When J.J. Stakem began his aviation consulting firm in 2016, he was its lone worker. He started Goal Space Options changing one wall of his storage, already stuffed with gymnasium tools, right into a whiteboard for at any time when inspiration struck.
“I might simply work out and draw, conceptually put issues down,” Stakem, a former Marine Corps pilot, informed Army.com. “I did that most likely for a 12 months or so.”
Stakem’s startup has grown significantly since then, incomes recognition on Inc. Journal’s 2023 Vet100 record of the fastest-growing, veteran-owned companies in America. That record was compiled along with the Institute for Veterans and Army Households (IVMF) at Syracuse College, which coordinates the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV).
Stakem was accepted into the EBV program months after launching Goal Space Options, and he considers what he realized there instrumental in serving to craft his imaginative and prescient for the enterprise. Greater than 2,200 vets have graduated from the EBV program since its launch in 2007. Apart from Syracuse, seven different universities — Texas A&M, UCLA, Connecticut, Missouri, Saint Joseph’s in Philadelphia, Florida State and Louisiana State — are additionally concerned with this system.
EBV is split into three phases, beginning with a month of on-line programs centered round enterprise fundamentals, adopted by an intense 1½-week residency at one of many taking part universities, after which a 12 months of ongoing help. All prices, together with journey, lodging and studying supplies, are coated, mentioned Melissa Chicken, challenge supervisor for IVMF’s entrepreneurship and small enterprise portfolio.
“Vets do not want any earlier enterprise expertise or instructional necessities,” Chicken informed Army.com. “The principle eligibility requirement is post-9/11 veterans with an honorable discharge and service-connected incapacity.”
The financial influence of veteran-owned companies is critical. The greater than 320,000 companies owned by vets in 2020 produced an estimated $927 billion in income and accounted for 3.6 million staff and practically $177 billion in payroll, in keeping with the Census Bureau’s 2021 Annual Enterprise Survey.
Companies comparable to these began by Stakem and Chris Dambach, a retired Marine Corps infantryman, contributed to these statistics. Dambach began what turned Business Commonplace USA in 2010 in Syracuse, New York. The corporate handles normal contracting but additionally gives such providers as garden care, snow elimination, janitorial work, window washing and tree elimination.
Dambach developed a way for enterprise early. When he was 10, he recalled hopping into dumpsters to retrieve scraps of wooden left over from a big neighborhood improvement challenge. Dambach used what he discovered to construct ramps, which he bought to older youngsters so they might leap their bikes.
“I used to be at all times hustling,” Dambach informed Army.com.
Chris Dambach (holding the piece of paper) based his firm, Business Commonplace USA, in 2010 — three years earlier than he accomplished the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans. (Picture courtesy of Chris Dambach)
Whereas on border patrol in Iraq, Dambach and others began speaking about what they had been going to do as soon as they returned to the States. When it was Dambach’s flip, he hesitated, uncertain of his future plans. Requested what he was good at, he talked about he had a lawn-care enterprise in highschool referred to as the Yard Monkeys, and the group inspired him to pursue that once more after he transitioned out of the Marines.
Dambach accepted the problem. Three years after beginning his enterprise, he was accepted into EBV. Earlier than going by means of this system, Dambach described himself as “slightly naive” about enterprise and credited EBV with opening his thoughts relating to what his firm might grow to be.
“I might most likely be years behind the place I’m as we speak [without EBV],” Dambach mentioned. “Being in a classroom of like-minded people and veterans which can be attempting to perform the identical objectives as you, entrepreneurship, there’s one thing to be mentioned for that. There is a sure power in that room that may’t be described.”
As a veteran beginning a enterprise, Dambach confused a willingness to assume long run and to not count on in a single day success. That is one thing Stakem understands as effectively. It took two years earlier than he employed his first worker, a former Marine air site visitors controller who’s now Goal Space Options’ chief working officer.
All alongside, although, Stakem’s firm has benefited from a small board of advisers, utilizing IVMF as a useful resource to assist him discover members.
“There is a steadiness between taking what you have realized within the army and in addition realizing there’s loads to find out about the right way to apply that outdoors,” Stakem mentioned. “… Probably the most highly effective factor I’ve, fingers down, is my connection to different veterans. It is only a distinctive group of individuals that may assist one another out nearly on a regular basis, and folk ought to ask for that assist.”
