, 2019•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast 911 Was the catalyst for Donald, as for many Americans. For Griff, it was a foregone conclusion being from a military family. As their website says, "through persistence, respect, and creativity, we empower the mindful consumer to manufacture peace through trade". By encouraging consumers to buy products manufactured in a conflict zone, they create entrepreneurs in those conflict zones, and create peace through trade.
Mar 06, 2019•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Operating behind their charitable causes, Goodworld makes it easier to donate to any number of worthy efforts. So how did John Gossart get there in the first place? In an effort to get into college, ROTC was a way to be able to pay for it and that was his initial motivation. But the Army soon appealed to him and he signed up after graduating. He was in Kosovo in '99 and came back to the US and after 911 he was mostly deployed until '09. After leaving the Army, he was approached by a startup grou...
Mar 06, 2019•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Travis' military service gave him a work ethic and and a "never quit" attitude. Both have been invaluable as an entrepreneur. After the military, he had jobs before going to business school. That move got him tutoring, which made him more money than consulting. It made him realize his biggest skill, running a business that may not be radically different, but running it well and successfully. Veteran Founder Podcast with your hosts Josh Carter and Carmen Nazario We record the Felony Inc Podcast i...
Mar 04, 2019•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast For Jimmy Stanley, working on a holiday "doesn't suck". It's because his job is as an airplane pilot, and as an ex-fighter pilot, he still loves being in the air. It started when his sister was dating a military pilot who set him down and explained all the paths to flying and by the ninth grade he was hooked. Originally wanting to be a helicopter pilot, he fell in love with jets, applied to be a Navy pilot and got into the program. An Executive MBA, earned while in the Navy, prompted him to go t...
Feb 27, 2019•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Cyber warriors are those in the IT security business and they are highly sought after. There are lots of veterans who come out of the military with those skills, so why don't they jump on those jobs? And why aren't they highly recruited. Nigel LeBlanc, Cyber Warriors, is answering those questions. Coming to the US from Dominica, Nigel joined the Air Force and served when logistics was merged and 911 happened. Still in the reserves, his mission of helping vets become successfully trained and empl...
Feb 27, 2019•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast An older brother in the military, sending gifts from overseas, sold Arron on the service by the sixth grade. Joining at 18, he dealt with computer operations and wound up in Korea during Desert Storm, which added to his time there. It set him up for a data services career, but the stress took it's toll, partly in the form of insomnia. He finished his service, went out into the world and used his data operations skills to get employment. Along the way, he developed a case of Candida, a gut fungus...
Feb 27, 2019•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast A navy career supporting the CBs, a construction division, gave Chad a high level of responsibility and command. It put him in and out of 14 countries. He came home with a lot of anger and frustration, a situation shared by many Vets after experiencing much violence and not getting any help overcoming it before being back in the private world. Wanting to finish school was his driving goal and kept him going to the bright side. But along the way, he lost it, wound up homeless on the streets of Po...
Feb 26, 2019•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Drawn to the Navy for the mission and the adventure, Dave Cass made his decision to join in high school. He did ROTC at Tulane and felt a bond with the aviation program, mainly because of the team feeling and aspect. After two tours, he ended up in Colorado teaching ROTC and decided to stay in Boulder after his military career was over. A stint with Oracle gave him a technology background that became his springboard. Back teaching at Colorado, he did his startup on the side while continuing to l...
Feb 26, 2019•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Maybe spending time in the dry desert waiting for Sadam Hussein's tanks made Karl predisposed to lots of water, but after his intense military career, he ended up founding Spiffy, a come-to-you car detail service that brings all the water to you! Tech drives (no pun intended) the company, as you can set up your appointment online from your phone or computer, choose the level of detail you want, then receive notifications as to the progress. When your car is ready, you rate the service and pay au...
Feb 25, 2019•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast After a couple of hours to say goodbye after high school graduation, James headed off to the Air Force for the experience of a lifetime for him. It encouraged him to get a college degree and eventually graduate from law school. Blending that with his technical background from the Air Force, he saw the disruptive business of protecting intellectual property in the 3-D manufacturing arena and Knurls was born. Veteran Founder Podcast with your hosts Josh Carter and Carmen Nazario We record the Felo...
Feb 21, 2019•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sinhue Montoya is grateful. Grateful he lives in the US, grateful to have served in the Army, and grateful to be alive after spending time in combat zones and losing friends. His gratitude is the impetus for building his own life through starting a business. Drone Quote uses drones to map roofs, quote the costs to convert to solar power, and assists the homeowner in making the conversion by taking advantage of credits and discounts. Veteran Founder Podcast with your hosts Josh Carter and Carmen ...
Feb 21, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kathy (CEO) and James (COO) met while in the US Coast Guard. After more than a decade of marriage, 3 kids, a couple businesses, and a life changing bankruptcy, they found themselves in their “forever home”: Bozeman, Montana. Cowboy Cricket Farms came to be after Kathy went to the annual Bug Buffet while attending Montana State University - Bozeman. They have overcome the "yuck" factor and, believe it or not, the lack of supply to build a strong business that has a bright future. Veteran Founder ...
