Don is the CEO at Athos, a company that offers a wearable technology that is fully integrated in workout clothing, and can track your muscle groups, heart rate, breathing level and more. They have raised over $50M in funding since their founding 4 years ago. Don started out at the Naval Academy, after which he served for five years as an Marine Corps as part of the Force Recon. After his transition out of the Marines, he went to Stanford Business School, after which he joined Google in 206 as a Manager of Online Sales and Operations. Two years later, he joined Facebook as the VP of Online Operations, and four years after that Pinterest as the Head of Operations. He serves on the Board of Nuru international, which listeners may remember from Episode #68 with Nuru’s founder, Jake Harriman.
BTU #65 - Mark Frank: Army to Serial Entrepreneur and Founder of Four Companies
Mark Frank is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sondermind, a startup that is focused on making mental health services more accessible and accepted for everyone. He started out West Point and served as an Logistics Officer in the Army for five years. After the Army, Mark earned both his MBA and Masters of Engineering Management at Northwestern University. After grad school, he an Associate Investment Banker at Morgan Stanley for two years before serving as Founder & CEO at Next Oncology. After six years at Next Oncology, he sold the company in a deal that brought a 12X return to investors. In addition to founding Sondermind and Next Oncology, Mark has also started SafeImageMD and TermScout, as well as served as the Managing Director of the investment company, Goldwing Capital.
BTU #63 - Todd Ehrlich: From SEALs to Founder of Kill Cliff
Todd is the Founder of Kill Cliff, maker of the recovery drink with the same name. Kill Cliff has about 40 employees and makes continuous donations to the Navy SEAL Foundation. Todd also serves as the CEO at BAM Worldwide, the leading provider of cash management technology for small to medium transportation companies. He is also the Founder & Chairman of Triserv Appraisal Management Solutions, a real estate appraisal management company. Todd started out in the Navy, where he served as a SEAL for four years. After his transition from the military, he held a variety of positions at Kroll Associates, United Rentals, and Jacobs Private Equity.
BTU #61 - Ryan Guina: Air Force E5 to Business Owner @ The Military Wallet
Ryan is the Founder of Cash Money Life & The Military Wallet - two websites that focus on helping people better manage their finances by offering informational articles, tips, tutorials, and product and service reviews. He has run these sites for over nine years and been featured on publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and LifeHacker. He started out in the Air Force, where he served for six and a half years as an Electrical-Environmental Specialist. After transitioning from the military, he worked at BearingPoint as a Management Analyst and then at the Computer Sciences Corporation as a Business Process Modeler. In addition to running his websites, Ryan currently serves in the Illinois Air National Guard.
BTU #60 - Matt Miller: Air Force Pilot to Vending Machine Empire
Matt Miller is the President and Founder of School Spirit Vending, a Hassle-Free, Year-Round Fundraising company for Schools that he started over nine years ago. He is also the Host of the School Zone Podcast, a podcast resource for educators, school volunteers and the fundraising companies that serve them and their schools. And he is also the Owner of Sticker Swarm Media, a publishing company for children’s books. And also the President & Co-Founder of School News Guru - a newsletter program. He started out at the Air Force Academy, after which he served as a pilot in the Air Force for nearly nine years. After the Air Force he served in a variety of sales roles, first at the Hospital & Health Care industry with Abbott, and then with the Marketing & Advertising space with Valassis.
BTU #59 - Dr. Patrick Leddin: Army to starting (and 11 years later selling) his own consulting company
Dr. Patrick Leddin is a Professor at Vanderbilt University’s Managerial Studies Program, where he teaches both Corporate Strategy and Principles of Marketing. He started out in the Army, where he served for over six years with the 82nd Airborne Division as a Platoon Leader, Staff Officer, and Company Commander. After transitioning from the Army, he worked as a Senior Consultant at KPMG. He then started his own consulting firm, the Wedgewood Consulting Group, and served as Managing Director. In 2011 Inc Magazine named Wedgwood one of the fastest growing private companies in America, and they were acquired in 2012. Patrick holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Kentucky, and has also worked as a Director & Senior Consultant at Franklin Covey for nearly 16 years.
BTU #57 - Alex Pedersen: Air Force to Google to Employee #5 at a Startup
Alex Pedersen is the COO of POLCO - an early stage startup that is a political participation platform for local governments. He started out at the Air Force Academy, after which he received his Masters of Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He served for seven years as an Air Force Officer, before transitioning directly to Google where he worked on Strategy, Planning & Analysis.
