Speaking from Barcelona, Spain, Adam Weiss is definitely living the life that his business promises to others. Adam had always wanted to be a spy as a kid and dreamed that a military career could lead to that, but 911 is what motivated him to serve. His father worked in the Wall Street area and the attack was obviously close to home. Not being able to contact his father all day, Adam joined the Marines to make sure that situation never happened again. Deployed a year after joining, he was approa...
Mar 01, 2021•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Still feeling the "food coma" afterglow of Thanksgiving, our hosts Cynthia and Josh welcome Larry Stokes, founder of LSA Veteran's Benefit Counseling. The company helps Veterans be aware of the benefits to which they are entitled, apply for them, and appeal if they are unhappy with the decision. They are not a law firm, but a fee-based consultant, and they have the background to get the job done. Larry is an accredited agent certified with the Department of Veteran Affairs and a veteran service ...
Dec 16, 2020•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast A Maryland native and pretty much a fixture before joining the Army, Ian Sparks really got his eyes opened about the big wide world. An ROTC candidate, Ian got his second lieutenant commission and wanted to be part of the demolition gang. Still in the reserves, Ian deployed to Afghanistan in 2013, 2016 to Iraq and 2017 into Syria, the three places in the world he wanted to see. He is first generation American, the rest of his family immigrating from Ireland, so Ian has seen a lot of the spectrum...
Dec 09, 2020•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Coming back from Afghanistan in 2016, Lito Villanueva just couldn't assimilate. He was snapping at people, short tempered and exhibiting the "fight or flight" attitude that kept him alive in war, but was creating a lonely life for him stateside. Lito was special forces in the military, so his service was ultra intensive. He always wanted to start his own business and putting two and two together, decided that there were others having the difficulty he was, and if he could use technology, he coul...
Nov 30, 2020•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast After high school, Nate Boyer was really "lost", and pretty much drifted, literally. He worked a fishing boat in San Diego but then finagled his way to a refugee camp in Chad and volunteering gave him a sense of purpose. While in the camp, he heard a BBC report of the war in Fallujah and decided right there he wanted to fight for the oppressed. Coming back to the US, he decided on special operations in the Army, Green Beret. He went all in on the program and made it happen and in a few months, h...
Nov 18, 2020•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast Original co-host Carmen Nazario talks with us today about founding and running her business, Elyon International. Introduced to Veteran Founder Podcast host Josh Carter by Startup Radio Network co-founder Mark Grimes, Carmen worked to get the show off the ground and flying for over a year while keeping her own high-flying business moving forward. An incredibly quick learner, Camen learned to be a podcast host by studying Josh and jumping in and doing it, like entrepreneurs do. Learning her compu...
Nov 13, 2020•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast A big contributor to Operation Code, of which both our hosts are involved, Tim Marcinowski served in the Navy for four years as an ITman. Two deployments and one surge were the big events in his career. Tim's experience was terrible and awesome both, and his introduction to the military was just that. His first day on ship, he found out one of the sailors had committed suicide, and that they were going to be deployed in a month, and that they were going to Mardi Gras that same day. Talk about a ...
Nov 04, 2020•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Every guest has a unique story about how their military background unfolded and our new co-host, Cynthia Kao, is no exception. As her mother tells it, Cynthia never does anything "in order", and the Toronto, Canada native's military story reflects that. She had a music career, performing since age 10 and after high school went to school in New York City, and although loved music, performing was not her calling. Media, becoming a journalist, however, was a calling. Abandoning music, she went into...
Oct 28, 2020•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast An Air Force officer veteran via the ROTC program, Rob Viglione he was in the space command which was the perfect spot for a mathematician. He worked with satellite orbitology. He went from being in the Air Force to contracting with the Air Force after ending his career. He then contracted with the Army and spent time in Afghanistan and was embedded with the Marines and then to Army Cavalry. He was dabbling in BitCoin at the time, and his success enabled him to work on his PhD. in finance and te...
Oct 22, 2020•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Listen to an in depth interview with Veteran Founders' new co-host, Cynthia Kao, who worked with Josh in Operation Code on a separate episode. For today, welcome her as she and Josh interview Ian Faison, A West Point grad, Ian didn't care for boats or planes, so the Army was natural. His father did serve in the military and as a sophomore in high school, Ian was encouraged to check out West Point. He was nominated by Barbara Lee from Oakland, California. It was unusual for Oakland people to go t...
