Syracuse’s Blackstone LaunchPad supports student veterans in their business, including partnering with the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families and the Defense Comptrollership Program to provide professional training for veterans.
Have you ever imagined a business that you know will be successful? Many people — including student veterans — have great ideas for entrepreneurship. But not everyone has the opportunity to develop the necessary entrepreneurial skills to make this happen. Luckily for them, Syracuse University Libraries has the Blackstone LaunchPad to help hopeful entrepreneurs pursue their business ventures and creative endeavors.
LaunchPad serves students, faculty, staff and recent alumni from all disciplines interested in research and discovery, building innovative career paths and learning entrepreneurial principles. Syracuse’s LaunchPad is part of the larger Blackstone LaunchPad Network, which launched a nationwide effort in 2013 as part of its Veterans Initiative to provide service members, veterans and their families with resources and business opportunities.
Syracuse’s LaunchPad and its Executive Director, Linda Dickerson Hartsock, work with student veterans in their business activities, including with the D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and the Defense Audit Program (DCP) to provide professional veterans training. Hartsock recently led training workshops for two programs sponsored by the IVMF as part of the Veterans Entrepreneurship Bootcamp Accelerator Program, and a bootcamp for non-student veterans to experience the college experience. She also conducted a summer workshop for DCP on risk creation and presentation techniques around product and business model development.
“We’ve really started to grow our relationship with the IVMF, and I’m proud of it because it’s the country’s premier program for veterans, especially veteran entrepreneurship,” Hartsock said.
Today, there are about 3 million veteran-owned businesses in the U.S., which Hartsock said, based on her research with the U.S. Small Business Administration, are more likely to be successful than those that are not owned by veterans. Hartsock believes this is due to soft skills often learned in service. “When you think about the soft skills needed to start a business, my top priority is resilience, as well as problem solving, team building and conflict resolution.”
Amanda Rylee ’19 and Brian Kam ’16 are just many of the student veterans who received LaunchPad support as they began to realize their business dreams.
Amanda Rylee: Blood, Sweat and Beer
US Army Capt. Amanda Rylee ’19 knows good beer. Her stepmother, who grew up in Fairhope, Alabama, worked for a company that made portable barrel containers, and Rylee would travel with her across the country, visiting customers at their brewery. Since then, she has developed a strong interest in craft beer. When she enlisted in the army, she found that when the soldiers went out to drink beer after get off work, there was no craft beer. “While there are veteran-owned breweries, none are distributed or sold on military postal exchanges.”
U.S. Army Capt. Amanda Rylee ’19 says she envisions creating a craft beer line for each military branch.
Rylee studied entrepreneurship and startups at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. Her academic interests and love for craft beer came together when she started the company Blood, Sweat and Beers, with the goal of making craft beer exclusively for military audiences. She said she saw a great opportunity to capitalize on the growing popularity of craft beer and interest in military-branded craft beer.
She started working on a business model for a class and reached out to LaunchPad to improve it and raise seed funding. Rylee developed key leadership skills while running the business and applied them to her active military career. “I believe my leadership and the tenacity, enthusiasm and resilience I have acquired through entrepreneurship have helped me succeed in my military career.”
Blood, Sweat and Beer is currently on hold while Rylee is serving in the 1st Security Forces Assistance Brigade but is eager to return to work when her contract expires. She envisions creating a product line for each military branch. Some of the names of her beers include Blue Falcon Lager, Puddle Pirate Pale Ale and Zero Dark 30 Double IPA.
I believe my leadership and the tenacity, enthusiasm and resilience I have acquired through entrepreneurship have helped me succeed in my military career.
-Amanda Reilly ’19
“Syracuse University offers an unparalleled senior community, as well as limitless faculty, peer and community support I can’t imagine,” Rylee said.
Brian Cam: Thrive
Brian Kam ’16, a corporal in the US Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007, is another student veteran entrepreneur who uses LaunchPad for meaningful work. In 2016, Kam started his business Thrive after returning from Nepal, where he worked in the aftermath of 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 Joshua Moon ’16, turned to LaunchPad to start their business.
Brian Kam ’16 (left), a former Lance Corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps, started his business “Thrive” in 2016 after returning from Nepal, where he carried out a Rescue work.
“It was the Blackstone LaunchPad and Linda Hartsock that helped us put all the pieces together,” says Kam. “We learned what we should do, how to form a nonprofit, how to take it overseas and how to be an entrepreneur.”
Kam also sought help from the Office of Veterans and Military Affairs (OVMA) while studying International Relations at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Middle East Studies at the College of Arts and Sciences, and while working at Thrive. “OVMA gave me a lot of support when I was a student. They had the space for me to unpack. I met a lot of senior friends there who supported me, which is so important to seniors in the Syracuse community.”
Cam is now a nurse in Ogdensburg, New York, working in pediatric psychiatry. Children’s mental health is often overlooked, he said, and he was introduced to the job when he was in Nepal, where he witnessed gaps in medical support.
He said it was the entrepreneurial spirit he fostered at LaunchPad that motivated him to go to nursing school. “A lot of what I’ve learned in Nepal, and a lot of what I’ve learned in LaunchPad, has pushed me to become a nurse — and I’ve found that I can still help those less fortunate than me,” explains Kam.
OVMA gave me a lot of support when I was a student. They have room for me to decompress. I met a lot of veteran friends there who supported me, which is so important to the veterans of the Syracuse community.
– Brian Kam ’16
Purposeful listening is an integral part of the skills he learns at LaunchPad, which he uses every day in nursing. “My ability to listen purposefully and thoughtfully allows me to validate my patients and their experiences, remove stigma and misinformation about mental health, help identify their stressors, emotions and strengths, and stimulate healthy coping mechanisms and self-compassion and mental health well-being. Purposeful listening remains the most important skill that has allowed me to inspire change through my Thrive program and my current role as a pediatric mental health nurse.”
Kam is now a LaunchPad mentor, advising current students and veterans who are pursuing their dreams. “If a student has an idea, they should go after it. There are tons of resources on LaunchPad to help them make their dreams come true.”
This story was published in .