The MILCOM Founders Podcast

Rod Loges

5.0 (1)
Entrepreneurship
Updated Weekly

Championing and celebrating veteran founders through weekly conversations. Each episode features military entrepreneurs sharing their journey from service to success, uncovering real strategies for business growth, capital raising, and applying military leadership in the private sector.

5h ago

Fidel GomezTorres | American Veteran Arts Collective (AVAC)

MilCom Founders Podcast, Episode 58: Building Workforce Pathways from Military Service into the Creative Economy with Fidel GomezTorres Join host Rod Loges and guest Fidel GomezTorres as they explore how a Navy Seabee veteran turned his experience in logistics and community building into the foundation for the American Veteran Arts Collective (AVAC), a nonprofit creating workforce pathways for veterans and military-connected families into the creative economy. Fidel shares how he arrived in Washington, D.C. during a period of significant federal workforce disruption and recognized a gap between the 30,000 veterans living in the district and a $15 billion creative economy that rarely engaged military talent. In this episode: Fidel describes his decision to join the Navy after 9/11, driven by a sense of duty rooted in his immigrant background and a family culture of sacrifice, and how he was assigned as a Seabee builder, a role he had never considered before enlisting.He reflects on the difference between inspiration and motivation as leadership models, explaining how the military replaced the elusive, creative-world idea of inspiration with disciplined commitment, and why that shift shaped how he approaches building an organization today.Fidel shares how his first post-military job as an executive assistant to a fashion CEO in New York City revealed that veterans carry logistics and leadership skills that creative sector employers value but rarely know how to recruit for.He explains the founding of AVAC as a direct response to the wave of federal job losses affecting veterans in the D.C. metro area, and how he identified the creative economy as an underutilized pathway for veteran employment and economic mobility.The conversation covers AVAC's pilot program with the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress, where targeting eight to ten participants produced sixteen, doubling the goal and validating both veteran interest in the creative sector and cultural institutions' appetite for military talent.Fidel describes AVAC's three-track measurement system, which captures feedback from veteran participants, cultural partners, and an independent field observer with no connection to either the military or the arts, as a way to surface what those inside the room cannot see.He explains how post-pilot feedback led directly to the creation of AVAC's workforce fellowship, a structured mechanism designed to remove financial pressure from veterans engaged in the program and improve the quality of impact data collected.Fidel addresses the challenge of making AVAC's mission relevant to people who do not identify with either veterans or the arts, arguing that veterans employed across more sectors means more resilient labor markets and stronger communities, regardless of personal connection to the cause.The episode closes with Fidel outlining AVAC's next phase: moving from pilot delivery into capitalization, proving repeatability, and eventually scaling the model to cities with large veteran populations and strong creative ecosystems, including Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.Key takeaways: Discipline is a more reliable engine than inspiration. Motivation means doing what needs to be done whether or not you feel ready, and that consistency is what allows founders to build before the vision is fully proven.Proof precedes scale. Fidel deliberately treated AVAC's first year as a pilot year, resisting the pull toward expansion until the core thesis was validated by real participant outcomes and institutional response.Reserving space for discovery is not optional. The fellowship, one of AVAC's core program features, did not exist before the first pilot. It emerged only because Fidel built in room to learn rather than locking the model down in advance.The field observer role is worth stealing. Bringing in someone with no stake in the outcome and no prior connection to the population or the sector produces feedback that insiders, no matter how thoughtful, are structurally unable to generate themselves.Veterans bring transferable value that the creative economy has not yet learned to recruit for. The gap is not a talent gap on the veteran side. It is a translation and awareness gap on the employer side.Community building starts with genuine curiosity about worlds outside your own. Fidel credits the military with teaching him to find common ground across difference, and names that skill as the foundation of everything AVAC does to connect two communities that have rarely shared a table.Making the business case matters as much as making the mission case. Social impact organizations that can articulate economic returns alongside human outcomes are better positioned to survive funding environments where feel-good is no longer sufficient.Guest: Fidel GomezTorres, Founder and Executive Director of the American Veteran Arts Collective (AVAC), U.S. Navy veteran LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fgt023/Website: https://americanveteranarts.org/Fidel GomezTorres is the Founder and Executive Director of the American Veteran Arts Collective (AVAC), a nonprofit building workforce pathways for veterans and military-connected families into careers across the arts, culture, and creative economy. An incubator-backed entrepreneur, Georgetown University graduate student, and George W. Bush Institute Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program Scholar, his work sits at the intersection of public policy, workforce development, veteran advocacy, and the creative economy. Through partnerships with cultural institutions, public agencies, and employers, he is developing a scalable model that helps veterans translate military leadership into meaningful civilian careers while strengthening the institutions they serve. His work explores how credibility, strategic partnerships, and mission-driven leadership can help founders build organizations that create lasting public value. The MilCom Founders Podcast champions and celebrates military community business founders. Each episode brings practical insights from successful veteran entrepreneurs. Sponsored by One Degree Financial www.onedegreefinancial.com Take our Financial Clarity Self-Assessment. 16 questions. You'll know where your weak spots are and what to work on first: https://bit.ly/4xp7jnq Want to support veteran entrepreneurs? Donate to the Dick Loges Veteran Entrepreneur Scholarship Fund: https://bold.org/funds/dick-loges-veteran-entrepreneur-fund/
Sep 29

Greg Cullison | QWERX, Inc.

