Veteran Entrepreneurs: High-level execution beats rah-rah enthusiasm all day

For a few years, many veterans-turned-entrepreneurs, like myself, have struggled to understand why our path to entrepreneurial success has been dark or dimly lit. The solution is simple: rather than waving the flag of service, we must start operating at the highest levels of startups. High-level execution beats rah-rah enthusiasm all day. Show, don’t tell.

It is starting to happen. Earlier today, IBM announced it acquired UStream, a video conferencing service, for an estimated $130MM. In Silicon Valley, $100+MM exits are very strong but fairly common. For some of us, though, this exit is about much more than the numbers.

UStreams’ founder and CEO, Brad Hunstable, is a soldier-turned-entrepreneur. I believe that UStream is the first major exit of a veteran-led startup since 9/11/01.

Although biased, I suspect that we will see many more exits of veteran-led startups in the coming years. With each exit, and many other successes, our community is proving itself in the market. This success has massive economic and societal consequences.

Economically, our community is recalibrating from a singularly service-based relationship to a largely market-based relationship. We are leading large businesses, small startups, civic organizations, government agencies, and throughout the economy. Bound by comradery developed in service, our leadership will accelerate as our community becomes market-trained and market-experienced. The upside is nearly limitless.

Societally, entrepreneurship can be an interesting forcing function. When two people are building a company, they are not a veteran and non-veteran (or young and old, etc.). They are both entrepreneurs, both trying to do the seemingly impossible. The more this happens, the healthier our society will be.

Congratulations to Brad Hunstable and his team.