BTU #52 - Chris Pestel: Army to Photographer with ESPN, Playboy and more
Chris Pestel is the Founder of Pestel Photography, and has worked as a freelance photographer for ESPN for nearly 9 years now. He started out at West Point after which he served as an Army Officer for five years. After his transition he started out as a photographer at Carolina Sports, before moving on to Playboy Enterprises as a Junior Designer & Photo Editor. He’s also served as the Director of Public Relations for his high school alma matter, Montini Catholic. Chris has run his company - Pestel Photography - for over 9 years, making him on the verge of the 4% of entrepreneurs who keep their company running for 10 years.
BTU# 40 - Annie Taft: Founding a company while in the Army and following your passion
Annie Taft is the Founder & Executive director of The Brazen Gourmand, which is a Lifestyle brand for the culinarily curious. She started out at West Point, where she graduated 17th in her class and served in the Army for over five years as part of the intelligence community. When she left the Army, she participated in the Stanford Ignite Program, after which she started three different companies, of which The Brazen Gourmand is one.
BTU #64 - Anthony Garcia: Army to Founder of Guide-On, an Essential Veteran Resource
Anthony Garcia is CEO and co-founder at GuideOn -a military veteran talent acquisition platform. He started out at St. Mary's University, after which he served in the Army for eight years as a Medical Service Corps Officer and Medical Evacuation Pilot. After transitioning out of the Army, he received his MBA at Cornell University. Since then he has worked as a General Manager at SRI International and the CEO and co-founder of Adjacent Applications. He started GuideOn in late 2014, and has raised funding from Mike Maple’s VC firm - Floodgate, one of the most respected investors in Silicon Valley.
BTU#38: Chris Shaw - Army to Startup Founder and Bunker Labs
“The autonomy is incredible. I think back to my time in the military and the best times I had was when I was flying around the mountains of Afghanistan, and we had a lot of flexibility in the mission we were running. When I think about being an entrepreneur, it's very similar to that in a lot of ways. I love that I can set my own hours and create my own success. That is really exciting and gets my adrelanine going. The bad part is that you don't have a paycheck. If you make a sale and get cash you can take a small salary from there, but there's a lot of unpredictability there. Going into this I didn't expect that aspect of this to wear on me emotionally as much as it does. But it does, and it's real - you just need to understand that that's part of the deal." – Chris Shaw
Chris Shaw is the Founder of CORE Leader, the Director of the NY Office of Bunker Labs at the NYU Tandon Engineering School. He graduated from NYU Stern School of Business in May 2016. He started out at Cornell University, where he earned his BA in history, after which he served in the US Army as an Aviation Officer for 8 years flying the Kiowa Warrior armed reconnaissance helicopter. He deployed twice to combat in Afghanistan, most recently as the head of his squadron’s intelligence department in the 82nd Airborne Division.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
- How Chris decided to go to business school rather than industry after the military
- An overview of Bunker Labs, and why every aspiring entrepreneur should consider applying
- Advice on finding a co-founder... and how to make sure you get it right. Chris talks about the biggest mistake he made when starting his company
- The experiences that best help Chris prepare for his life as an entrepreneur
- And much, much more…
-
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links
- NYU Stern School of Business
- Chris' second company - CORE Leader
- Bunker Labs - their entrepreneurial program is EPIC
- Leaders Reaction Course
- Tough Mudder - a visit here was one of the catalysts for Chris starting his company, CORE Leader
Show Notes
- 1:50 - Chris' background
- 2:30 - How Chris decided to leave the Army
- 3:12 - How Chris thought about joining the Reserves and why he chose not to
- 3:48 - The most surprising aspect of Chris' transition to civilian life
- 5:20 - A few bad habits Chris had to break when he left the military
- 6:30 - How Chris decided to go to business school rather than industry after the military
- 9:28 - Chris' experience at Stern School of Business and his advice on how to apply and why to go
- 11:10 - An overview of Bunker Labs, and why every aspiring entrepreneur should consider applying
- 15:20 - What Chris' day-to-day life looks like as a Director at Bunker Labs
- 17:40 - An overview of Chris' second company - CORE Leader
- 20:13 - Advice on finding a co-founder... and how to make sure you get it right. Chris talks about the biggest mistake he made when starting his company
- 24:17 - The experiences that best help Chris prepare for his life as an entrepreneur
- 25:38 - What Chris' day-to-day life looks like as an entrepreneur
- 27:44 - What Chris like most and least about his life as an entrepreneur
- 29:30 - Chris' advice for other veterans considering entrepreneurship
- 32:45 - How Chris felt ahead and behind his civilian counterparts
- 36:37 - Final words of wisdom from Chris for all veterans
BTU #45 - John Fenwick: Launching a Satellite Startup and Selling to Google for $500M
John Fenwick is Head of Spacecraft Operations at Google. He started out at the Air Force Academy, after which he served for 8 years in the Air Force as a Physicist & Space Acquisitions Officer. He holds a Masters in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from MIT and an MBA from Stanford Business School. After business school, John co-founded Skybox Imaging and served as their Vice President of Flight Programs. Skybox provides commercial, high-resolution satellite imagery and high-definition video and analytics services. Skybox raised over $91M in funding prior to being acquired by Google for $500M, as reported by the WSJ. Skybox is now known as Terra Bella within Google.