MilCom Founders Podcast, Episode 57: Defending the Network from the Inside Out with Greg Cullison Join host Rod Loges and guest Greg Cullison as they trace a career path from the U.S. Foreign Service through Navy Reserve intelligence, a deployment to Iraq, and into the founding of QWERX, Inc., a cybersecurity software company that authenticates every device on a network every three seconds using one-time encryption keys derived from randomness in nature rather than mathematical algorithms. In this episode: Greg's career started in the Foreign Service, where he had his first overseas posting at 23. The predictability pushed him toward graduate school in public policy, then into government consulting, and eventually a direct commission into the Navy Reserve Intelligence program in 2002.During his deployment to Iraq with the 18th Airborne Corps, a colonel gave Greg six weeks of top cover while he built trust with Iraqi counterparts on a sensitive capacity-building program. Despite zero visible progress early on, that quiet backing made the mission possible, and Greg earned a Bronze Star for the work.The origin of QWERX was a letter in Greg's mailbox informing him that his SF-86 data was among the 22 million records stolen in the Office of Personnel Management breach. The root cause, static credentials manually rotated twice a year, was still not being fixed.QWERX authenticates every device on a network every three seconds, issues a one-time encryption key, discards it, and repeats. A stolen credential becomes useless before an attacker can act on it.Greg explains the threat quantum computing poses to current encryption, including the "harvest now, decrypt later" strategy nation-state adversaries are already using, and why QWERX's approach is quantum-resistant without relying on any algorithm.Greg learned QWERX was a finalist at the RSA Conference Launchpad competition the same day he found out payroll could not be made.For veteran founders, Greg recommends using AI for research and marketing, reading actual books instead of listicles, and staying honest about whether the idea is actually working.The question Greg wished Rod had asked: how do you shut it off? He credits learning drums and coaching youth soccer as the practices that force genuine presence and keep him from running in reactive mode all day.Key takeaways: Leadership of self comes before leadership of others. If your own mindset and conduct are unstable, what you reflect to your team will be too.The difference between failure and giving up matters. A wrong turn you can course-correct from is not the same as walking away because it got hard.Early adopters and mainstream customers are not the same people. Spending energy trying to convince skeptics before you have proof points is usually the wrong focus.Static credentials are still how most attackers get in. The cybersecurity industry has added complexity around a problem it has not fixed at the root.Time is the one resource you cannot recover. Intentional time blocking, even when it breaks down, forces you to start the day with a clear objective rather than handing your schedule over to whoever sends the first email.Guest: Greg Cullison, Co-Founder and CEO of QWERX, Inc., former Foreign Service Officer and U.S. Navy Reserve Intelligence Officer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregcullisonWebsite: https://www.qwerx.coGreg Cullison is the Co-Founder and CEO of QWERX, Inc., a cybersecurity company built on a direct challenge to the industry: static device credentials are not a security problem to be managed. They are a design flaw to be eliminated. QWERX replaces static credentials with dynamic keys that rotate every few seconds and vanish after use. There is no credential to steal, harvest, or exploit. Even if an attacker could capture a key, it already no longer exists. The company's patented infrastructure has been validated at the RSA Conference, demonstrated live over Starlink, and analyzed by a U.S. Government Lab to be quantum-proof. Greg began his career as a Foreign Service Officer before joining the Navy Reserve through a direct commission. He served as a Reserve Officer in the U.S. Navy's Office of Naval Intelligence and earned a Bronze Star for counterterrorism work in Baghdad. He holds a graduate degree in public policy. The MilCom Founders Podcast champions and celebrates military community business founders. Each episode brings practical insights from successful veteran entrepreneurs. Sponsored by One Degree Financial www.onedegreefinancial.com How ready is your business for what's next? Take the Ready Founder Assessment: https://bit.ly/4xp7jnq Want to support veteran entrepreneurs? Donate to the Dick Loges Veteran Entrepreneur Scholarship Fund: https://bold.org/funds/dick-loges-veteran-entrepreneur-fund/
Sep 22

