4 reasons I’m so excited about HubSpot for Vets…and why you should be too
There’s lots of energy around veterans support and many well intentioned private and public efforts to help vets. That creates a broad patchwork of programs, but one that is diffuse and which typically targets acute needs.
The new HubSpot for Veterans (and spouses and military) program is different in both origin and focus. It is these differences which captured my attention, and which magnify the opportunity for impactful outcomes in 4 ways.
- Building a bridge between military and civilian communities
- Helping vets that don’t need help
- Extending “vets” support to often overlooked spouses and transitioning military
- Driving individual and small business success
Bridging the divide
Let’s start with a “trigger warning” for those who think that tossing out an occasional “Thank you for your service” as you walk to your airport gate qualifies as a deep and genuine connection with the military.
That a large percentage of coastal elites are disconnected from the military is hardly news. Frank Schaeffer & Kathy Roth-Douquet perfectly captured the problem in their book AWOL — The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes from Military Service — and How It Hurts Our Country.
It’s a big enough problem that the Army Chief-of-Staff has made it a priority to forge stronger civilian ties.
Short of everyone climbing out of bed tomorrow morning with the epiphany that they and their children should share in the military burden with everyone else’s, it’s a tough dynamic to overcome because each community lives in its own echo chamber. And there aren’t many communities as far removed from the military as the Northeast enclave of high tech and software in the very blue Cambridge, MA.
That HubSpot for Vets springs from Cambridge is therefore noteworthy. With traction — traction that you can help us create — it has the opportunity to not only impact tens of thousands of vets, their spouses and communities — but to forge a connection and model integration of two dangerously disconnected elements of modern US society.
At a time when there’s little besides polarized political ideology that seems to coalesce groups around common purpose, this provides a needed opportunity to collaborate for mutual benefit.
Investing in opportunity
Many veteran benefit and assistance programs are focused on assisting veterans in need. Suicide prevention, homelessness, employment assistance, medical care for visible and invisible wounds of war and substance abuse are widely recognized issues which require resources for intervention and sustained assistance.
Veterans are conditioned to “embrace the suck”; to accept, or even relish adversity. That manifests itself in a hesitance of many vets to seek or accept assistance, lest doing so detract from resources available to help a fellow vet in more dire need. As a result many vets that don’t have acute needs “soldier through” their civilian transition without tools and programs which could help them build on the valuable skills and attributes of military service to realize their maximum potential.
Military spouses also carry an often unrecognized burden. Not only do they singlehandedly manage households through the stress and uncertainty of extended deployments, but they also face challenges in growing their professional careers as they experience dislocation with reassignments every three years.
Many accept lower level employment — accepting their shared sacrifice as part of their spouse’s service. Others create businesses which are often virtual and can be operated seamlessly from wherever they are assigned in the world. These businesses serve triple duty. Not only do they contribute to their family’s livelihood by providing a second income, but they also provide a focus which mitigates the stress of deployments, and create employment opportunities for other spouses. These businesses become virtual, global, communities around shared community and commercial goals.
Yet despite the amazing impact on multiple families, these entrepreneurial spouses often have little institutional expertise to which they can turn. The businesses are built on willpower and gumption. One wonders how many more might flourish with the right support.
About HubSpot for Veterans
It incorporates:
- 90% scholarships for qualifying businesses
- 30% discounts for any qualifying veteran owned business
- full access to publicly available HubSpot learning resources and certifications
- a series of specially developed intensive learning tracks focused on helping transitioning military, spouses and veterans market themselves and/or their businesses — including “translating” business techniques into a familiar language and acronyms
- and the critically important community of current and ex military who understand each other, speak a common language, and share a bond of support and comradeship which those who aren’t members can neither provide nor appreciate
Veterans, Transitioning Military & Spouses
This program is really unique.
Not only does it:
- bridge a troubling social divide by connecting two disconnected communities
- boost a group of veterans who don’t require the assistance of acute response programs but don’t get the transition assistance they deserve
- provide the foundation of personal marketing and promotion that’s fundamentally critical to achieving professional success in today’s digital world….
But it also welcomes the entire military community in a way that’s rare. It’s a perfect resource for:
- Active military with a “side hustle” that they’re developing to supplement income or prepare for transition
- Transitioning military to help them market and sell themselves
- Veterans who are exploring or actively pursuing entrepreneurship and small business opportunities
- Spouses who want to market themselves to support their career growth in a traditional arc through multiple disruptive moves — often internationally or domestically removed from traditional centers of professional opportunity
- Spouses who are starting businesses to generate income, provide relief from unique stressors of military life, create supportive employment for other military spouses, and create businesses which are at least partially virtual so they can be managed and operated regardless of where assignments take them
All of those situations require a common skill set — the ability to market and sell in a digital world. Marketing and selling oneself and skills may feel different than marketing and selling the products or services of a business — yet the principles are the same.
And no organization has done more in recent years to empower small businesses and individuals to successfully leverage the internet for that purpose than HubSpot. The same internet based, on demand tools and resources that have helped businesses around the world to grow, are now available to the US military community whenever and wherever they are able to login.
So not only is it cool to see this Cambridge based group create this bridge, but it’s an incredible opportunity for the military community to access best in class tools along with incredible training and insights to flourish individually and collectively in a global, digital world.
Interested in learning more about HubSpot for Vets?
If you’re ready to market and sell yourself for career growth or civilian transition; if you’re ready to scratch your entrepreneurial itch; or if you’re building and running a global business, check it out.
And if it’s not for you personally, but you’re ready to make a difference for other vets and military families, then share this, write about it, follow @HubSpotVeterans and join the conversation.
Interested in learning more about how the military community is leveraging the internet to build civilian careers and businesses?
Check out the Military Influencer Conference in Dallas in October. I’m looking forward to speaking about how these digital tools can help small businesses access global markets.