Stakem and Dambach have. They each mentioned they keep related to vets by means of the IVMF’s entrepreneursWhen J.J. Stakem began his aviation consulting firm in 2016, he was its lone worker. He started Goal Space Options changing one wall of his storage, already stuffed with gymnasium tools, right into a whiteboard for at any time when inspiration struck.
“I might simply work out and draw, conceptually put issues down,” Stakem, a former Marine Corps pilot, informed Army.com. “I did that most likely for a 12 months or so.”
Stakem’s startup has grown significantly since then, incomes recognition on Inc. Journal’s 2023 Vet100 record of the fastest-growing, veteran-owned companies in America. That record was compiled along with the Institute for Veterans and Army Households (IVMF) at Syracuse College, which coordinates the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV).
Stakem was accepted into the EBV program months after launching Goal Space Options, and he considers what he realized there instrumental in serving to craft his imaginative and prescient for the enterprise. Greater than 2,200 vets have graduated from the EBV program since its launch in 2007. Apart from Syracuse, seven different universities — Texas A&M, UCLA, Connecticut, Missouri, Saint Joseph’s in Philadelphia, Florida State and Louisiana State — are additionally concerned with this system.
EBV is split into three phases, beginning with a month of on-line programs centered round enterprise fundamentals, adopted by an intense 1½-week residency at one of many taking part universities, after which a 12 months of ongoing help. All prices, together with journey, lodging and studying supplies, are coated, mentioned Melissa Chicken, challenge supervisor for IVMF’s entrepreneurship and small enterprise portfolio.
“Vets do not want any earlier enterprise expertise or instructional necessities,” Chicken informed Army.com. “The principle eligibility requirement is post-9/11 veterans with an honorable discharge and service-connected incapacity.”
The financial influence of veteran-owned companies is critical. The greater than 320,000 companies owned by vets in 2020 produced an estimated $927 billion in income and accounted for 3.6 million staff and practically $177 billion in payroll, in keeping with the Census Bureau’s 2021 Annual Enterprise Survey.
Companies comparable to these began by Stakem and Chris Dambach, a retired Marine Corps infantryman, contributed to these statistics. Dambach began what turned Business Commonplace USA in 2010 in Syracuse, New York. The corporate handles normal contracting but additionally gives such providers as garden care, snow elimination, janitorial work, window washing and tree elimination.
Dambach developed a way for enterprise early. When he was 10, he recalled hopping into dumpsters to retrieve scraps of wooden left over from a big neighborhood improvement challenge. Dambach used what he discovered to construct ramps, which he bought to older youngsters so they might leap their bikes.
“I used to be at all times hustling,” Dambach informed Army.com.
Chris Dambach (holding the piece of paper) based his firm, Business Commonplace USA, in 2010 — three years earlier than he accomplished the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans. (Picture courtesy of Chris Dambach)
Whereas on border patrol in Iraq, Dambach and others began speaking about what they had been going to do as soon as they returned to the States. When it was Dambach’s flip, he hesitated, uncertain of his future plans. Requested what he was good at, he talked about he had a lawn-care enterprise in highschool referred to as the Yard Monkeys, and the group inspired him to pursue that once more after he transitioned out of the Marines.
Dambach accepted the problem. Three years after beginning his enterprise, he was accepted into EBV. Earlier than going by means of this system, Dambach described himself as “slightly naive” about enterprise and credited EBV with opening his thoughts relating to what his firm might grow to be.
“I might most likely be years behind the place I’m as we speak [without EBV],” Dambach mentioned. “Being in a classroom of like-minded people and veterans which can be attempting to perform the identical objectives as you, entrepreneurship, there’s one thing to be mentioned for that. There is a sure power in that room that may’t be described.”
As a veteran beginning a enterprise, Dambach confused a willingness to assume long run and to not count on in a single day success. That is one thing Stakem understands as effectively. It took two years earlier than he employed his first worker, a former Marine air site visitors controller who’s now Goal Space Options’ chief working officer.
All alongside, although, Stakem’s firm has benefited from a small board of advisers, utilizing IVMF as a useful resource to assist him discover members.
“There is a steadiness between taking what you have realized within the army and in addition realizing there’s loads to find out about the right way to apply that outdoors,” Stakem mentioned. “… Probably the most highly effective factor I’ve, fingers down, is my connection to different veterans. It is only a distinctive group of individuals that may assist one another out nearly on a regular basis, and folk ought to ask for that assist.”
Stakem and Dambach have. They each mentioned they keep related to vets by means of the IVMF’s entrepreneurs
