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Championing and celebrating veteran founders through weekly conversations. Each episode features military entrepreneurs sharing their journey from service to success, uncovering real strategies for business growth, capital raising, and applying military leadership in the private sector.
Welcome to the Milcom Founders Podcast,
where we champion and celebrate
military community business founders.
In each episode, we will talk with the
Milcom business founder to learn how
they work through various obstacles and
opportunities in business and in life.
I'm your host, Rod Loges.
Let's meet today's guest.
Today I'm excited to introduce you to
Nathan Gray, an army combat veteran
who served our country worldwide,
including deployments in South Korea
and Iraq where he specialized as
an electronic warfare technician.
After transitioning from military
service, Nate founded mesh com
engineering in Johnstown, Colorado.
His company mission is to connect
the world to solve complex human
and environmental challenges.
Nate's commitment to service
extends beyond his business.
Nate and I work together in Bunker Labs
and now the IVM Math Ambassadors Program.
I've really enjoyed getting to
know Nate over the past year
and a half through that program.
It's been great to get to know you, Nate.
Welcome Nate.
Let's start with your name,
rank, and serial numbers.
Tell us about you.
We'll, we will get into business
in a second, I wanna know
about you and who you are.
My name is Nate Gray.
I am the founder of Mesh Comm Engineering.
I really am a very
service oriented person.
My joy in life comes out of seeing
other people succeed, seeing other
people get through the challenges
that they face, and I really love
service from that perspective.
I have a large family, which a lot
of people tend to raise eyebrows out.
I have six children, one son
and five daughters, my oldest
is 26, my youngest is 15.
Wow.
15 going on one, I think.
Yeah.
Six kids within 11 years.
Wow.
It's honestly a lot of fun.
My oldest son is married,
he's got two twin daughters.
They are such a blast to be around,
and so yeah, I. We really love being
together and we really love helping
each other out and working through the
challenges that I think every family has.
And we're no different than anybody else.
We have our challenges, right?
I think the thing that I've learned
is that what really brings me joy
in life isn't money, isn't the
tangibles in the world, it's the
interactions that I get with people.
We recently had that a fly in.
As ambassadors you mentioned, we're both
in the Ambassador program and I think
the thing that I loved the most about
this last fly on was I had an opportunity
to reconnect with several individuals
that had been going through some fairly
tough times in their lives and really
had some good in-depth conversations
with them and really just got to know
them a little bit better and offer some
perspectives and some things like that.
And that was honestly
the highlight of my week.
Out there, learned a lot, had a
lot of great opportunities, but the
opportunity to serve and to really
be a part of somebody's life rather
than just be an associate, I think
was actually a big highlight for me.
That's a great insight.
I think the Ambassador program
with IVMF is exactly right.
It's about building like everything is
about building those relationships, not
just the connections are just touching.
Intertwining interweaving
is the relationship and how
do you make that happen?
That's a really good insight
you could share with me.
What's something you'd
like to do outside work?
I think like many entrepreneurs
out there, I have many interests.
Some of the things I really love
doing are, I love trail running.
I love rock climbing, bouldering.
I'm not super great at either of those,
but I really enjoy getting outside.
I love hiking, backpacking,
getting out in nature.
Anything that gets me outside
is something I really enjoy.
I am learning as I get older.
I'm not so much of a fan of the
cold weather, but I guess we close
to the mountains and I, I'll
tolerate it to get outside.
That's fine.
But really those are
some of my big interests.
I also enjoy astronomy.
I've got a telescope that I love to get
out and look at things like the eclipses
and planets and things like that.
So how far outside, like
close to Denver do you live?
, it used to be a small
town in the country.
It's now getting absorbed into
the Denver metropolitan area.
I'm about an hour north of Denver.
It's a little town called Johnstown,
but it's not quite so little anymore.
It's grown fairly significantly.
And I really enjoy being, on
the outside of the city, being able
to get access to the city but not
actually having to live in the city.