Feb 21, 2019•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Coming from an all-military family, Brandon approached his service full bore, wanting to be the best in whatever field he chose. Despite having failed many, many tests the first time, he kept going back until he broke through and was successful. After a stint at Toys R Us, he became interested in starting his own business and helping other vets. In March 2015, conversations began and with the same determination and fire, launched TFX Capital Management in January 2016 to groom and fund veteran b...
Feb 21, 2019•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Brian comes from an All-American family, Grandfather, father, brother and sister all serving. He joined the Army, serving in the 82nd Airborne. There wasn't a global conflict at first and he took some time to go to college. Then 911 hit and he joined the Air Force to fly planes. An injury forced him into rehab, where he wore plain workout clothes for a change. He realized how much he missed the American flag on his shoulder, so he searched for a wooden flag to hang up on the wall. He couldn't fi...
Feb 20, 2019•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast His brother took off in the car the two of them had leased, his college textbooks were in the car, he was sitting in his boyhood bedroom and David asked, "What am I doing here?". That was the impetus to join the Army for only two years, but his eight year career there turned into the learning experience of his life, spending much of the time in Berlin, Germany. The Army experience gave him the opportunity to get more education that led to finishing his degree as a civilian. While working with H-...
Feb 20, 2019•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast He was so passionate about his military mission that saw the same need in his civilian life. Greg Adams was in Afghanistan, focused on a security mission and worried about what would be lost in the hand-off to new personnel. After discharge in 2011, he became fascinated in the science of data and how it could be used to decrease violence. After toying with approaching the DOD as a consultant, he used his entrepreneurial attitude to launch Stabilitas. Veteran Founder Podcast with your hosts Josh ...
Feb 20, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast A self-proclaimed Chicago suburbs insulated college kid, Todd joined the Navy and liked how fast things "moved". When he left and got back into civilian life, he felt the world moved a lot slower; it was putting in time on a job waiting to move up, which didn't set well with him. Finding the consulting industry a good fit for his IQ and attitude, he started his own business and found making a living on his own very satisfying. So why not provide an organization to help other vets do the same? Wh...
Feb 13, 2019•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast A physics major when drafted by the Army in the Vietnam era, Sam was told by friends that he'd do better in the Navy, since they wanted technical people. He listened and joined and wound up being a first class petty officer by the time he was done doing three tours. While docked in Portland, Oregon, Sam met Howard Volum, head of Tektronix. Impressed with Sam, Howard told him he had a job if he came back to Portland and that was the start of Sam's civilian career. After a suggestion by an organiz...
Feb 13, 2019•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast With a a degree that gave him a background, Matt found himself in the intelligence division of the Army, involved in day raids that were right out of a movie. After his discharge, he got some great exposure to cyber security working for financial companies and other large corporations. While seeing the inside of large company needs, he also got exposed to the perils of running a medium and small business with fewer resources, but just as many attacks from hackers. So his next mission came into f...
Feb 13, 2019•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Another Patriot Bootcamp alumni - Josh's organization - Bart Lomont will take care of your lawn without putting a human behind the wheel, or handlebar, as the case may be. 9-11 Was the reason for joining the Air Force and deployment was his goal, and his experience gave him what he terms "Post-Traumatic Growth", stress that gave him a new sense of purpose and discipline. It was this attitude that eventually gave him the fire to start Robin Automatic, a lawn care service based on robotics. Vetera...
Feb 06, 2019•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Being a military spouse prepared Jen Pilcher to be an entrepreneur. Learning to adapt with relocating and long spouse deployments gave her the impetus to help other military spouses deal with the stresses of military life. Aggregating resources was natural for Jen, and she grabbed the domain name, reached out to potential sponsors, got nothing and went to Plan B - typical startup cycle. Eventually, with the help of Facebook, audiences started to show up and the necessary resources noticed. The c...
Feb 06, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast David joined the Army for an interesting reason - to get out his small town - but enlistment opened up his world even bigger than he imagined. Enrolled at Oregon State University, he went through ROTC, got his degree, became a captain and had an eight-year career. His fascination with technology and coding led him to a hackathon to learn to code initially. His passion grew into a mission to lend this skill to military veterans as a civilian career after their service career was over. Operation C...
Feb 06, 2019•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast An Army alumni, Tom watched world security change from pre-911 to post-911. Tom went from Medic to satellites in his Army career - interesting story - and started juggling billion-dollar space toys. And his civilian life took him to a telecom career where he put "interesting phones in interesting places". But the secrecy aspect was a strain on family life and pursued jobs with both new and established companies. The experiences gave him perspective about a company's mission and values and laid t...
Jan 25, 2019•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Apparently both hosts wanted to see the world. As a young girl in Puerto Rico, Carman Nazario was walking with her mother when she saw a poster of an Army WAC saying "See the world". She promised her mother she would finish one year of college before joining, but always wanted a career in computers. Luckily, her assignment in the Military Police put her in a computer class AND allowed her to finish college with a degree in business. This background set her up for a computer programming job. This...
Jan 25, 2019•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Josh Carter wanted to be in the Navy so much he graduated early from high school and had to have his mother sign for him to join! In his three years in the Navy, he saw 30 countries and qualified for the GI bill. The bill helped get him into an art academy but didn't cover enough of the tuition to make him comfortable, so he moved on to IT and was an early employee of then startup Twilio. And his own startup life began. He started booking bands and it grew until it bust with a big concert. So he...
Jan 25, 2019•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