Oct 14, 2020•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dr. Erik Won is the founder of Wave Neuroscience, a science based on his incredible background. A Navy veteran, Erik's parents were first generation Korean Americans and always had a deep appreciation of the US stood for in terms of opportunity. His patriotism was rewarded with serving in the Navy and have his education paid for as part of it. He interned at a Navy hospital, then went on tour on ships. He chose the aerospace unit and was then attached to a Marine squadron. He took care of an ent...
Oct 08, 2020•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Michael Donnelly was an active kid. So active that he didn't care for school, didn't care to work for his dad, and didn't care to go to college. So what's next? He had scored high on a military aptitude test in high school and was told by the Army recruiter he'd make a great Green Beret. Cool huh?! But he was advised to talk to all the services before committing and indeed was entranced by the Navy and becoming a Seal. In fact, mother, father and grandfather had served in the Navy, so it was a n...
Oct 02, 2020•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast A return guest, Ron Steptoe knows that the military and the war can have both pride and pain. His great (how many greats?) grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War as one of the African Americans to fight for colonial rights. As a reward, he was given land, as were many of the Continental Army soldiers, and settled down. But during the American Civil War, many blacks were suspicioned as being spies for the North, and Ron's relative's land was right on Confederate territory. He was labeled a s...
Sep 08, 2020•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast 911 Was a big call for many Americans and so for Steve Jimenez. However, his parents wanted him to go to college and figured after he graduated he would not be interested in a military career. They were half right: Steve graduated from Texas A&M, but went right on into the military. He wanted the Marines, deployed in 2010 to 17 countries. His expectations were to be life-long in the Marines, but the reality was family responsibilities and he transitioned. His first job was as a leader in a Texas...
Sep 08, 2020•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Bad grades, a music connection and a talk with a military recruiter - the best sales force in the world - got Travis Sorensen started on his military career. Originally wanting to join the Navy reserves, he stuck his head in the wrong door and wound up in the Army. In the delayed entry program, Travis did a semester in college and then off to boot camp. He was deployed to Fort Stewart and spent time in the reserves. Out in 2009, he transitioned to the Federal Reserve as a financial analyst. It w...
Sep 08, 2020•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast A third generation of a cult, The Children of God, one of the "crazier" cults, Daniella Young has an unusual background to say the least. No regular education, raised in a commune, mother fifteen when Daniella was born, she is now quite at ease looking back and discussing her upbringing. And there was good from it, such as her Mother teaching her to read and telling her the only thing important in society is learning to read, because after that you can teach yourself anything. She broke at fifte...
Aug 27, 2020•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Matthew "Griff" Griffin comes from a long military line, starting with a grandfather who fought in WWI. It was a natural to go to West Point and ended up in Special Operations. He met Donald "Lee" Lee in Afghanistan and between the two of them, spent seven tours in the middle east. Lee went Special Ops because he knew he would be fighting, so he'd rather fight with alpha-male meat eaters than soldiers who enlisted for college money. Lee found getting back in the civilian workspace was difficult....
Aug 27, 2020•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Vietnam combat veteran James Mingey has returned to the show. Growing up with a WWII veteran father, James was dazzled with the TV shows and movies of brave soldiers saving people in war. Not such a great student, he dropped out of school and signed up in the Army, landing in the infantry. Sixteen weeks of training, a week to visit family, and then a plane ride to Vietnam. Dropped into the field, he learned about discipline and how to enjoy life, but it was nothing like the movies. The transitio...
Aug 27, 2020•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Shannon Scott grew up in rural Montana doing all the ranch work you would expect. Then in high school, Shannon had an uncle in the Air National Guard that started the interest in the military. With the idea of combining serving the country with achieving an education, Shannon took the military aptitude test and scored high in math and electronics, so took that road with the Montana Air Force recruiters. The basic training was "incredible" according to Shannon, because it was a true melting plot ...
Aug 01, 2020•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast An Army Special Forces veteran, Erik Casarez was exposed to survival exercises in college. That's where he met his future wife Rebecca, and the teacher was a Green Beret. He was drawn to supporting the fight against terrorism physically and not just with words. Always trying to be better, Erik preferred Special Forces to being an infantryman. Deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, Erik needed to transition into private life. Since the family had followed Erik's moves for 10 years in the military, Eri...