BTU #37 - David Cho: Starting a Cosmetics eCommerce company while in the Army
“I'm in the beauty industry. I'm this ex-combat arms officer who knows way too much about cosmetics now. I think it's really funny. For me, timing really worked out. When we started Soko Glam, I was an Executive Aide to a General Officer. Although my time was really sporadic, for the most part I was in garrison. So I had a lot of time to research and take night classes, research certain things and go out and network. That would be my piece of advice - when you're still in really take the time to meet people and figure out what you want to do. Do as much reading as possible but you gotta go out there and meet people." – David Cho
David Cho is the Co-Founder and CEO of Soko Glam - an eCommerce beauty shop and lifestyle brand with the best selection of Korean Beauty products and content. Dave started out at West Point, and served as a Combat Arms Officer for over 8 years. After his transition from the Army, David attended Columbia Business School, during which he worked at Facebook as a Global Accounts Intern. In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
- How Dave started an e-commerce beauty company while on active duty in the Army
- What it's like to have your wife as your co-founder
- Resources Dave would recommend to any aspiring veteran entrepreneur
- WhatWhat Dave wished he had known when he first started his company, Soko Glam
- And much, much more…
-
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Links
- Dave's company, Soko Glam: https://sokoglam.com
- Book Recommendations:
- Website Recommendations:
- Fred Wilson Blog
- TechCrunch
- Google News (personalized to your interests)
- American Corporate Partners - connects veterans with mentors in the civilian workforce
- Google Veterans Summit
Show Notes
- 2:19 - Dave's background
- 2:53 - An overview of Dave's company, Soko Glam
- 4:48 - Finding a co-founder, and what it's like to be married to them
- 11:11 - What Dave's like as a Co-Founder & CEO looks like on a day-to-day basis
- 13:16 - What Dave's lifestyle looks like as an entrepreneur
- 16:33 - What it was like to start Soko Glam while on active duty in the Army
- 19:19 - Resources Dave would recommend when you're preparing to start your company
- 23:30 - Whether or not to consider business school when starting your own company
- 29:07 - How Dave's wife, Charlotte, continued to work on Soko Glam while Dave was at business school
- 29:37 - What Dave wished he had known when he first started his company, Soko Glam
- 32:32 - Some of the best advice Dave received when making the transition from the Army
- 38:15 - Some consistent misconceptions that Dave sees veterans make when he is mentoring veterans going through the transition to civilian life
- 41:30 - How to better know if you'd like a large company or start your own company
- 43:20 - The bad habits that Dave needed to break when he left the military
- 46:30 - The biggest surprises Dave experienced in his transition to civilian life
- 49:20 - Dave's final words of wisdom
BTU #34 - Molly Laufer: Active Duty to Employee #1 at Nature Box
“In a brand new, early stage startup, no one can be above doing something. As the months rolled on, I started to get an appreciation for just how much a startup was like my military experience. I really leaned in and relied on that experience in saying, “I’ve never done marketing, I’ve never worked in a CPG company, I’ve never worked in an e-commerce company, but what I have done is worked in a really chaotic environment without a lot of guidance and had to roll up my sleeves and get it done. So I might not know startups, I might not marketing, I might not know e-commerce or food, but I know how to operate in this environment. So trust yourself, trust your gut - you can do this." – Molly Laufer
Molly Laufer is the Director of Client Strategy in the Marketing & Advertising space with the Company, Oxford Road - which is the fastest growing full-service ad agency serving the Consumer Tech industry. She started out at the University of Virginia, where she did ROTC and earned a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Affairs and Russian. Molly then served for four years in the Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer, serving onboard the Frigate USS SAMUEL B. ROBERTS as well as with DESTROYER SQUADRON 23. When she transitioned from the Navy, she was the first employee of the startup, NatureBox - a company that now has over 100 employees and has raised over $58M in funding. At NatureBox she started with Social Media and Content Marketing, and eventually became their Director of Customer Acquisition
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
- How Molly used a career counselor to figure out what sorts of jobs she would be interested in and what sorts of problems she’d like to solve
- How Molly approached her first job search and how she ended up as employee #1 at Nature Box
- What it was like to be the first employee at an early stage startup
- An overview of the different roles Molly held at Nature Box, and what her career progression looked like
- Molly’s advice to any veteran thinking of working at a startup
- And much, much more…
-
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Show Notes
- 2:25 - Molly’s background
- 3:46 - How Molly approached the decision to leave the military
- 4:59 - How Molly considered the reserves
- 6:59 - The biggest surprises in Molly’s transition to civilian life
- 8:59 - How Molly used a career counselor to figure out what sorts of jobs she would be interested in and what sorts of problems she’d like to solve
- 9:57 - Advice on how to find the right career coach to help with a job search or career change
- 11:49 - An overview of the career coaching process
- 12:39 - How Molly approached her first job search and how she ended up as employee #1 at Nature Box
- 15:49 - How Molly thought about going to business school (while her husband was going to business school as well)
- 18:39 - an EXCEPTIONAL sound bite about how to use an elevator pitch when you're networking
- 20:16 - What it was like to be the first employee at an early stage startup
- 23:59 - An overview of the different roles Molly held at Nature Box, and what her career progression looked like
- 29:35 - What Molly liked most and least about her experience in an early stage startup
- 34:59 - In what ways Molly felt ahead and behind her civilian peers based on her military experience
- 38:37 - Molly’s advice to any veteran thinking of working at a startup
- 41:04 - How Molly made the transition from an early stage startup to an Ad Agency, with Oxford Road
- 44:24 - The day-to-day life of an Account Director at an Ad Agency
- 47:05 - Molly’s final word of advice to other veterans
BTU #31 - Andreas Jones - Starting your own business and making your dream a reality
“What a lot of people do in networking is they go in with the mindset of “what can I get from it.” The important switch i made was, “what can I give to this relationship that I’m looking to start.” Stop trying to figure out what’s in it for you. Give and it’s the law of nature - if you plant seeds of good and positive vibrations all the time, it’s going to come back to you." – Andreas Jones
Andreas Jones is the CEO and Principal Business Strategist and Leadership Consultant at Combat Business Coaching. Andreas served in the US Army for over 8 years, where he was as a Logistics & Supply Chain Manager. In his civilian career he has worked as: a contributing writer to Forbes and The Huffington Post; a Project Manager work at The Home Depot; and a Vice President of Procurement and Strategy at the Financial Services Company, the Sun Trust. .