Lindsey Chrismon | Oply

MILCOM Founders Podcast – Episode 56: First Female Little Bird Pilot to AI-Powered Homeownership with Lindsey Chrismon Join host Rod Loges and guest Lindsey Chrismon as she traces a path from a childhood picnic at West Point to co-founding Oply, a venture-backed AI-powered home management platform built to give homeowners the kind of proactive guidance their cars already give them. Lindsey became the first and only woman in US Army history to fly the AH-6 Little Bird with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, flew Apaches at Fort Bliss before that, and served as West Point's fourth female First Captain. She and her husband Gabe launched Oply out of Harvard’s Innovation Lab after Gabe’s restoration company revealed how many catastrophic home losses could have been prevented with basic, timely information. In this episode: How an 11-year-old Lindsey attended a family picnic on West Point's grounds and decided on the spot that it was the only school she would apply toWhat Branch Night looks like at West Point, how aviation slots are distributed based on order of merit, and the relief of opening an envelope with the right answer insideFlying the AH-64 Apache for three years at Fort Bliss before assessing for the 160th, and why the shift to training on the Lakota helicopter is creating real challenges for candidates who want to fly the Little Bird todayWhy leadership matters more in the civilian world than in the military, because the people following you can simply quitHow Gabe's water, fire, and mold restoration work revealed that roughly half of catastrophic home incidents could have been prevented if homeowners had known what to do and whenThe car dashboard analogy that drives Oply's product logic and what a home-specific maintenance platform actually doesTesting marketing messages for free through organic social media before spending money, and how millions of monthly views helped identify a winning content strategy to put budget behindOply's two-pronged go-to-market approach, direct to homeowners and through realtors, builders, inspectors, and mortgage companiesRaising a $1.2 million pre-seed round led by Hivers and Strivers, and how a mentor's dinner party led to a pitch in front of 13 Harvard deans and Bill Ackman, who investedThe three things Lindsey's mentor Reza Satchu says founders must demonstrate when fundraising: authenticity, inevitability, and momentumWhy pitching investors whose thesis does not match your sector is a guaranteed no, and how recognizing that earlier would have saved significant timeThe current focus on improving 60 to 90 day user retention, and why a leaky funnel at that stage makes every marketing dollar spent on acquisition nearly worthlessHow Lindsey and Gabe keep work and marriage separate by using Slack for business and texting for personal communicationCooper's difficult first 15 days in the NICU after inhaling meconium at birth, and how faith carried the family through that uncertaintyThe veteran-specific resources Lindsey recommends, including Warrior Rising, Hivers and Strivers, and the West Point Entrepreneurship Roadshow, which is open to all veteran foundersKey takeaways: "The Mom Test" principle applies: talk to as many homeowners, customers, or users as possible before you build. People who love you will tell you your idea is great, and that tells you nothing.Organic content is a free testing environment. Find what works before you spend money scaling it.Matching your pitch to an investor's actual thesis is not optional. If their portfolio does not include your sector, no amount of polish will close the deal.You cannot fail if you do not quit, but that only holds if you are honest about what the data is telling you along the way.Retention is where growth strategies either prove out or fall apart. Acquiring users who do not come back is just an expensive way to empty a bucket.If you are not the kind of person who can find something worth showing up for in the hard middle of building a company, the outcome you are aiming for will not be enough to keep you moving toward it.The veteran network is not just a nice-to-have. It can be the lead investor in your pre-seed round, the room where you meet your biggest check writer, and the community that keeps you from feeling like you are building alone.When co-founders are also spouses, keeping work disagreements data-driven and free of spousal emotion is not a soft skill. It is an operational necessity.Guest: Lindsey Chrismon, Co-Founder and CEO of Oply, West Point graduate and the Academy’s fourth female First Captain, Army Apache pilot, and the first and only woman in US Army history to fly the AH-6 Little Bird with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. MBA from Harvard Business School, where she launched Oply out of the Harvard Innovation Lab. Named to the Inc. Female Founders 500. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsey-danilack-chrismon/Website: https://www.oply.app/Lindsey Chrismon is the co-founder and CEO of Oply, a venture-backed AI-powered home management platform built to take the guesswork out of homeownership. Through a proactive, recommendation-driven model, Oply helps US homeowners stay ahead of maintenance and decisions rather than scrambling to react to them. She leads the company alongside her husband and co-founder, Gabe Chrismon, who serves as COO. Before founding Oply, Lindsey graduated from West Point, where she served as the Academy’s fourth female First Captain, its highest-ranking cadet position. She went on to become the first and only woman in US Army history to fly the AH-6 Little Bird with the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, one of the most demanding assignments in Army aviation. She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School, where she launched Oply out of Harvard’s Innovation Lab. Her work as a founder has been recognized on the Inc. Female Founders 500, and she is a frequent speaker at events including AHEAD’s Women in Tech conference and the West Point Athena Summit. Looking ahead: Oply is focused on strengthening 60 to 90 day user retention while expanding its B2B2C partnerships with realtors, builders, inspection companies, and mortgage companies to reach homeowners at key moments in the ownership cycle. The MilCom Founders Podcast champions and celebrates military community business founders. Each episode brings practical insights from successful veteran entrepreneurs. Sponsored by One Degree Financial www.onedegreefinancial.com How ready is your business for what’s next? Take the Ready Founder Assessment: https://bit.ly/4xp7jnq Want to support veteran entrepreneurs? Learn about the Dick Loges Veteran Entrepreneur Scholarship Fund at milcomfounders.com
Sep 15

