May 17th 2025, 1530 EDT// 1230-1430 PDT

Skill Beyond Service: Education and Entrepreneurs:

Learn how to maximize your GI bilI and small business loans during and after of service

Location: VIA Zoom

I. Optimize the Individual

• Goal: Help service members maximize their available resources during and after service.
• Topics to cover:
  
  • GI Bill Benefits:
    
    • How to fully leverage education benefits: traditional education, trade schools, certifications, and entrepreneurial education programs.
    • Examples of non-traditional uses (coding bootcamps, leadership programs, etc.).
  • Small Business Support:
    
    • Overview of SBA programs, VA Small Business resources, and DoD innovation initiatives (AFWERX, Army xTech, etc.).
    • How to start small (side hustles while on active duty, learning business basics).
  • Transitioning Smart:
    
    • Building a personal roadmap while still serving.
    • Success stories of vets who planned early.

II. Optimize the Organization

• Goal: Encourage team-level innovation, tactical problem-solving, and fostering leadership that supports “bottom-up” innovation.
• Topics to cover:
  
  • How units can support entrepreneurship (innovation from within).
  • Examples of warfighters identifying inefficiencies or capability gaps.
  • How to create space in the organization for creative solutions (e.g., tactical innovation cells, suggestion programs, lean experimentation).

III. From Problem to Product: The Entrepreneur’s Journey

• Goal: Inspire service members and leaders to think like entrepreneurs and show the bridge between identifying a problem and creating a scalable solution.
• Key points:
  
  • A real entrepreneur story: ideally a veteran who saw a gap while serving, left to build a solution, then came back to offer that product or service to the government or broader market.
  • Talk through the process:
    
    • Problem identification in the field
    • Deciding to act on it (risk-taking mindset)
    • Building the MVP (minimum viable product)
    • Navigating DoD procurement or partnership paths
    • Scaling the solution beyond just military use

Register HERE

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