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
- From the Army to starting his own business - what Andreas learned along the way
- Advice on how to find a co-founder or initial team
- Advice on how to learn and grow through networking
- What day-to-day life looked like while starting a company
- Advice Andreas would give to other veterans considering starting their own business
- And much, much more…
-
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links from the Episode
- Andreas' interview on EO Fire: 1433: Build a meaningful business that has more profit, fans, and freedom with Andreas Jones
- Andreas' company, Combat Business Coaching
- A great way to meet others and network is with MeetUp.com
- Book Recommendations
- The Compound Effect
- taking 1-2 steps weeekly to get you to your goal
- Andreas' book - Distinguished Men: Grow in influence, Success and Significance
- The Compound Effect
- taking 1-2 steps weeekly to get you to your goal
Show Notes
- 1:11 - Andreas’ background
- 3:40 - How Andreas decided to leave the Army
- 4:25 - How Andreas approached is initial job search and what he learned along the way
- 7:01 - What Andreas does for a living, and what his life looks like on a day-to-day business
- 12:40 - From the Army to starting his own business - what Andreas learned along the way
- 15:10 - Advice on how to find a co-founder or initial team
- 16:10 - Advice on how to learn and grow through networking
- 24:24 - Other advice to help you start your own company
- 25:10 - What day-to-day life looked like while starting a company
- 28:24 - When Andreas started his own company, how he felt ahead of his civilian counterparts and where he felt behind
- 30:23 - Advice Andreas would give to other veterans considering starting their own business
- 31:05 - What Andreas has liked most and least about starting his own company
- 32:15 - Other resources Andreas would recommend to listeners
- 34:05 - The most surprising aspect of Andreas’ transition from the Army to civilian life
- 36:40 - Final words of wisdom for veteans
BTU #32: Brooke Jones-Chinetti: Cold emails, JPMorgan, and Startup CEO
“Really its a full time job to get a full-time job. Sometimes with veterans, we're bringing these unfathomable managerial skills to these organizations that we transition to. But we forget that stuff shouldn't just be handed to us... I'm the queen of the cold email now, and I wish that I would have had that confidence as I transitioned to try to find veterans at companies that I was interested in, and to hear what their transition was like." – Brooke Jones-Chinetti
Brooke Jones-Chinetti lives in New York, where she most recently served as the CEO of VetTechTrek - a startup that facilitates high-impact trips to leading tech companies for veterans and their spouses. She started out at West Point, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Portuguese and Environmental Engineering. She served in the US Army for over 6 years, during which she deployed to Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and to Kuwait as part of Operation Enduring Freedom - Spartan Shield. She also served as Senior Director of Human Resources and served as the executive officer for the Army's Chief of Signal, a 2-star general position. After her transition from the Army, she spent a year in the Financial Services industry with JPMorgan Chase & Co. as part of their rotational Executive Development Program. She is currently studying at Columbia Business School.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
- Step-by-step advice on how to write cold emails to figure out what you want to do and get your foot in the door for a job
- An over of the JP Morgan Chase rotational Executive Development Program
- Brooke’s experience as CEO of an early stage startup at VetTechTrek
- How leadership as CEO of a startup differed from leadership in the military
- And much, much more…
-
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Show Notes
- 1:56 - Brooke’s background
- 3:04 - How Brooke and her husband both decided to leave the Army
- 6:15 - Evaluating the Reserves
- 10:40 - The most surprising aspect of Brooke’s transition from the Army to civilian life
- 13:15 - How to use cold emails to find other veterans, learn from their experience, and make connections