And, so I really enjoy the pieces
altitude that kind of comes with living
in the slower area of life, but then
being able to get access to the amenities
of what a city can bring as well.
It's a perfect balance for me.
Absolutely.
My wife has a great saying.
She says it's nice to be close to
the crazy, but not in the crazy.
That's what we have in
Washington, DC area too.
So definitely can
understand that's for sure.
The sad thing is, you have to drive
to the traffic, into the crazy, so
yes, that's very true.
So Nate, what's a personal challenge that
you would feel comfortable sharing that
you've gone through in your own life?
I'll talk about something.
I think that might be a lot really
difficult to talk about for, from a
lot of people, as you've mentioned,
I did spend 11 years in the military.
I did deploy Korea and Iraq.
When I was in Iraq, I did go through
some experiences that, were challenging
in including, an evening where.
We came under indirect fire and
the vehicle I was in was blown up.
Went through some challenges with that.
What I did not realize after that
was what that was going to bring
to me as I reintegrated with my
family when I came home from Iraq.
And then as I started the business,
what the stress of starting a
business was going to do to me
from a mental health perspective.
And I think that's something that,
when I was younger I was like,
oh, there's nothing wrong with me.
There's, I'm gonna be just fine.
And, but if you talk to my wife, when
I came home from Iraq, I was a mess.
And I did not wanna admit
that it was a really difficult
transition for our family.
When I look back at that now.
Realizing what my family went through,
we should have had a lot more help than
we had, and I just didn't even know
that I needed it at that point in time.
And, from two perspectives.
One, the Army didn't wanna admit that
I needed it when I got out because
they, they did not want to diagnose
anybody with PTSD at that point in time.
And the second thing is I didn't
want to admit to myself that I
actually needed some help with
some stuff, and that was that.
That was actually a pretty long journey
for me and really didn't come to a head
until a couple years into starting the
business when some things became really
stressful and I realized that I had a
really bad problem and I was in a really
dark place and nearly walked away from
everything and so there's some real
challenges, like they come from that.
Thank goodness I had some good friends
around me who saw what was going on.
And was able to help me get to get
the right kind of help into my life
and help me get back on track.
And honestly, I have to credit the VIR
program through Bunker Labs to some
extent here too, because it was about
this time that I was really starting
to hit the climax of some of this
stuff and having others around me who
were going through, trying to start
their businesses up experiencing similar
stress, really helped me understand
that I wasn't alone in my struggle.
And actually, there were a
couple other folks that I think
had it way worse than I did.
Way more challenging experiences
than what I ever went through.
I consider myself as really like
on the edge of what I think a lot
of people experienced out there
and others went through some things
way harder than I did, and were
dealing with way bigger challenges.
And so it really kinda helped me
put some things into perspective.
Not to say that I wasn't dealing
with stuff and that I didn't need
help, I absolutely did, but also
helped me understand that, hey, look,
there are other opportunities here
that I can actually serve and help.
And at least in this case, I have a way
to relate to somebody that's going through
this because I some similar things.
And so that actually was really good for
me and it was a turning point for me.
One of the things that I realized in this
process was that the best way for me to
work through this was actually to serve.
Then I go of myself.
And so I found that when I was so
focused on the business and nothing
else, and I wasn't there for my family
and I wasn't there for my friends and
wasn't there to help be available to
serve others, that actually was far
more damaging to me from a mental
health perspective than anything else.
Yeah.
God bless you and thank you
for having the courage to.
Go through all that and to share that.
I think that it's interesting,
business can be a way to serve and
it is a way to serve and not just
ourselves, but our clients, our team
members, our family our community.
And it's wonderful to hear that you've
also experienced that same type of thing.
I think there's a realization that kind
of comes when you start business, right?
You're taking a responsibility on
you that is much bigger, right?
You're now no longer responsible
for just yourself and your family.
You're also now responsible for those
who you work for, your customers, the
impact you're trying to make in the world.
You have decided to take on
all of this responsibility.
And if your own ation for doing that
is because I want to get rich, I think
you're gonna be really disappointed.
A hundred percent.
