Ret. U.S. Army Capt. Charles Masters spent much of his military service underwater as part of a dive team.
The experience taught him what it means to function as a team.
Now, these same skills are being deployed in a new arena: entrepreneurship.
Masters’ company AutoKet provides an AI-powered business-to-business marketplace for auto parts.
The company is one of hundreds to have benefited from working with the Veterans Entrepreneurship Initiative.
“It’s a scary place to have to admit that you don’t know what you are doing,” he said. “As veteran entrepreneurs, we are not very good at doing that. But once you do, you can find organizations like VEI that want to help.”
Masters knows firsthand.
“They were the glue that connected everything,” he said.
VEI: The glue for veteran entrepreneurship
As the Veterans Entrepreneurship Initiative has grown, its leaders continue to expand programs and services it provides.
The latest is the SPEAR Accelerator, an intensive, 3-month program created in partnership with Johns Hopkins University. The first cohort will will focus on health tech firms.
The application period opens in mid-August and a cohort will be announced in November. The accelerator starts in February with an expected end date of May.
“We knew veterans possess powerful skills instilled by military training,” said Ricardo Garcia, cofounder of the accelerator and the VEI. “Things like leadership, completing the mission, attention to detail and, most importantly, resilience and adaptability. These are skills we know successful entrepreneurs typically possess.”
Garcia and fellow veteran Rafael Caamaño, launched the VEI in 2013.
The idea for the program, which has since served more than 600 veteran entrepreneurs around the U.S., came to the duo following a reading of “Startup Nation,” a popular book considered a playbook, of sorts, for those creating ecosystems.
“From the start, VEI has been a passion project for Rafael and me,” Garcia said.
Veterans Florida support
A service launched by Garcia and Caamaño that offered business coaching for veterans eventually secured funding from the nonprofit Veterans Florida.
The idea for the program came after Garcia left the U.S. Air Force in 2012.
“I felt an incredible sense of purpose,” he said of his military time, which included a deployment to Afghanistan. “I knew I was part of a greater mission, something much bigger than myself.”
Once he transitioned out of the military, he found it challenging to rediscover that sense of purpose.
“VEI became my new mission,” he said. “A purpose much greater than myself.”
The VEI’s economic impact has grown beyond $100 million and has helped create more than 500 jobs.
An early success story
One of the program’s first success stories emerged in 2015.
It was then that Ret. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Kyle Evans first collided with the VEI.
Evans became a fan quickly while putting his company Redcon Solutions Group through UCF’s Business Incubation Program in 2014, one year after launching his company.
Evans’ firm provides private security detail for federal agencies working on public landscapes like during post-natural disaster situations.
He said VEI’s work has become a crucial resource.
“What they are doing is tremendous for the veteran community,” he said. “It allows them to see their true potential and build successful companies. They are moving the needle for veteran entrepreneurs.”
Evans said VEI’s offerings help veterans navigate what can be a complicated entrepreneurship landscape.
Add that to the veteran’s mindset and it makes a potent combination, said Evans, whose firm employs about 230 in 26 states across the U.S.
“Everybody in our line of work, you lose more than you win,” he said. “But you need to continue to get up and move forward.”
The mission continues
That’s what Masters says he also took from his military service.
“All that is required is that you keep going,” he said. “There will be times when you, say, run out of money but military veterans have a good feel for what that’s like. Whether they are deployed under fire, in an austere environment or underwater, it’s always having that mind to continue the mission.”
For Garcia, his mission continues.
“There is a continuous need to raise awareness and provide more resources to veteran entrepreneurs, particularly in underserved communities,” Garcia said. “We are focused on expanding our programs and partnerships to reach more veterans and provide them with the necessary tools and support to succeed in entrepreneurship.”
