resources

BTU #87 - Joe Musselman: Navy to Founder of The Honor Foundation

BTU #87 - Joe Musselman: Navy to Founder of The Honor Foundation

Joe Musselman is the Founder & CEO of The Honor Foundation. He started out at DePaul University. Joe enlisted in the Navy with intentions of becoming a Navy SEAL, but as he says, “God had other plans.” He sustained an injury that ultimately lead him to found The Honor Foundation. He is also the Founder of The NEXT Series and The SOF Garage.

BTU #78 - Josh Carter: TechStars, Operation Code, Patriot Bootcamp and more

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“ Stop worrying about the beta, and just get the product out. If you are not embarrassed by your first product, then you're doing it wrong. It should be ugly, it should be clunky, it should be what you think it should be... but less. And once you get it in the hands of the customer, the customer is going to tell you what they like and what they don't like. And that's what we realized - we were trying to be perfectionists. You want your product to be perfect, but you make these assumptions that it's going to be valuable. And the best way to do that is get it in the hands of the customer who will tell you if they find value in it." – Josh Carter

Josh Carter is the Co-Founder & CEO of Brightwork, a microservices platform that enables developers to build faster on a reliable and scalable solution. Since their founding they’ve raised over $300K in funding and have gone through Techstars in Chicago. Josh started out in the Navy, where he served for about 3 years. Since his time in the Navy he’s held multiple engineering roles in the Telecom industry and eventually a Senior Support Engineer at the startup, Twilio, a communication startup that went public earlier this year. Josh founded his own digital marketing agency - Plunk - and is also a former founding board member of Operation Code.

The top reason to listen to today’s show is:

  • Support - Josh has been living in the startup world for a while, and has a great overview of different resources available for other veteran entrepreneurs. In particular, he talks about TechStars, and gives a fantastic overview of this 3 month program, as well as Patriot Bootcamp and other great resources. In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:

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Selected Links

  • Twilio
  • Brightwork.io
  • Plunk
  • TechStars - this was a great help for Josh in starting a venture backed company. It is a 3-month program offered all over the United States. They take 6% of the company in exchange for $120,000 in funding.
  • FounderCon - all TechStar founders get together for one year
  • Patriot Bootcamp - offshoot of the TechStars core program. It's a one weekend program that is very intense, but very targeted in preparing veterans for entrepreneurship
  • Operation Code - Chris was a founding board member; they help transitioning veterans get into coding - finding mentors and sharing advice for becoming a programmer
  • Resources
    • Meetup.com - Coffee with CoFounders - lowkey get togethers are rotating coffee shops for founders to connect with each other and talk about what they're struggling with

Show Notes

  • 1:45 - Josh's background
  • 2:30 - When Josh knew he would leave the military and how he approached this decision
  • 3:20 - What Josh's first job search looked like and how he found the Art Academy to be different than he expected. He talks about how he found his way to the Telecom industry
  • 4:23 - An overview on the Telecom industry and the sorts of jobs Josh held
  • 5:16 - An overview of Josh's work at Brightwork, as well as the engagements he held before then
  • 7:57 - What it was like for Josh to be actively employed at Twilio while running his own digital agency
  • 9:15 - The moment when Josh first had the idea of Brightwork
  • 11:55 - An overview of TechStars and how Josh ended up in Chicago
  • 15:28 - How TechStars provides an investment of $125k for 6% of the company
  • 17:38 - An overview of Patriot Bootcamp and Josh's experience
  • 19:46 - What Josh's founding team looks like and advice to veterans for finding initial team members
  • 25:48 - What Josh's life looks like on a day-to-day basis as part of an early stage startup
  • 28:50 - Josh's advice to other veterans considering starting their own company
  • 35:10 - Other resources Josh would encourage other veterans to check out
  • 39:32 - An overview of Operation Code and how Veterans might engage with them
  • 41:00 - One of the biggest mistakes Josh made in his entrepreneurial journey and what he learned from it
  • 44:00 - Josh's final words of wisdom