Yeah.
It's about helping and serving
everyone, all your stakeholders work
with you and if you're not helping
them all win what's the point?
Yeah, that's right.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Thank you again.
So with the military to business
transition, what's one or two
concepts or ideas or insights,
Nate, that you've seen that you use?
Business that you rely on business.
I think one of them is in the military
you don't quit till the mission's done.
That's just one of those things that
you just, it gets drilled into you.
I think the same thing
applies in business.
Just the persistence that you gain
in the military, the figure out,
okay, maybe the first idea for how
to accomplish what you needed to
accomplish didn't work, but let's adapt
and overcome, and so there's that.
That mantra that I grew up with in the
military that I think really applies
well in business because no plans
survives first contact with the enemy.
It's the same thing with business, right?
Your first idea doesn't work, usually
requires some modification, and that
requires you to go out and talk to
people and talk with customers, and
it really understand what's going on.
So that you can truly solve the problem
that needs to be solved out there.
And this might lead a little bit to
some of the things we wanna talk about
later here in a minute, but I think
one of the biggest skills really,
that I think has been most valuable
to me is just that persistence.
And then beyond that, I think the other
thing that the military is really good
at is instilling leadership ethos, a
servant leadership ethos into you at a
very young age, starting from when you
just start to join the military, even
in basic training, the leadership value.
Of honor and selfless
service and so forth.
Those things come through right from day
one, and they're really embodied in all of
the training that you have going forward.
And I think those are really important
to emulate as a leader, because if you're
gonna take on the responsibility to run
a business, you're gonna be looked to for
how are we going to set the culture in
our business that, how are we going to.
Interact with our customers, how
are we gonna treat each other?
All of that stuff happens based off of how
you decide to operate inside the business.
That's right.
Justin, could you talk
about service earlier?
And it just really came to mind how
many of the veteran community give back.
It's almost in our nature, how do we find
our unique way as a veteran to give back?
Yeah.
And so it's really interesting
that you highlight that.
It's, I think it's an important
piece of the healing of the
understanding is to give back.
So that's amazing.
That's really cool.
Part of every one of our journey to become
better and probably, to some extent, heal.
Yeah.
And it's also one of the
insight, what was that?
You talk about your
friends and your family.
For me, I always come down this
silly little saints, like one
is adapt, improvise, overcome.
Okay.
Where do I learn that?
This little green organization called the
Army one that I really rely on is, to me
the life is about our faith, our family.
And our friends, if we go back to those
three core things, how good life can be
is, so yeah, I definitely get that and
thank gosh we have those in our lives.
And honestly, as I look back, my
experience over last five years alone,
just trying to get this business off the
ground, I. If I didn't have my faith,
if I didn't have my friends and my
family, I wouldn't be where we are to.
We wouldn't be talking today.
Yeah.
God bless you.
Yeah,
so oof, powerful stuff.
Let's talk about your business.
Why did you start Mesh Comp?
That's a great question sometimes, but
I wonder really, it came down to, I've
been interested in communications my
whole life since I was a young kid.
If you wanna know how weird
and crazy I really am.
I was that kid.
Who started teaching himself
how to code at age nine.
'cause my dad brought home a computer.
I said, wow, that looks really cool.
I wanna do some stuff with that.
And then I would go to Radio Shack
and buy engineers mini notebooks so I
could teach myself enough electronics
to build communications circuits.
And my friend and I experiment
with communications all the time.
We have these walkie talkies, we'd walk
out figure exactly how we could get them
to reach so we could still communicate.
And when we wanted to use them to
get past our curfews at night, we
couldn't get enough range out of them.
But his dad was a, was an outfitter
and had the CB radio station and he
had a couple of handheld CB radios.
So one night he's here's this handheld.
He gave me the five point hand held.
He had the base station at his
house and we started talking
back and forth to each other.
What we didn't realize is that
every trucker in the area is
also on the, on those CB radios.
We started talking to truckers and
one night we were doing that and
we had hit an atmospheric bounce.
