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Have you ever come up with a business idea that you know will be successful? Many people, including student veterans, have great ideas for business ventures. But not everyone has the opportunity to develop the entrepreneurial skills needed to make it happen. Lucky for them, Syracuse has a Blackstone LaunchPad in the Syracuse University Libraries to help aspiring entrepreneurs pursue their business ventures and creative endeavors.
LaunchPad serves students, faculty, staff, and recent graduates of all disciplines who are interested in research and discovery, building innovative career paths, and learning the principles of creating ventures. His LaunchPad in Syracuse is part of the larger Blackstone LaunchPad network, which launched a nationwide effort in 2013 to provide resources and business opportunities to military personnel, veterans and their families as part of the Veterans Initiative. .
Syracuse’s LaunchPad and its Executive Director, Linda Dickerson Hartsock, are committed to providing student Working with veterans on business ventures. Hartsock recently led training workshops for her two programs, the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans Accelerate program sponsored by IVMF and Bootcamp to give non-student veterans a taste of the college experience. She also held her DCP summer workshop where she learned about her skills in creating and presenting ventures on product and business model development.
“We have really started to develop our relationship with the IVMF, which we are proud of because it is the best program in the country for veterans, especially veteran entrepreneurs,” Hartsock said. increase.
There are about three million veteran-owned businesses in the United States today, and Hartsock says they are more likely to succeed than non-veteran-owned businesses, based on her research with the Small Business Administration. says. Hartsock attributes this to her soft skills, which are often mastered at the service. “When I think about the soft skills that entrepreneurship requires, resilience is at the top of my list, along with problem solving, team building, and conflict resolution,” she says.
Amanda Rylee ’19 and Brian Kam ’16 are just two of many veteran students who have started working on their business dreams with the help of LaunchPad.
Amanda Riley: Blood, Sweat and Beer
US Army Captain Amanda Rylee ’19 knows good beer. Growing up in Fairhope, Alabama, her stepmother worked for a company that made portable barrels. Riley traveled with her around the country, visiting her clientele’s breweries. That’s how she fell in love with craft beer, and after joining the military, she realized that when soldiers went out for a beer after work, craft beer wasn’t available. “There are veteran-owned breweries, but none are distributed or sold on military postal exchanges.”
Rylee studied entrepreneurship and start-ups at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. Her academic interests and craft her love of beer merged when she launched her business, Blood, Sweat and Beers, with the goal of making craft her beer specifically for military personnel. . She says she saw a great opportunity to capitalize on the growing popularity of craft beer and her interest in military-branded craft beer.
She started working on a class business model, hooked it up to LaunchPad, improved it, and raised seed funding. Riley developed her critical leadership skills while working on her own business and has applied those skills to her active duty military career. “I believe that her leadership skills and the tenacity, passion and resilience she acquired through her entrepreneurial spirit have helped her achieve success in her military career.”
Blood, Sweat and Beer is currently on hold while Riley serves in the 1st Security Force Support Brigade, but she hopes to return to it once her contract ends. Assume that you want to create a product line for each. Her beer names include Blue Falcon Lager, Paddle Pirate Pale Ale, and Zero Dark Thirty Double IPA.
I believe that my leadership skills and the tenacity, passion, and resilience that I acquired through my entrepreneurial spirit helped me to succeed in my military career.
— Amanda Riley ’19
“Syracuse University provided an unparalleled community of veterans.
Brian Kam: Thrive
Brian Kam ’16, a U.S. Marine Corps Corporal from 2003-2007, was another student veteran entrepreneur who used LaunchPad to do something meaningful. Kam launched his venture, his Thrive, in 2016 after conducting relief operations in Nepal after a devastating earthquake. Thrive provides vocational education programs and frontline medical assistance to communities in need. Kam and his two co-founders, Ryan Brinkerhoff ’16 and his Joshua Moon ’16, started their venture with LaunchPad.
“The Blackstone LaunchPad and Linda Hartsock really helped bring it all together,” says Kam. “We learned what to do, how to form a nonprofit, how to take it abroad, and how to be an entrepreneur.”
While studying International Relations at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Middle Eastern Studies at the College of Arts and Sciences, and working on Thrive, Kam also sought help from the Veterans Affairs and Military Administration (OVMA). “OVMA gave me a lot of support during my school days. They had a space for me to decompress. As a veteran of his Syracuse community, it was very important.”
Cam is currently a nurse working in a child psychiatry in Ogdensburg, NY. He said children’s mental health is often neglected, and he was introduced to the job in Nepal, where he witnessed gaps in medical assistance.
He credits the entrepreneurial spirit he developed with LaunchPad with driving him into nursing school. “A lot of what I learned in Nepal and a lot of things I learned on LaunchPad inspired me to become a nurse. I will explain.
During my student days, OVMA gave me a lot of support. They had space for me to decompress. I met many veteran friends there who supported me. That was very important to me as a veteran of the Syracuse community.
— Brian Cam ’16
Intentional listening is one of the essential skills I learned on LaunchPad, and one I use every day in nursing. “My ability to listen thoughtfully and with purpose has enabled me to examine patients and their experiences, disseminate mental health biases and misinformation, identify patients’ stressors, emotions and strengths, and develop healthy coping mechanisms. Listening with purpose can inspire a commitment to self-compassion and self-compassion, both through the Thrive project and in my current role as a pediatric mental health nurse. It remains the most important skill for driving change.”
Kam is now a LaunchPad Mentor, providing advice to current students and student veterans pursuing their dreams. “If students have an idea, they should pursue it. LaunchPad has a lot of resources to help make that dream a reality.”
This story was published in .
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