- 16:25- Brooke’s first job search and what she learned along the way
- 21:36 - Advice on how to manage the timing of your transition from active duty
- 27:20 - Advice for how to better understand yourself and what you’ll enjoy in a career
- 32:15 - An over of the JP Morgan Chase rotational Executive Development Program
- 34:50 - Brooke’s day-to-day life while at JP Morgan Chase
- 38:15 - Brooke’s decision to transition from JP Morgan Chase to Columbia Business School, and wy she chose an Executive Education program
- 43:02 - Brooke’s experience as CEO of an early stage startup at VetTechTrek
- 47:10 - How leadership as CEO of a startup differed from leadership in the military
- 49:01 - How Brooke felt ahead of her civilian counterparts, and where she had to work to catch up
- 51:33 - Final words of wisdom1:24 - Travis' background
BTU #28: Graham Plaster - Navy to Public Policy & Startups
“I think that failure is such a scary word to anyone in a large organization, because generally in a large organization - like the military or government - they train you to not discuss failure openly. But in grappling with what you want to do next in life and coming to gips with who you are you need to develop a lot more candor. And you need to develop resiliency. It helped me to really reflect on how much sacrifice will I be willing to make in order to achieve what I want to achieve; and how will i talk about my failures to other people so I can help them." – Graham Plaster
Graham Plaster a Senior Adviser at the Defense Language and National Security Education Office. He started out at the Naval Academy, where he received his Bachelors degree in English. After that, he served in the Navy for 11 years as: a Surface Warfare Officer, the Assistant Dean of Students at the Naval War College, a United Nations Liaison Officer, a Foreign Area Officer, and a Navy Staff Officer for the OPNAV Staff. Since his transition to his civilian career he has worked as a consultant, author, editor, founder and advisor in a variety of capacities in the Washington D.C. area
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
- How to embrace failure as a way to learn about yourself
- How to find a community where you can add value and potentially start a business
- The advantages of juggling multiple projects and how you can more effectively do this
- How to use LinkedIn as a powerful tool for networking and advancing your career
- And much, much more…
-
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links from the Episode
- American Corporate Partners - the "best kept secret for veterans" - pro bono organization to connect veterans with senior civilian at Fortune 500 companies
- Podcast Recommendations
- Entrepreneur On Fire - with Army Veteran John Lee Dumas
- This Week in Startups
- A16Z (Andreesen Horwotiz)
- 99% Invisible
- Book Recommendations:
- LinkedIn Free Premium Account for Veterans
- Purple Squirrel - buy time by hour of person you're wanting to interview
- 1000 true fans by Kevin Kelly - a must read for entrepreneurs
Show Notes
-
1:38 - Graham's Background
- 3:21 - How Graham approached the decision to leave the Navy
- 5:02 - How Graham considered the Reserves and remained involved
- 6:44 - An overview of American Corporate Partners - a FREE resource every veteran should consider
- 9:50 - The most surprising aspect of Graham's transition to civilian life
- 11:21 - Graham's advice on how to approach a job search
- 13:22 - Some practical tips and tools to help with increasing your self-knowledge
- 18:10 - Advice for using LinkedIn effectively for networking
- 25:27 - How Graham started TheIntelligenceCommunity.com
- 31:30 - What Graham's startup looks like on a day-to-day basis and what it's like juggling this with a fulltime job
- 38:30 - Advice for veterans considering starting their own company
- 40:10 - Advice for those seeking to juggle multiple jobs and side projects at the same time
- 46:80 - What it's like working at the Defense Language and National Security Education Office
- 49:40 - Final words of advice
BTU #27: Katie Horgan - Marines to Operations at Early-Stage Startups