We didn't realize what was going on, but
we were actually talking to, so I grew
up in just outside of Boise, Idaho, a
little town called Eagle, and we started
talking to truckers that were crossing on
the highway from Oregon into California.
One night and we were like, wow.
So 1200 miles away from
where we're at, right?
And so we're having this conversation.
My parents didn't realize
any of this was going on.
I told them this years later,
and they're like, what?
But this is what my and I were doing.
And and the thing that has always
stuck with me is I went into the
military and I, obviously I was in the
electronic warfare stuff, and one of
the biggest challenges in the world
is like, how do I get connected when
I'm outside of a city where real.
To be able to talk to or
communicate critical information.
How do I actually do that?
And the military has its systems
and ways of doing that, but when
you get outside the military in the
civilian world, there's still lots
of needs for that kind of stuff.
And there's just not a
seamless way of doing that.
And the reason why I founded my business
is because I wanted to make that seamless.
I wanted to combine the technologies
that we have, the capabilities with
satellite communications, with cellular.
I wanted to get that to
be at much lower cost.
Solution and integrate those
together so that we could really
open the door to a huge number of
applications that are very difficult
to tackle today at a reasonable cost.
But that anything from monitoring well and
irrigation systems to water tanks on farms
to, communications inside a vehicle.
One of my customers right now, one
of his biggest complaints is if
I'm driving from point A to point B
and I'm in a rural area, two thirds
of that, I'm outside of coverage.
So I'm pulled over on having
conversation with my customer.
'cause I know if I go down
this hill, I'm gonna be outta
coverage for the next 30 minutes.
So I've gotta sit here for two
hours, have these conversations
before I lose coverage and get to
the place I actually need to go.
He's like they just talk.
And so the foundation of mesh
com engineering in our ethos
is really just to connect.
Don't worry about where you're at.
Don't worry about the
technology behind it.
We want to make that as
seamless as possible.
We just want you to connect.
Got it.
So me gimme the elevate
the pitch or mesh com.
I'm not putting this thought,
but maybe I just did.
Basically, essentially it's we work with
businesses and organizations that are.
Great and rural and remote areas
that don't have great cellular
or internet connectivity and
we help you solve that problem.
Got it.
And you have a device or is it a service
or combination of a service and a product.
So that can be everything from, we can
help you get managed satellite services
onto into a business at your location.
That could be, I need to be able to
get information off of this water
tank on my farm so that I don't
use operations when that happens.
And so we have a product that
will actually help you do that.
And the idea is that it doesn't
really matter whether or not you've
got cellular coverage or not.
We will be able to help
you get that connected.
Got it.
Okay.
Let's go into the opportunity obstacle
now, and we might talk about two, but
let's talk about the one that you and
I have worked on over the past year
and you've really become an evangelist
for, so what share with us what
that is.
So I think every business
starts with an idea.
A vision, but when it comes to
actually getting somebody to pay for
or to buy that, there's a challenge.
It immediately comes in and there's
this process that you have to go
through to really figure out, how
do I actually sell my product?
How do I actually solve a problem
that people are willing to pay for?
Now process is called customer development
or customer discovery, and there's really
a process to this, and it's not something
that is highlighted enough in accelerated
programs or other business topics.
A lot of people jump right
to sales and marketing.
That's how you're gonna
get your customers.
This is actually the fundamental
stuff that needs to happen so that
you can build an actual sales plan
and build an actual marketing plan.
The thing is, when you start a business
that you don't actually know whether
or not the problem you decided to
solve with your business is something
that people are willing to pay for.
You think that they will.
You don't actually know that.
And the only way you find out about
that is you have to go talk to a lot
of people and you have to go figure
out who's willing to pay for this.
And you need to do that soon in your
business before you've invested a
lot of money, because if it's not
something people are gonna wanna pay
for, then you don't wanna invest half
a million dollars or whatever it takes
to get that product developed only
to find out nobody's gonna buy it.
And so you're stuck if you, especially
if you're a sort of a tech industry.
And if you're a technical
founder like I am.
