 Good afternoon and thank you for tuning in. I'm Elizabeth Zapampe with Disabled American Veterans and today we'll be talking about registration for the next DAV Patriot Bootcamp. The robust multi-day program for entrepreneurs in the military and veteran community is heading to MX headquarters in Lehigh, Utah from May 18th to May 20th and applications are now open. To talk more about this, I'm joined by DAV Chief Communications and Outreach Officer, Dan Clare and special guest, Don Parker. Don is the Executive Vice President of Partnerships at MX, a company building the largest open finance ecosystem to help drive innovation and improve experiences through secure and reliable access to financial data. While at MX, Don has worked with the leading digital banking providers in the US and Canada that offer MX services to their customers and has also served as Director of the Association for Financial Technology, a resource for networking and professional development for companies and professional serving US financial institutions. Thank you both for being here and welcome. Thanks for having me. Don, if I can start with you. So MX has long been a partner and good friend of DAV Patriot Bootcamp. Can you tell us a little bit about that history and why this is something MX supports? Yeah, absolutely. MX has always really been a champion of these types of causes and in particular, right from the beginning even our founder, Ryan Caldwell, attended Air Force Academy and we have several other key members of our company that are ex-military or who have served in the different services. And so it's always been a focus for us to want it to give back. And certainly we recognize where most of our rights and our liberties come from as it relates to starting and owning a business. And so this is a way not only to help for the growth of our business, but to help perpetuate that for other entrepreneurs as well. And so as I mentioned, this next DAV Patriot Bootcamp event will be held at MX headquarters in Lehigh, Utah. Don, can you tell us what past events that MX have been like and a little bit about this area known as the Silicon Slopes? Yeah, absolutely. Well, maybe I start with the Silicon Slopes just at a high level for many of you who are familiar with the Silicon Valley or the Silicon Prairie. Silicon Slopes was coined really as a slogan to promote not only the entrepreneurial atmosphere here for tech companies, but also promote Utah's and ski resorts. And so not only are we the home to many tech companies, startups and entrepreneurs, but we also host an annual summit that brings together industry leaders, investors and innovators to discuss and showcase the latest trends and developments in the tech sector. So that spirit really just carries right over to why we feel that this is an incredible venue for the Patriot Bootcamp because it really carries that same theme which is stitched right through the event. And Dan, this is the first Patriot Bootcamp under DAV outside of our national headquarters. What are you most looking forward to and what do you think will be special about this event? Well, the area sounds gorgeous and MX has been with Patriot Bootcamp for longer. DAV has MX actually sponsored the event that inspired DAV really to get involved with Patriot Bootcamp beyond sponsorship. So it sounds gorgeous. It looks like we're planning some activities. We're gonna go up to Sundance and the mountains which sounds beautiful, possibly release some eagles we're talking about. It should be a really exciting event. It looks like a gorgeous place. Great facilities there at MX headquarters and a great expertise that we can tap into not just in MX but with all their partners and our friends in that area. So as I mentioned, applications are available now at PatriotBootcamp.org. They're open through Monday, March 20th. Dan, who can apply and what should they know about the application process? Most of the founders are tech oriented. Of course, tech extends to many different areas in a company. We're talking mostly founders, military. We call it the veteran and military connected community and we wanna make sure people know that includes spouses. So spouses can apply founders. Sometimes we have couples who apply who are both working on the same venture. To know about the process, it's not that hard to sign up. Tell us what you know, try and be as complete as possible but it's not a bad application process. We just want people to get on there and get involved and sign up as soon as you can. And these events rely on business leaders and mentors bringing their expertise to participants. It's kind of a secret sauce of DAV Patriot Bootcamp. Dan, can you talk about the type of folks who have served as mentors in the past and how those interested in mentoring can get involved? Mentorship is, it's like the mentorship and networking are two things that go beyond DAV's ability to control them to an extent but we have a great community of people who have participated and they're the highest ranked two things from people when we survey them after the event. Most of the folks we have involved is a lot of people with a tech background. Of course, especially we'll