Go-To-Guy Timberlake | The American Small Business Coalition

MilCom Founders Podcast, Episode 55: From Federal Contracting Lifer to $8 Billion in Results with Guy Timberlake Join host Rod Loges and guest Guy Timberlake as he shares nearly four decades in federal contracting, how he and his wife built The American Small Business Coalition from a membership organization into an education and training ecosystem, and why he believes government contracting is a marketplace you bring your industry to, not an industry itself. In this episode: How Guy's wife's idea to leave corporate America became the American Small Business Coalition in 2004, starting as a membership organization before evolving into an education and training model built around a framework named after an Air Force commandThe 2004 phone call Guy made to a 15-person company led by a service-disabled, retired Green Beret, asking him to meet on a street corner in Arlington for a federal opportunity he couldn't name, which led to a $3 million contract in the Green Zone in Iraq and a company now doing upwards of $700 million a yearWhy Guy tells founders not to start a company for government contracting, but to start a company around their expertise and then see if the applicability is there in the federal marketplaceThe marketing wall that word-of-mouth businesses eventually hit, and how ASBC worked through it after years of relying on reputation aloneWorking with combat veterans who take risks that would scare most civilian founders because fear has "a whole different look and feel" for people who have served in combatGuy's new book "Making It to Base Camp: Mt. Enimacaldo," a business fable about three entrepreneurs trying to crack the code on government contracting, which one reviewer called "not a book, but a mirror"What Guy sees in military founders that sets them apart: discipline, process-driven problem solving, and a willingness to punch up against larger companies in unrestricted opportunitiesHis advice to every founder entering federal contracting: give yourself grace, because nobody was born knowing how to do thisKey takeaways: Government contracting is not an industry. It is a marketplace. Bring your industry to it rather than building a company around itPositioning yourself in the right places while being prepared to act when you get there is what separates companies that grow from companies that stallWord of mouth will carry a business for years, but at some point the need to grow beyond what that well provides becomes real, and if you don't know actual marketing, you will hit a wallGive yourself grace when entering federal contracting. You are allowed to not know things, and learning the fundamentals before chasing contracts is not falling behindBeing a military veteran is a superpower in this space because of the discipline, training, and problem-solving instincts that come with serviceGuest: Guy Timberlake, Chief Visionary Officer, CEO, and Co-Founder of The American Small Business Coalition, defense contractor and military family member LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guytimberlake/Website: https://theasbc.org Guy "Go-To-Guy" Timberlake doesn't teach theory. He teaches what he tested himself, over 38 years in and around federal contracting. Today he is Chief Visionary Officer, CEO, and Co-Founder of The American Small Business Coalition (The ASBC). People, companies, and agencies have looked to The ASBC as a trusted resource since 2004, because getting sh!t done, and done well, in government contracting is what The ASBC has always been about. In 2009, Guy created the Ethical Stalking for Government Contractors® methodologies and operating system, the flagship doctrine behind everything The ASBC teaches. Built on ground truth-based intelligence, strategic market positioning, and risk understood from the perspective of contracting officers and their customers, it was never theoretical. Guy tested it in the field, refined it through repetition, and documented it only after it proved itself. That work now reaches a wider audience through the GettingFED™ with Go-To-Guy Blog, Live, Livestream, and On-Demand content, and, in book form, through GettingFED™ KitchenWERX™, The ASBC's imprint for publishing. Guy leads The ASBC's delivery of that doctrine through the AETC framework, Awareness, Education, Training, and Coaching. The results speak for themselves: over $8 billion in documented contract and subcontract revenues for companies competing on major federal procurements including DoD DLITE, DIA SIA, and a host of other agency-specific and multi-agency contracts and contract vehicles. He earned his "Go-To-Guy" call sign in the 1990s, when Air Force and Navy acquisition professionals consistently directed colleagues his way: "go to Guy to ensure the job is done right." That reputation for delivering results is why results over rhetoric, intelligence over guesswork, and evidence over assumptions define how he works. Guy serves as a Syracuse University IVMF/Bunker Labs Ambassador and Regional Lead supporting military-connected entrepreneurs. He has been recognized with honors from the U.S. Treasury, State Department, and Maryland Department of Commerce, and is the recipient of the 2022 GAINer Lifetime Achievement Award, among other recognitions for his support of the public sector and military-connected ecosystems. He is a sought-after speaker for associations, industry conferences, government agencies, and companies seeking strategic guidance for their executive and growth teams. Looking ahead: Guy recently published Making It to Basecamp: Mt. Enimacaldo, a business fable and practical guide for founders entering or restarting in federal contracting, available through GettingFED™ KitchenWERX™. The ASBC continues expanding its education and training reach through the AETC framework, with over $8 billion in documented contract results behind the methodology Guy built and tested over nearly four decades. The MilCom Founders Podcast champions and celebrates military community business founders. Each episode brings practical insights from successful veteran entrepreneurs. Sponsored by One Degree Financial: www.onedegreefinancial.com How ready is your business for what's next? Take the Ready Founder™ Assessment: https://s.pointerpro.com/bgitblpx Want to support veteran entrepreneurs? Learn about the Dick Loges Veteran Entrepreneur Scholarship Fund at milcomfounders.com
Sep 8