BTU #72 - Michael Bradley: How NUPOCC is helping veterans find their ideal job

BTU #72 - Michael Bradley: How NUPOCC is helping veterans find their ideal job

Michael is the President & Owner of M3S Networking, a small business that focuses on dynamic problem-solving, particularly with startups and small businesses. He Started out at the Naval Academy, after which he served for seven years as a submarine officer. After his transition from the Navy, he spent two years working on a spy satellite job with the National Reconnaissance Office as an Acquisition/Project Officer. Michael is also the Chairman of the Navy Nuclear Power Officer Career Conference (NUPOCC), a career fair helping veterans transition from the military or find new jobs- those of you who have listened to Episode #55 with Ashley Snyder will remember this as the organization that she credited with landing a job at Google directly out of the Air Force. Finally, he's a husband, dad of 3 boys and is a credentialed baseball media member.

BTU #70 - Emily Cherniack: How New Politics is helping veterans of both parties run for office

BTU #70 - Emily Cherniack: How New Politics is helping veterans of both parties run for office

New Politics identifies top talent, helps them build a winning campaign infrastructure, and provides mentorship and support throughout their campaigns. In their pilot year in 2014, New Politics supported 5 national service candidates in key state and federal races across the country. They won three of those five races, including Congressman Seth Moulton’s unprecedented win in Massachusetts’ Sixth Congressional District. In 2016, New Politics supported 23 candidates in local, state, and federal races across the country. They won 17 primaries and 13 general elections.

BTU #61 - Ryan Guina: Air Force E5 to Business Owner @ The Military Wallet

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 #64 - Anthony Garcia: Army to Founder of Guide-On, an Essential Veteran Resource

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…

iTurnes Beyond the UniformStitcher Beyond the Uniform

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

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 #18: Tom Wolfe - Everything you need to know to plan your transition

"Open your eyes, be receptive, try to learn about what's unknown to you, in addition to what you're already aware of."– Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe is a career coach, author, and columnist. He is the author of OUT OF UNIFORM -- Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Transition, as well as a columnist of 11 years for CivilianJobs.com. Tom has over 29 years of experience in the Career Development industry. Tom is a graduate of the US Naval Academy, and served as a Surface Warfare Officer and Admiral’s Aide.

In this interview we discuss:

  • Stereotypes about veterans - how to use stories in interviews to reinforce the positive ones, and preemptively combat the negative ones
  • Common mistakes veterans make - like being too humble or understated in an interview
  • Job hunting techniques (like using informational interviews to see if you’d like a career and potentially get your foot in the door of an organization)
  • Using Filters for your job search so you can avoid boiling the ocean when looking for your ideal job
  • Using a career coach as a personal trainer for your career
  • Tactical exercises you can use to improve your self knowledge as part of a job search
  • And much, much more…

iTurnes Beyond the UniformStitcher Beyond the Uniform

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

Show Notes

  • [3:10] - Tom’s background in writing and career coaching
  • [4:10] - The most common mistakes Tom sees veterans make in their career transition
  • [13:27] - Stereotypes - how to reinforce the positives and preempt the negatives
  • [24:26] Reasons why veterans get rejected in interviews
  • [27:00] - A surefire way to succeed in an interview
  • [28:33] - How to gather information about what you want to do as efficiently as possible
  • [33:18] - Using Informational Interviews to figure out what you want to do… and potentially get your foot in the door
  • [36:12] - How to use filters to simplify your job search
  • [43:20] - 1/2 of veterans end up working for a company they weren’t aware of at the start of their search..how to broaden your search to be aware of broader opportunities
  • [47:50] - A personal trainer for your career - Career Coaching
  • [57:03] - Using mistakes to learn in you job search
  • [58:32] - Where you can learn more about Tom’s work

BTU #8 - Tim Hsia: Boost Your Acceptance Rate to College & Grad School

BTU #8 - Tim Hsia: Boost Your Acceptance Rate to College & Grad School

Of every interview I've done so far, this it the one I would most recommend to every single military veteran - enlisted and officer.Tim Hsia received his JD and MBA from Stanford after serving as a Captain in the US Army. While at Stanford, Tim co-founded two companies; one sold to the Stanford Daily, and the second is still in operation. This organization - Service 2 School - is a free resource for all veterans to help them get into the best school (college or grad school) for them.