Founded in 2012, Patriot Boot Camp, modeled from the tech accelerator program Techstars, aims to help veteran entrepreneurs and/or their spouses form businesses. However, in 2022, DAV (Disabled American Veterans), headquartered in Erlanger, KY, acquired the program, thus changing the name to DAV Patriot Boot Camp. Last year Nick Brophy, a 23-year retired Army veteran who had experience working with entrepreneurship programs, took over DAV Patriot Boot Camp after Dan Clare, SVP of Communications and Outreach for DAV and Dave Knox, Executive Director of Blue North and a member of DAV’s National Veterans Entrepreneurship Council, recruited him.
“I like the energy,” Brophy remarked about veteran entrepreneurs. “People are creative and they’re energetic, and I like to bring ideas to life and so do entrepreneurs. I speak the language of business and understand all the intricacies that are simultaneously playing out at any given moment. I didn’t originally plan on joining the military after high school. But, when push came to shove, it was just a path I chose to get to reach some of my goals. What I learned through experience was brotherhood and sisterhood come with this innate understanding of one another. It’s a tool that makes working with other veteran entrepreneurs a kind of secret ingredient, if you will.”
The workshop-style program encourages spouses to get involved, as Brophy sees them as a vital part of the equation.
“Anyone who’s spent significant time in the military knows that if a soldier has a partner, you can’t do it without them,” he said.
He mentioned how those in the military tend to move around a lot, which makes them gravitate toward entrepreneurship.
“They don’t get to lay down roots, so they get creative in order to be employed,” he said. “They’re problem solvers.”
Since Brophy has come aboard, he’s restructured the program to be more workshop focused and to offer more practical applications in which the participants leave the program with skills and knowledge that they can apply directly to their business.
DAV hosts three cohorts a year, including May 15-17’s nationwide flagship DAV Patriot Boot Camp, in which 50 established businesses or pre-revenue businesses come to DAV’s headquarters seeking necessary education, mentorship, and potentially, access to capital. These businesses typically range from tech startups to wellness companies to consumer products, such as GOFASTER, a company that created a line of on/off-road running shoes. Businesses can earn an opportunity to gain capital through DAV Patriot’s Pitch, an online pitch competition which spins off of each cohort.
DAV also offers a webinar series, Caffeine Connect, which brings in experts willing to teach the entrepreneurial community on relevant business topics. Additionally, a newer segment typically found in social media called Founder Fridays, has been added to showcase alumni of the program on a weekly basis.
“We do a post for a founder that came through the program as another way to demonstrate to our community the kind of entrepreneurs we support,” Brophy said. “It’s a great place to look back and say, oh, we’ve got this tech entrepreneur or this consumer electronics entrepreneur or this engineering or construction entrepreneur, and we get an opportunity to highlight them.”
Brophy thinks Northern Kentucky is rife for entrepreneurs because it’s affordable and has the tools businesses require.
“Whether you’re a brick and mortar or not, you’re going to be able to have success,” he said. “You’re going to be able to get access to the things that you need plus, there’s an abundance of support organizations locally that can help companies leverage who they are and the community around them to be a better business.”
Going forward, Brophy wants to continue to build partnerships such as ones that add programming to their existing platform.
“There’s lots of great programs here, but not a lot of them really focus on veteran entrepreneurs,” he said. “Maybe there’s a way to tap into something that makes their program recognized more nationally, but also makes our program recognized more locally. DAV’s known very well nationally, but we’re always working on trying to be part of the fabric of our community.”
He also encourages DAV Patriot Boot Camp to focus more on mentorship.
“What matters is that you have people who you can reach out to who can help you think in a different way about a business or learn something new or tell you the feedback that maybe you don’t want to hear but you need to hear,” he said. “And that community is really a strong component of the program.”
DAV has existed since 1920, and like DAV, Patriot Boot Camp is here to stay.
“We’re going to continue to advocate for veteran entrepreneurs and hopefully be the leader in that nationwide,” Brophy said. “We’ll be here to advocate when we’re all gone, and this program will hopefully still be at the tip of the spear on providing service to veterans.”
