 Good afternoon and thank you for tuning in. I'm Elizabeth DePampe with Stabled American Veterans and I'm joined today by Chief Communications and Outreach Officer Dan Clare to talk about DAV Patriot Boot Camp. This month marks one year since DAV acquired an entrepreneurship program designed for business founders in the military connected community. Now known as DAV Patriot Boot Camp, the program has had an exciting first year. Dan is here to talk about how it's going so far, what's in store for 2023 and how you can support veterans and spouses as entrepreneurs. Dan, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. So DAV hosted its first multi-day entrepreneurship boot camp in October. Tell us what that looks like. Well, October was super exciting. We had a couple dozen, or I should say just over a dozen folks who had been through the program before. So it was kind of a litmus test for us just to meet some folks who had been through before, but also to connect them with some great resources. There we had some folks who were alumni of the program, some folks who were just completely new to the program, but we had great speakers, great mentors. It was a fantastic way to kick things off with people who were already through it. They knew where they were coming from and we were able to provide them some really great resources. So we had great feedback. The net promoter scores for these events have been super high and the folks just, it's a passionate community. They care a lot about what they're doing. They care a lot about giving back and they care a lot about DAV and Patriot Boot Camp as a community. So you kind of alluded to this. We had a couple of events last year. So we had the event for returning alumni and then we also had an event for new founders. You mentioned business leaders and mentors. What kind of feedback specifically are you getting from mentors? The most valued thing that we get actually from participants is the importance of mentorship. That's far and away always the highest rated thing that we get. And we've been able to tap in here. Both events were held here at DAV National Headquarters last year. And what we were hearing from the folks involved, we were able to tap into our local community. We had a bunch of national level folks who came out, people willing to donate their time, but not just their time, their money to travel out here in many cases to mentor folks. And they say it's great for mentors. They're able to look at some of maybe the mistakes or some of the paths that they took earlier as entrepreneurs themselves or working with entrepreneurs and kind of give that advice to people to put them that much further ahead. People love mentorship and it's an area where we need help. I also like to point out that a lot of alumni return as speakers or mentors, which I think says a lot about the program. So after the October event, DAV hosted its first DAV Shark Tank. Can you tell us about that? It was great. You can go watch it through our channels, through our YouTube account. It was fantastic. Every time that we have an event, we have an entrepreneurship pitch contest. And the folks who go through that process, it takes a lot of guts to do that. Even if you're a veteran and you're used to doing some brave things, it's not easy to do. And the folks who participated in our first DAV Shark Tank, they got a lot out of it because not only did they win money, and it's thousands of dollars that are being given away in non-deluded funds. But also they got some great coaching, some one-on-one coaching. Jonathan Cunningholm finished first. And here you have a Marine veteran amputee who's creating a prosthetic device that's going to change the world for other amputees. So it's exciting just to be a part of that. It's something we're looking forward to doing more in the future. And it's also an opportunity if people know someone who's interested in helping veteran entrepreneurs to solicit on our behalf or connect us with some folks who want to sponsor that because it's a responsible opportunity as well. Can you talk about how DAV engages the entrepreneurship community and supports founders outside of these boot camp events? Sure. There's a lot of different ways that we're involved in the community. One of the big ways really is our National Veterans Entrepreneurship Council. So we had Patriot Boot Camp was its own charity. It was kind of acquired by DAV even though it wasn't a financial thing. It was about making that a DAV program. And now we have the folks who are on the board of Patriot Boot Camp as a 501c3. They're now part of DAV's National Veterans Entrepreneurship Council and they bring some expertise. They bring some credibility in that community and some services, frankly. They donate their time and effort to help DAV put things on. In addition to that, we're doing Caffeine Connects. Patriot Boot Camp has been doing that type of digital programming for a long time and that's going extremely well. We have an event coming up the Thursday after this Thursday with tech stars to talk about mentoring on National Mentor Month. But we've had some great, great folks on there. Everyone from an actual ABC Shark Tank winner to just a lot of different folks. And they're really trying to bring an expertise there and provide a service for our entrepreneurs who are able to tune into those. So it's really exciting. Caffeine Connects are really fun. They live on in archives. You can check those out. We're also working with the Small Business Administration and their Veterans Business Affairs Advisory Committee. So that's another area where DAV's just taking some leadership role in the entrepreneurship community and trying to make sure that veterans who are participating as ventures and federal contracting are getting the set of sides that they've earned. I want to ask you what's in store for 2023. But first, what for you is the big win or the big take away from the first year of DAV Patriot Boot Camp? I mean, it was a huge adjustment to become a DAV program. So making that adjustment was a big deal. Getting that community to buy in and stay engaged with us has been really exciting. That I think is a win. And I'll tell you, one of the things that's just fantastic about all of this is that we're bringing in these entrepreneurs and they have all these great ideas. Well, they're coming back to DAV and they're taking their knowledge, their experience, their creativity and trying to move the ball forward for DAV, not just with entrepreneurs, but with other services we offer. So it's been a joy. It's been a thrill really to have Patriot Boot Camp as a DAV program. And we're excited about everything that folks are doing. For 2023, we're looking at three full programs. The next one is in February. And so that's going to be hosted here at DAV National Headquarters. We're looking at it looks like and we'll have more information on this in the future. But in May, we'll have another event likely in Lehigh, Utah. And then we'll have another event in October and those will all be the close to 50 person cohort Patriot Boot Camp style traditional events. And we're also looking at the potential of doing an accelerator event in conjunction with DAV National Convention. That's not locked down yet, but we'll have more news on that. It's going to be an exciting year and probably in terms of programming the fullest year Patriot Boot Camps ever had. Outside of participating as a founder, how can people get involved and support DAV Patriot Boot Camp? We need mentors. Honestly, we're always looking for mentors. We're looking for people with very specific skills in most cases. I mean, a Patriot Boot Camp cohort is going to have classes on everything from legal mistakes to avoid funding, mergers and acquisitions, team building. People with experience in those areas and other areas specific to entrepreneurship are welcome to sign up and reach out to us at info at PatriotBootCamp.org if they're interested in mentoring or they know people who are. We do need sponsors for our events. We've gotten a lot of help. Patriot Boot Camps is our likely sponsor for that event in May, and they're a great company who's been involved with Patriot Boot Camp for many, many years. So there's all kinds of ways to help. And the biggest thing that I'd encourage people to do is sign up to get information from us at PatriotBootCamp.org. That's the best way to connect. You can find information about past events and other resources, but also just get on there and get your name on the list. And we'll let you know when there's opportunities to volunteer or programming or resources that we're putting out there. Great, Dan. Anything else you'd like to add? I mean, just thank you. Thank you to everyone who is involved in the acquisition. Thank you to the Patriot Boot Camp community at large who have been incredibly supportive. Thank you to all our members of the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Council for DAV. That body is going to be doing a lot of great work for us. So we're really excited for their contributions. And thank you for your time too today, Elizabeth. Well, Dan, thank you for being here today. Thank you for all of your work on DAV Patriot Boot Camp. Congratulations on having your first year behind you. Lots to look forward to in 2023. Thank you all for tuning in. You can find DAV on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and of course at DAV.org. Learn more about DAV Patriot Boot Camp at PatriotBootCamp.org. Thank you.