Jul 23, 2020•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Gerald Pygott was in the military in the '70s, not by choice. His father thought it would "make a man" out of him and landed Gerald doing POW recon in Vietnam. Those stories he'll save for another time... He then was sent by the Navy to Hawaii and was very excited about his upcoming vacation. The vacation turned out to be 10 months at sea! He became a SeaBee (Construction Brigade) and was fixing up sea going ships around the Pacific Rim. Discharged in '79, Gerald started a career with HFC and wo...
Jul 23, 2020•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Return guest Tonio DeSorrento grew up in a military family and had family members who served in the Marine Corps and had fond memories. Tonio went to the Naval Academy and went to the Marines where he was assigned to Artillery, being an officer for six years before transitioning to a lawyer then an entrepreneur. He was deployed "a couple of times" but not in combat areas. Then he went on to teaching field artillery teaching Army and Marine Corps lieutenants. Out of the service, Tonio was looking...
Jul 22, 2020•39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lito Villanueva immigrated from the Phillipines with his family and started with the Air Force. With his typical entrepreneurial background, authority was sometimes difficult to swallow, so after his commitment, he went to a defense contractor and worked with the Army Signal Command. That gave him deployments in Afghanistan. He then decided to go full time into his consultancy, which he started doing in college, but needed a focus. He chose mental health and in particular, suicide prevention, wh...
Jul 08, 2020•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast Former CEO of Bunker Labs, Todd Connor knows from his military background that there comes a time for a changing of the guard. After leading Bunker Labs, a non-profit organization of veteran entrepreneurs helping other military connected veterans start their business, to new heights, he recently turned over the reigns. Todd went through ROTC and served four years in the Navy on the SS Bunker Hill. Then he went to business school, did some management consulting and onto his entrepreneurial path. ...
Jul 08, 2020•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast A military brat, Brian St. Ours went to hospital corpsman school in the chilly part of the year on the lakes around Illinois. Very cold. But he survived and wound up working with both Navy and Marines. He took his medical background and got a degree in advertising. Sounds odd, but as a corpsman he put together a health awareness monthly aware area. And learning how to get people's attention really interested him, leading to the advertising degree. He got a job with a New York agency after colleg...
Jun 19, 2020•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Scott Painter of Bird's Eye Aerial Drones, is a repeat guest; we're checking back in on his business. He realized in the military that drones were the future, and in 2014 he started the company. A disabled veteran owned business, gathering aerial data. Their niche is unmanned, aerial data collection, and utility companies are a big part of their business. The utility companies are worried about their rural, forested assets starting fires and so monitoring them is highly critical, keeping the uti...
Jun 12, 2020•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast A Georgetown graduate who was there on an ROTC scholarship, Karly Murphy joined the Army in the 82nd Airborne, spent time in the Middle East and went through the war effort there. Coming home, Karl took a job in sales and then starting talking with a "buddy", as the story goes. They bought a car wash, started to build a chain of them. Along the way, changes in the economy and the ubiquitous presence of iPhones led them to pivot their business model and in 2014 Spiffy was born. Mobile, on demand ...
May 19, 2020•46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Matt Lembright's experience started in the Army with the military intelligence group and operated in eastern Baghdad. He enjoyed tactical work and started cyber units for the Army. The cyber missions force was his first "startup". With so many variables and uncertainty involved in those operations, it was perfect training for an entrepreneur. And great training for the sheltering in place going on now. The change in the military's attitude toward technology's place in battle. As they embraced te...
May 13, 2020•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast John Gossart grew up in Boston and wanted to go to Boston College. Money was an issue, as with most everyone, and the Army gave him a scholarship in the ROTC program. His father was an Army vet and served in Viet Nam, so was quite supportive. Although he didn't plan on a military career, John stayed 22 years including working in counter-terrorism in the Pentagon. He spent time overseas and met people along the way who got into a startup and invited him along for the ride. Having so much time awa...
May 13, 2020•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Brandon Shelton comes from one of those long lines of military and he was ROTC in college, then active service, then reserves. He was a bond trader and landed right in the middle of the financial crisis so he has seen much, if not all. Their firm is a tech VC firm backing B-B, SAS companies that have security businesses with leaders that make good decisions under pressure. And they have that pressure now - and all have responded well so far. Matt Abrams was a board member for one of the portfoli...
Apr 29, 2020•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