Katie Horgan is a the Senior Director of Operations at Crave Crush - a very interesting New York based Health & Wellness startup. She started out at the University of Southern California, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. After that she served for over six years in the Marine Corps, serving as a Platoon Commander, Company Commander, and Operations Officer, spending time as a convoy commander in Iraq and serving as part of a crisis response force in the pacific theater. When she transitioned from the military she went to Columbia Business School where she earned her MBA. From Business school she went to the NY-based startup, Plated, first as their Director of Operations & Logistics, and then as their Senior Director of Operations & Logistics.
BTU #21: Ian Folau - Tactical advice for starting a company (even while on Active Duty)
“I was able to throw together some website and it was bringing in enough leads that we were able to fill everybody's houses and it just really took off for me. And it was my first venture, and ever since then I was hooked. The idea that I can make more money than my paycheck was exciting for me - the fact that I can provide something that someone will pay even a dollar for motivated me beyond what I could imagine." – Ian Folau
Ian Folau is the Co-Founder & CEO of the New York based startup, GitLinks. However, this wasn't Ian's first startup. Ian started founding companies while still on active duty in the Army, where he started his first of multiple startups. Ian studied Systems Engineering at West Point after which he served in the Army in multiple capacities before returning to West Point as an instructor. After departing the Army, he attended Cornell Tech to obtain his MBA, and during which he co-founded his most recent company.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
- Steps you can take right now to start your first company (even if you're on Active Duty)
- Resources you can use to start learning and growing as an entrepreneur
- Entrepreneurial mistakes that Ian made and what he learned from them, and the importance of failing fast
- Advice on how to tease out who might be a better Co-Founder
- What Ian's day-to-day life looked like when he first founded GitLinks
- How leadership as an entrepreneur differs from military leadership
- And much, much more…
-
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”
QUESTION OF THE DAY: How can I make these episodes more valuable to active duty military personnel considering transitioning to the civilian world? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links from the Episode
- Related Interviews: BTU #13 - Taylor Justice: Army to Raising $6M in Funding
- Book Recommendations:
- Podcast Recommendations:
- Tech MBA Programs referenced:
Show Notes
- 1:39 - Ian’s background
- 2:40 - Ian's decision to leave the Army
- 6:26 - Deciding to not pursue the Reserves
- 7:20 - The most surprising aspect of Ian's transition to civilian life
- ** 9:39 - Ian does a fantastic job of explaining his background in a way that is relevant to the listener. This comes up time and time again in interviews as a really crucial skill
- 12:45 - Advice on how to better explain a veterans history to a civilian
- 15:10 - Ian's experience starting companies while in the Army and how he got started
- 21:30 - Resources to consider to help in your own entrepreneurial journey
- 28:11 - Entrepreneurial mistakes that Ian made and what he learned from them, and the importance of failing fast
- 33:10 - Advice on how to tease out who might be a better Co-Founder
- 38:52 - Cornell Tech, and how it supports entrepreneurs
- 40:52 - Advice on applying to Cornell Tech, and other programs to consider
- 43:10 - An overview on Ian's current company, GitLinks
- 46:15 - What Ian's day-to-day life looked like when he first founded GitLinks
- 48:56 - How leadership as an entrepreneur differs from military leadership
- 51:19 - Actions you can take right now to start an entrepreneurial journey (even while on Active Duty)
- 53:19 - Final words of wisdom
BTU 17: Maggi & Johannes - Career Off-roading
This episode is a break from my normal format - rather than interview a veteran about their civilian career, I interview TWO veterans about their advice based on their work in helping other veterans. This episode is FULL of helpful hints, resources, and recommendations that would benefit any veteran.