We are really good at the
product development things and
say, okay, I see this problem.
Okay, I can build the system
to solve that problem.
But we are not so good at understanding
whether or not there's a segment of the
population out there that's willing to pay
for that problem to be solved and really
actually sizing the size of that market.
And I would say that actually I'm
still really learning this, going
through this process in my business.
There's a way to think about this
from a sort of a pyramid perspective.
At the bottom of the pyramid, there's
all the people that have this problem,
and then the next layer up in that
pyramid is all the people who know that
they have this problem, but may not
have even done anything or researched
or tried to do anything about it.
The next layer up on there, all the people
who have actually are actively looking
for a solution for this problem, and then
the next step above that is, okay, not
only are they looking for a solution.
They're trying to put one together,
or they have put one together
and it's failed, or it's worked
and here's why it has or hasn't.
And then at the top of that
pyramid are all of those people,
and then they also have a budget
to actually solve that problem.
And the thing is like the budget
matters because you can't sell
anything if they don't have a budget.
And so no matter where you're at in
that pyramid, if they don't have a
budget you don't have, they're not
gonna, they're not gonna buy from you.
That's right and this
part of what's the program?
It's part of
The bigger Steve Blank, so you can find
this is, so Steve Blank wrote a book
called The Four Steps to the Epiphany,
and this is really well laid out in there.
Really the first three chapters lay out
this whole process of what you're looking
for and actually the customer at the very
top of that pyramid is really what he
refers to as an early evangelist customer.
This is somebody that is so invested
in this problem, they will pay you to
solve the problem basically because.
This point when you're talking to them,
you don't actually have a product.
You have an idea.
Maybe you have an MVP or a very rough
demonstration that you can solve the
problem enough that they're willing to
pay for you to actually put some polish
on that and truly solve their problem for
them because it's that big of a problem.
They're willing to pay for that
and that the first stage of your
business, what you need to do is find.
10 or 20 of those guys that
are willing to do that.
That's right.
Because this problem is such a big
need that they are willing to do
whatever it takes to solve that.
And then so really you're targeting the
first top two layers of that pyramid.
They're the guys that have the
budget and they're actively trying
to solve that problem right now.
Today.
They need it solved.
They know it's there, they need it solved.
They're gonna solve it one way or another.
Either they build it themselves or they
have somebody come in and build it.
And their preference is that
they really wanna stay focused
on the corridor, their business.
But this problem exists for them.
And if you can come in and solve
them, that's really what they want.
It's interesting because.
Just last week, Nate, I realized
that my first experience with
customer development was when I
was 19 years old back in college.
And what happened was I was the
house manager of a fraternity, and
my roommate was the social channel.
And so we were always having kes delivered
to the house, and then they were always
sitting around, they're always all over
the place and they're always a big mess.
So I thought, I gotta pick up, what
if I take these back and forth?
The fraternity.
I did it and my roommate
was said, that's great.
And I said, I wonder.
So I went around and asked every
fraternity house if they needed
help getting their kids delivered.
I returned back to the distributor.
Almost every one of them said Yes,
so I need to go out and buy a truck.
I didn't go do this, that, and the other.
I went and asked the question,
and then the next week I did 10
fraternities and then people were
calling me, Hey, can you pick up ours?
It was an amazing first experience
with customer development.
Let's go out and ask the questions,
meet the prospective clients.
And find out what they need.
So it was a pretty amazing experience.
I didn't know it was called
customer development way back
in the day, but that's what it
was.
I think a lot of it's in
business kind of fall into this.
They don't realize, we don't
realize we're doing it.
It's by accident.
We fall into it and maybe by, even
by necessity, and that's kinda what
happened to me is I had to figure this
out or I was gonna lose my business.
But you also hit off something
that I think is really important
when you start to figure out that
there's a market for your service.
What happens is that instead of
you pushing the string pulls you.
I like that.
That's a great saying.
So like in your case, right?
All of a sudden these fraternities
start calling you, right?