see that I'm sure at MX. We're talking about CEOs, people who are serial entrepreneurs, attorneys, folks who are in marketing and branding, people who are well versed in finance and funding. It's people who've been experienced around entrepreneurs mostly who can just help people through some of the troubles that they might have initially, share some of their mistakes and be vulnerable together so that people can kind of accelerate where they're at with their venture. And can you talk a little bit more, Dan, about what the mentoring looks like? It's not just you'll get a chance to meet a mentor. You are paired one-on-one with multiple mentors. Can you talk about that? Yeah, it really looks like speed dating in a way less romantic, but equally valuable or more valuable that we do. It's, we have two hour sessions full of mentorship and you'll meet with up to a mentor or a participant would meet with up to, I think it's four or eight different mentor, or different mentors. And we do need mentors. I didn't mention that before, but please, if you're interested in mentoring, email us at info at patriotboocamp.org. We'd love to have folks, more folks come in and sign up for that as well. And I just want to clarify or make it clear. So the deadline to apply to participate as an entrepreneur is Monday, March 20th. For those interested in mentorship, you don't have to have to express interest by then. I think, is the deadline April and April, Dan? April 3rd, I believe. April 3rd. The deadline for mentors. And, you know, it's really a thing. Get in touch with us. If you can't do it in Lehigh, maybe you can do it in another event. We'll keep you plugged in. Great. I'll open this question to either Dan or Don, both of you can chime in. How would you describe this Patriot Boot Camp community? Dan, do you want to take a first shot at that? I can, Don, and I don't want to steal your thunder, but MX is a big part of the Patriot Boot Camp community. Don McDonald has been a huge mentor speaker. He's been involved in the leadership of the event. Patriot Boot Camp, we're talking probably 6,000 people, at least 5,000 of those folks. Some of them have served, some of them haven't, haven't participated in the program as alumni. 1,500 or so are alumni. And it's just a group of great people who are committed to helping their fellow entrepreneurs succeed, great mentors. And folks, it's just unbelievable how you can count on them when we call out to folks to volunteer, participate, run different aspects of the program. So it's a great community. And, Don, I'm sure you've had some great experiences with the community as well. Yeah, absolutely. I think success is a combination of different things. And certainly, it's important. You mentioned the mentoring that they get. It's important to have the resources to build a successful technology business. But the difference here is not only are you fostering economic growth and innovation, but you're also able to do it while honoring these individuals for their service and sacrifice at the same time. And I think that really is an important blend. That makes this a very unique experience as it relates to the greater good. Yeah, I'll also say, we say this is a multi-day, three-day program. We hear from a lot of people, though, as it goes well beyond that, right? There's a lot of networking, and people stay in touch over years. So I think that makes it great as well. Any closing thoughts from either of you? Maybe I'll go, and then I'll let you finish up, Dan. I think, look, first of all, and the foremost important part of this is just to all of the men, women, and families of our armed forces just thank you. And secondly, I can't share how excited we are really to kick things off this year, because as has been mentioned, this is an incredible opportunity that will lead not just to a great weekend, but to many memorable and successful years ahead. So we look forward to it. The thing to add is this can be a life-changing experience for people. It really can. Our last cohort, people were so happy that everyone we surveyed, every single participant we surveyed, said that they would return for an alumni event. And our net promoter score was 100. So it's people who go to the event, love the event. They get tapped in. A cohort becomes its own community. You've got to sign up and experience the event. And I hope people will. And even if you can't attend the event, please share this link, share other messages or other traffic out there to get folks to register. The more folks we get to apply, the better chance that we'll be able to serve a full 50-person cohort. And the higher the quality of the people we get in there, the better the experience of everyone involved. So get involved. Visit patreonboocamp.org and sign up or tell someone else to sign up. Great. Dan, thank you. Dan, thank you so much for joining us today and for MX's continued support of DAV Patriot Bootcamp. Thank you all for watching. Again, the next bootcamp will be held May 18th to May 20th in Lehigh, Utah at MX headquarters. Applications are open now through Monday, March 20th. Learn more and apply at patreonboocamp.org. Learn more about MX at mx.com. Thank you.