Charles Masters Rodriquez | Supply Veins

MilCom Founders Podcast, Episode 54: From Army Dive Officer to Defense Supply Chain Founder with Charles Masters Rodriguez Join host Rod Loges and guest Charles Masters Rodriguez as they trace his path from a multigenerational military family in Puerto Rico to West Point, through one of the Army's smallest and least-known specialties, and into two back-to-back ventures built around the same supply chain problem he first encountered in uniform. In this episode: How Charles's family military history stretching back to the Civil War, combined with a sixth-grade documentary on the military academies, set him on the path to West Point at age twelveWhy Charles chose Army diving after spotting a lone recruiter with a KM37 dive helmet on a folding table during branch selection day, when every other option had left him unimpressedThe "Buddy Effers" underwater endurance exercise at dive school, where Charles had to train himself to stay calm at depth by mentally singing a slow song and visualizing a sunflower meadow to keep CO2 accumulation from overwhelming himA gear malfunction at 190 feet that required him to stay composed under conditions he had not specifically trained for, and how that experience shaped how he handles business crises todayBuilding and scaling MK3 Industries solo to seven figures, serving General Motors, Rivian, and Penske, and running into the same supply chain communication problems he had seen in the ArmyHow Supply Veins evolved from an automotive marketplace concept to AI supply chain software, and then organically found its current market: pre-seed to Series A dual-use defense startups preparing for their first government contractsThe moment Blake Hall ignored everything Charles was describing about his startup and asked only about his team, a question that redirected Charles's thinking about what actually builds a companyKey takeaways: When someone tells you something is one of the hardest things you can do, pay attention to your reaction. For some people, that is the signal they needed.Staying calm under pressure is a trainable skill, not a personality trait. Charles had to build it deliberately, rep by rep, at the bottom of a pool.Bringing on customers before your product is ready to serve them well accelerates churn, not growth. Five raving users who log in every day are worth more than fifty indifferent ones.Founding a company requires knowing in advance what level of sacrifice you are willing to make, because the answer determines which kind of company you should be building.Putting the ego aside and treating your product hypothesis as a scientific experiment, not a conviction to defend, is what separates founders who find product-market fit from those who chase the wrong market for years.Are you a Ready Founder™? Take the Ready Founder Assessment: https://s.pointerpro.com/bgitblpx Guest: Charles Masters Rodriguez, Founder and CEO of Supply Veins, U.S. Army veteran, West Point graduate, and former Captain and Engineer Dive Officer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlescmasters/Website: https://supplyveins.comCharles Masters Rodriguez is a bilingual entrepreneur born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, with a career spanning military service, wholesale distribution, and AI supply chain technology. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he earned a degree in Engineering Management, and later received his MBA from Florida International University (FIU). He has taken several executive education programs from the Tuck School of Business and the Stanford School of Business. Charles is also a CEO Circle, Founder Institute and Techstars alum. Charles served five years in the U.S. Army as a Captain and Engineer Dive Officer, stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, Hawaii. During his service, he led complex underwater engineering, search, and recovery missions, including a joint operation with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) that successfully recovered and repatriated the remains of a U.S. Navy pilot missing in action since the Vietnam War. These missions reinforced the life or death importance of reliable equipment and resilient supply chains. After transitioning from military service, Charles bootstrapped MK3 Industries, a B2B wholesale distribution company for automotive and fleet maintenance parts and equipment, scaling the business to seven figures while serving enterprise customers such as General Motors, Penske, Rivian, and JB Hunt. Across both military operations and commercial distribution, he encountered the same systemic challenges: manual procurement workflows, fragmented buyer-supplier communication, and a lack of real-time visibility. These experiences led him to found Supply Veins, a venture backed, AI-native operating system that converts procurement emails into structured data to improve supplier communication, automate follow-ups, and execute purchase orders in real time. The system delivers supply chain intelligence for defense and mobility teams to help build, manage, and scale resilient supply chains. Charles has been recognized for his leadership and impact, including being named Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the FIU Florida Small Business Development Center and receiving the Capital Catalyst Award from the D'Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University. He is a committed veteran advocate, volunteering with military-affiliated nonprofits such as VetsinTech and the PenFed Foundation, mentoring veterans and military spouses transitioning into entrepreneurship and technology. He frequently travels between Puerto Rico, Miami, and Los Angeles, and outside of work is an avid reader, marathon runner, and lifelong student of quantum theory. The MilCom Founders Podcast champions and celebrates military community business owners. Each episode brings practical insights and lessons learned from veteran entrepreneurs. Sponsored by One Degree Financial www.onedegreefinancial.com Want to support veteran entrepreneurs? Learn about the Dick Loges Veteran Entrepreneur Scholarship Fund at https://www.milcomfounders.com/
Sep 1

