Veteran Entrepreneur musings
The name struck me out of the blue one afternoon. My co-founder Joe Rare and I were trying to come up with a name for our next venture. How did I not come up with it in the first place? But let me backtrack for a second.
Joe and I had previously held a few real estate investments and had dabbled in a SaaS product, but neither one had exactly been incredibly successful, mostly because we were distracted by other things but this time was different. I had just returned to California, after being gone for five months, having first quit my corporate job in the late summer months, then taking a consulting assignment in western Africa, and finally ending up in “the worst state ever.” It was an interesting turn of events that would lead us to finalize the plans for a new venture.
I had been working for a boss, who although extremely volatile, seemed like a decent enough guy. The cards I’d laid out on the table showed a pretty steady career azimuth with my new employer, and the pay was enticing enough not to walk away from unless I needed to. Four months in, after being promoted on a Thursday afternoon, the very next morning my boss, somewhat inexplicably, fired me.
This is where people usually cringe, fold, and turn into recluses.
I’ve fortunately always been wired a little differently. I laughed out loud when I saw the email sent to me and replied, cleared my desk, and rolled out. The same day, I packed my stuff and headed back to CA. The return trip turned into something that could have aired on “The Amazing Race”, but my girlfriend, who had just flown out to see me the day before, seemed quite stoked that we were heading home together. During the flights home we discussed my future and where I wanted to be. Some things became very clear to me during those 18 hours but the essential questions remained.
What did I want from life? I certainly didn’t want to work for anyone else again. That was the proverbial nail in the coffin. Nothing like working 100+ hours a week for four months straight to feel liberated when you get fired!
So…back to the drawing board.
Joe and I had identified a few gaps. The first one that kept coming to mind was the best kind — the one that applied to me. I had spent my entire adult life up until 2015 in service of something, whether it was the Army, or supporting various agencies abroad, and at home. But that wasn’t really where I wanted to be for the rest of my life.
I was driven to work for myself. I wanted simplicity, such as seeing myself sink or swim, choosing my colleagues based on their capabilities and attitudes. In essence, I craved real success and being with a cohort that doesn’t imagine limitations for themselves. Within 48 hours of being back West I was in San Francisco. Meeting up with one of my best friends, Mike Nemke, a former Special Forces guy, who had just recently completed his Econ undergrad studies at Penn State, was going to be the exact break I needed.
Mike is the kind of guy who blew through SAT’s and spent his nights in the Medic portion of the Q-Course playing poker at night, while his buddies studied, only to smoke his exams the next morning. Nothing like talking to someone who lives for a good challenge. Mike introduced me to his friend Manny Parra, another former Green Beret, and off we went into a rollercoaster of ideation, drinks, war stories and business conversation.
The next 24 hours were a blur of meeting with brilliant people (that’s you, Alan Leggitt) and reconfirmed everything I knew to be true. You can be incredibly successful working for others and derive joy from working on products, process and with people, but being an Entrepreneur means you’re taking it to the next level.
Joe called me the next day. Four days after coming back from the worst state ever, we knew we had hit on something that plenty of people pay lip-service to, but don’t actively engage in. Nobody was actively empowering Veterans to be successful entrepreneurs. Where should we start? Well, how about starting from virtually nothing, bootstrapping as much as needed, running a lean startup, and using every last available resource to create this company?
Now the only thing left was the name. What do we call the company? Vetspace? Vetrepreneur? Vetsomethingoranother? Something tacticool? God forbid we “operator” this thing. Then it dawned on me. How do we define the start of operations? Our clock starts at “Zero Hour”.
As I write this post, we’re exactly thirty days in. The last month has been astounding, and it’s my intent to keep talking about our challenges building this company, our plans for the future, and how we will do everything in our power to create Veteran Owned Business powerhouses.
Please do us a giant favor and follow Zero Hour Media on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and visit our website.