In this interview I meet with Johannes Schonberg and Maggi Melina. Johannes enlisted in the navy as a Nuclear Machinist Mate, before attending the Naval Academy with a degree in English. He served as a Surface Warfare Officer in San Diego for five years before transitioning to civilian life. He has done work in Politics and as a consultant, helping companies like T-Mobile and Facebook hire veterans. Maggi Air Force ground radar systems journeyman, deploying to Kuwait. After her transition, she completed her bachelors degree, went to law school, and worked as a lawyer for seven years. After practicing law, she worked in politics, as an electrician, and then as a founder of a startup.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
- Practical tips and tools to use as a veteran to help in your networking
- Coding academies and other efficient resources to help educate you for a specific job
- What companies like Facebook and T-Mobile look for in veterans
- And much, much more...
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- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here.
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Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links from the Episode
- Operation Code- mentor people to learn new tech skill set
- LinkedIn Premium Account
- Education sources to consider: EdX, Coursera (Promotion for Veterans), Salesforce for Veterans (VetForce), udemy, Khan Academy, Udacity, Continuing education at community college
- Events to consider - Startup Weekend; Seattle Tech list serv, MeetUp.com, Lean Startup, Veterans on Wall Street, Military Conferences, Academy Conferences
- Code Schools to consider: Code Fellows, Operation Code (list of code schools that take the GI Bill)
- Glass Door - there's a lot of salary info here. I recommend you use them to see the earning potential of graduates from a program; before you invest money in an education, know the concrete numbers you can expect to make on the other side
- American Corporate Partners - connects military personnel with a senior level civilian to be your mentor
- Deliotte Core Leadership Program - helps veterans build an elevator pitch and build their personal brand
- Vet Tech Trek - go from tech companies around SF and NY and finance
- The Commit Foundation - creates tailored transition solutions for top Veteran talent and are reaching Veterans across the nation through our small touch, high impact workshops and 1-on-1 transition assistance programs.
- Upwork - freelance site; could use to build skills
- Top skills for 2015 - what skills are most valuable that year
- To consider while on Active Duty - The Defense Innovation Initiative; the Navy Innovation Advisory; Hacking for Defense (H4D), Defense Entrepreneurs Forum,
- http://seattletechstartups.com/
- To Contact Maggi - OperationCode.Org's Slack Channel (Direct Message @Maggi)
- Johannes' work at Bunker Labs - free resource, overview of what entrepreneurship looks like, as well as the Athena Project
Show Notes
- 1:30 Intro and background info Johannes and Maggi
- 7:12 What people on active duty may not understand about civilian life.
- 12:30 What is “networking” and advice for veterans about how to get started
- 17:10 Education - taking a proactive and efficient approach to education, and specific resources to consider
- 21:00 How a veteran might approach “networking” in a way that is more authentic and natural to them
- 23:26 A few other resources to consider for education
- 25:20 Common mistakes that veterans make in their transition to civilian life
- 29:50 An overview of Code Schools and Coding Academies
- 34:58 What veterans should know about applying to companies like Facebook and T-Mobile
- 43:40 Other advice and words of wisdom for veterans