Andrew Yim | Lumora Animal Health

MILCOM Founders Podcast, Episode 53: From Special Operations to Animal Health Tech with Andy Yim Join host Rod Loges and guest Andy Yim as he shares his path from West Point graduate and Field Artillery Officer to founder and CEO of Lumora Animal Health, a company building AI-powered pet health records for owners, veterinarians, groomers, boarders, and shelters, all while completing his MBA at the Wharton School. In this episode: How Andy discovered West Point through a family friend while he was a Boy Scout in New Jersey, with no prior military connections in his familyServing in the 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea, the 101st Airborne, 5th Special Forces Group, and the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment across four deploymentsStarting Lumora Animal Health after receiving a 55-page, unreadable medical record when moving his cats to Philadelphia for business schoolWhy Andy chose a B2C entry strategy, targeting pet owners directly rather than selling software into veterinary clinics firstBuilding PawChart, an AI-powered app that reads uploaded pet records and produces structured summaries of conditions, allergies, medications, and vaccinationsGrassroots marketing through apartment complexes, dog parks, breweries, and minor league baseball pet nights to find early users without paid advertisingHow a cold DM to the Philadelphia Shih Tzus Instagram page led to a partnership with a marketing firm that reshaped the company's go-to-market approachExpanding beyond pet owners with PawChart Link for boarders and groomers, and the PawPrint Program offering free portal access to shelters and rescuesBootstrapping with family and friends funding and non-dilutive grants while keeping software costs low enough to stay sustainable in schoolThe product design decision to treat a pet's passing with empathy rather than an archive toggleKey takeaways: Do the market research before you build anything. Talk to the people who would actually use it.If you are the smartest person in the room, you are probably in the wrong roomWhen you do not know the answer, say so and commit to finding it. Making something up will cost you more than admitting the gap.A battery commander who removed honest reporting from a briefing became the clearest example Andy saw of how not to leadBeing coachable lets you adjust before a problem becomes unfixableAndy woke up one day building an app for his cats and realized the work had stopped feeling like workGuest: Andy Yim, Founder and CEO of Lumora Animal Health LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewsyim/Website: https://getpawchart.com/Andrew (Andy) Yim was born and raised in River Edge, New Jersey, and graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2017 with a Bachelor's Degree in Systems Design and Management. He commissioned as a Field Artillery Officer and served in the 2nd Infantry Division, 101st Airborne Division, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne). He deployed four times over an eight-year Army career, three times to Iraq and once to Cyprus. After his military service, Andy matriculated to The Wharton School for his MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, expected 2027. During the first year of his MBA program, Andy started Lumora Animal Health after identifying a pain point with animal records that he noticed with his own cats. Looking ahead: Lumora Animal Health continues expanding beyond individual pet owners with PawChart Link for groomers and boarders and the PawPrint Program for shelters and rescues, while Andy finishes his MBA at Wharton. The MilCom Founders Podcast champions and celebrates military community business founders. Each episode brings practical insights from veteran entrepreneurs. Sponsored by One Degree Financial: www.onedegreefinancial.com Want to support veteran entrepreneurs? Donate to the Dick Loges Veteran Entrepreneur Scholarship Fund: https://bold.org/funds/dick-loges-veteran-entrepreneur-fund/ Take the Ready Founder™ Assessment: https://s.pointerpro.com/bgitblpx
Aug 25

Scott Jensen | Alpine Global Solutions & National Veteran Small Business Coalition

MilCom Founders Podcast, Episode 52: From Marine Colonel to Nonprofit CEO with Scott Jensen Join host Rod Loges and guest Scott Jensen as he shares his path from Naval Academy graduate and Marine Corps helicopter pilot to founder of Alpine Global Solutions and CEO of the National Veteran Small Business Coalition, where he grew the organization from $300,000 to over $4 million in six and a half years. In this episode: How Scott's family legacy of service, from an Army Air Corps grandfather to a Vietnam veteran father, shaped his decision to attend the Naval AcademyThe second-year epiphany at Annapolis that pulled him toward the Marines, and the extra Officer Candidate School requirement under Secretary Jim Webb that came with itA 27-year aviation career as a Huey pilot, commanding combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan at the squadron, group, and wing forward levels before retiring as a colonelLeading the Marine Corps behavioral programs on sexual assault, substance abuse, and community counseling, and how that final assignment steered him toward the nonprofit space after retirementWhy Scott's first post-military role, chosen for title, salary, reputation, and ego, left him miserable despite landing in the nonprofit space he thought he wantedThe book "Leading From Purpose" by Nicholas Craig that a mentor recommended after Scott had been out for two or three years, and why he has returned to it three or four times sinceHis open offer to spend 30 to 45 minutes with any veteran in transition who wants to talk about purpose and learn from his mistakesHow three unconnected people independently recommended Scott to the NVSBC search committee, leading to a fractional consulting role that the board eventually asked him to take on full-timeNVSBC's fellows program and free consultation network connecting companies to over 250 subject matter experts, plus a YouTube training library that member companies have adopted as part of their onboarding processThe surgical robotics company that met a VA contracting officer on the NVSBC conference floor and landed a sole source SDVOSB award within a monthHis book "The Owner's Playbook," designed as a pick-any-chapter resource for business owners rather than a front-to-back readKey takeaways: Jumping into the wrong role hurts just as much as not having income. Title, salary, reputation, and ego are poor compasses for post-military transitionRead "Leading From Purpose" by Nicholas Craig before you make your next major career moveVeterans are hesitant to ask for help or approach people outside the rank structure. That hesitancy costs them opportunities they don't know they're missingThe measure of a leader is how calmly and clearly they respond when things go wrongNVSBC serves everyone in the company, from the CEO to entry-level employees, because training only the top of the chain has never workedThe veteran small business community is one of the few that willingly creates its own competition. That quality is rare in any other industryYou are armed with the kind of resiliency and operational thinking that most civilian entrepreneurs spend years trying to develop. Give yourself credit for itGuest: Scott Jensen, Founder of Alpine Global Solutions and CEO of the National Veteran Small Business Coalition, 27-year Marine Corps veteran, Naval Academy graduate, retired Colonel, and Huey helicopter pilot LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjensen269/ NVSBC: https://nvsbc.org/ Alpine Global Solutions: https://alpineglobalsolutions.com/ Scott Jensen is a 27-year Marine Corps veteran and retired Colonel who has successfully transitioned his military leadership experience into impactful roles across public, private, and nonprofit sectors. As the founder of Alpine Global Solutions, Scott applies his diverse experience to provide business consulting services, with expertise in strategic planning, financial management, policy development, and stakeholder engagement. Scott currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Veteran Small Business Coalition, where he has grown the organization from $300,000 to over $4 million over a four-year period while overseeing a 300% growth in programs and services. He also serves as a Federal Appointee on the U.S. Small Business Administration's Advisory Committee on Veterans Business Affairs and Interagency Task Force on Veteran Business Development. His career highlights include serving as Chief Operations Officer at Team Red, White, and Blue, Chief Executive Officer of Protect Our Defenders, and Assistant Vice President at the American Council on Education. Scott's military career culminated in high-level positions leading combat units in Iraq and Afghanistan as a helicopter pilot, and finally as Chief of Behavioral Programs at Marine Corps Headquarters. He holds degrees from the United States Naval Academy, Marine Corps University, and the U.S. Naval War College, as well as an Executive Nonprofit Management Certification from Georgetown University. His insights have been featured in Forbes, USA Today, The Washington Post, and other major media outlets. The MilCom Founders Podcast champions and celebrates military community business owners. Each episode brings practical insights and lessons learned from veteran entrepreneurs. Sponsored by One Degree Financial www.onedegreefinancial.com Want to support veteran entrepreneurs? Donate to the Dick Loges Veteran Entrepreneur Scholarship Fund: https://bold.org/funds/dick-loges-veteran-entrepreneur-fund/
Aug 18

Robert Strong | Pretty Thai

MilCom Founders Podcast, Episode 51: Robert E. Strong Jr., Pretty Thai Specialty Sauces & Spices Join host Rod Loges and guest Robert E. Strong Jr., a former Air Force signals intelligence analyst, founder of Pretty Thai Specialty Sauces & Spices, and co-founder of Wingman Kitchens. Pretty Thai products are sold in 900+ retail locations across eight states. Robert also runs the Palmer Nicklaus Foundation in honor of his son Palmer. In this episode: Robert explains how 9/11 changed everything for him while he was a junior at Ithaca College and led him to enlist in the Air Force, despite having no military background in his familyHis career as a signals intelligence analyst at NSA/CSS Hawaii and later as a civilian all-source intelligence targeting analyst, deploying twice to Fallujah with the Counter-IED Targeting ProgramHow a trip to Thailand after his final deployment opened his eyes to Thai food, and how a Food & Wine magazine recipe became his gateway to cooking with Thai flavors back statesideWhy he dropped out of journalism school at UT Austin after one semester to attend Le Cordon Bleu, and how the Austin food truck scene led to Pretty Thai For A White Guy, later featured on Season 5 of the Cooking Channel's Eat StreetThe move from food truck to bottling sauces in 2015, sparked by customers constantly asking to buy the sweet chili sauce off the truckCo-founding Wingman Kitchens in 2018 as a shared kitchen space and incubator, now with locations in Austin, Houston, and San AntonioWhy not having a business or marketing background was his biggest challenge, and how he went seven years before discovering veteran entrepreneurship programs like Bunker Labs and IVMFMeeting Graham Weston through the Texas Business Hall of Fame after receiving the 2021 Future Texas Business Leader Veteran AwardA recent shelf audit at Walmart showed Pretty Thai wasn't catching consumers' eyes in the first four glances, leading to a potential full rebrand of packaging and logoHis plan to bring back the food truck as a marketing and fundraising vehicle, with stops at H-E-Bs, Walmarts, and children's hospitals across TexasThe Palmer Nicklaus Foundation, created in honor of his son Palmer who passed from congenital heart disease and heterotaxy syndrome in 2017, and the new chef program launching at Christus Children's HospitalKey takeaways: Integrity and situational awareness carry over from military service, but trained analysts can fall into paralysis by analysis when they don't have all the data before making a decisionVeteran entrepreneurs tend to resist asking for help, but Robert's blunt about it: if someone says they're 100% self-made, they're full of itNot discovering veteran-focused programs like Bunker Labs and IVMF until seven years in cost Robert time, money, and connections that could have sped up his growthA great product is not enough in retail. If consumers don't see you on the shelf in the first two seconds, you lose the sale, even when your repurchase rate is strongFractional leadership (CMOs, COOs) found through veteran networks can fill critical skill gaps for founders without business or marketing backgroundsPutting off purpose-driven work indefinitely can drain the motivation that keeps a founder going. For Robert, the foundation isn't something that comes after the business succeeds; it's the reason the business existsGuest: Robert E. Strong Jr., Founder and CEO of Pretty Thai Specialty Sauces & Spices, Co-Founder of Wingman Kitchens, Founder/Director of the Palmer Nicklaus Foundation, United States Air Force Staff Sergeant Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-strong-1a378839/ Website: https://www.prettythaibrand.comGuest Bio: Robert E Strong Jr. is a former United States Air Force Staff Sergeant. He holds a BA in History from Ithaca College, as well as a Certificate of Culinary Arts from Le Cordon Bleu Austin. Robert served as a Signals Intelligence Analyst with NSA/CSS Hawaii, and an All-Source Intelligence Targeting Analyst for the Counter-IED Targeting Program. He was twice deployed to Fallujah, Iraq in support of the 1st and 2nd Marine Expeditionary Forces, as well as Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Teams 3 & 5. Robert entered the food sector in 2012, launching Pretty Thai For A White Guy food truck in Austin, TX, and was featured on Season 5 of Eat Street on the Cooking Channel. He transitioned from food service to a Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) company, Pretty Thai® Specialty Sauces & Spices, in 2015, and now sells his products in 900+ retail locations in eight states, to include H-E-B, Central Market, and Walmart in Texas, and Meijer in the Mid-West. Robert is a co-founder of Wingman Kitchens, a shared kitchen space/incubator in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. In addition to Pretty Thai® and Wingman Kitchens, Robert is a Founder/Director of the Palmer Nicklaus Foundation, 501 (c) (3). The Palmer Nicklaus Foundation's mission is to put good into the world in honor of their son Palmer who passed from CHD and Heterotaxy Syndrome in 2017. Robert is a 2021 Future Texas Business Leader Veteran Award recipient for the Texas Business Hall of Fame (TBHF) and sits on the TBHF Executive Leadership Board as the San Antonio Alumni City Chair. Robert is an avid golfer and wine enthusiast; and when not working (which is rarely), loves spending time with his wife Kristen and their children, Alivia (8), Eloise (4), and Coen (2). Looking ahead: Robert is preparing for a potential full rebrand of Pretty Thai's packaging and logo after a shelf audit revealed visibility problems at major retailers. He's also planning to bring back the food truck, this time as a combined marketing and fundraising vehicle with stops at retailers and children's hospitals across Texas to support the Palmer Nicklaus Foundation. The MilCom Founders Podcast champions and celebrates military community business founders. Each episode brings practical insights from veteran entrepreneurs. Sponsored by One Degree Financial www.onedegreefinancial.com How ready is your business? Take the Ready Founder Assessment: https://s.pointerpro.com/bgitblpx For each podcast guest, One Degree Financial donates $100 to the Dick Loges Veteran Entrepreneur Scholarship Fund. Learn more at milcomfounders.com

Championing and celebrating veteran founders through weekly conversations. Each episode features military entrepreneurs sharing their journey from service to success, uncovering real strategies for business growth, capital raising, and applying military leadership in the private sector.

Creator

Rod Loges
Years Active

2024 - 2026
Episodes

58
Rating

Explicit
Copyright

© 2024 One Degree Financial
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