There's a demand there because
they're like, Hey, there's
this guy that will do this.
We'll just have him come in
and do this for us, right?
And so now the demand starts to pull you
instead of you trying to push the demand.
And that's right when you're having
to do the pushing now, as at a certain
point you have to do the sales in
the marketing and stuff like that.
So then you start to transition into that.
So you can get the word out there.
But really what you're trying to do is
you're trying to get demand to recognize
that you exist so that they will pull
you along in your business, right?
Then something is not quite right.
You haven't quite figured
out product market fit.
And that's something that I think
we're bouncing between in our business.
Do we really have product market fit
or is it, so you know, people are
calling me up on a weekly basis saying,
Hey, I know you're working at a space.
What have you got for me?
What can I do to help you actually
happened to me last week and
it's a really good feeling.
When that starts to happen, because that
means people recognize what you're doing
in the business and that it actually
is solving a problem and they want to
get that solution into their business.
It's interesting because, product
market fit here's a great example
of that same king delivery
business was called the one stop.
And what happened was.
These ladies called one day and
said, Hey, can you deliver these
four kegs to, to our apartment?
We're having a, we're having a party.
And I says, Hey.
Absolutely.
So I got to the place I'm supposed
to deliver those kegs and these four
ladies or whatever, these ladies were
on the fourth floor of an apartment
building, sent out on their balcony
saying, Hey, just bring them up here.
I'm like, what?
Each one of those kegs weigh 162 pounds.
I had take those, all the flights up
and I'm not a big guy, but I was used
to caring, but it was so no more.
I only, after that delivery, I only
delivered 'em to fraternity houses to
a X point because I was never gonna
deliver four flights of stairs again.
That's for sharing.
So know your customer.
Absolutely.
That's right.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
That's, and I think that customer
development is a hugely important thing.
I can go through many other examples
as I, and you've really helped me learn
the importance and value and to do
that in a very transparent and defined
way to define your customers and get
to know who they are and be able to.
Deliver upon that prompts.
I think it's really been a great thing.
And then part is, I think
customer development fits within
a program called the Lean Startup.
And that's a really, I think most business
owners should be trying to work within a
framework, a known and proven framework.
'cause you're doing that, you're not
always trying to recreate the wheel,
just stick to a known framework.
Listen, to learn upon that though, I
would say there's one thing I'd like
to get the lean startup to put in
there, which would be, I'll call it
capital development or getting capital
ready, which comes after, as we've
talked about, customer development.
So I think it's
a big piece.
I. Yeah, you and I had a conversation
about this back at the IVMF.
The whole thing is the customer
discovery or development process really
opens the door to capital, right?
If you want to cap others from the angel
investment or vc or some other form
of capital line of credit or whatever
it is, at the end of the day, unless
you can demonstrate you've got some
kind of traction that is worth it for
somebody to take a risk on you, it's
gonna be really hard to get capital.
And a lot of times, when you talk
to the IBMF and you talk to veteran
owned businesses out there, a lot
of US site the access to capital is
one of the biggest barriers for us.
I'm not gonna say that it's not a
barrier, but I think where we have
a MI big misconception inside most
of our businesses is that we don't
understand how important it is for
us to do the customer discovery work.
Development work and then what
that will do to actually open the
availability capital, potentially
existing barriers in there because
of the fact that we're veterans and
other minority groups associated.
Yeah, there's probably still some
other things in there, but we can
really do a lot to break those barriers
down by doing the work up front to
do the customer discovery, to open
those doors a lot easier to solve the
rest of the problems that we're gonna
have as a business once we, yeah.
It's interesting because we always talk.
People talk about access to capital,
and to me it's not access to capital.
I think it's, you said
it, it's exactly this.
It's, are you capital ready?
Yes.
And there's a big difference.
If you're capital ready,
you can get to capital.
There's, you can have access to
capital, but if you're not capital
ready, you're not gonna have access to
capital, the chicken egg kind of thing.
That's for sure.
Think that there's a big gap in training
on how to actually become capital ready.
I think that this whole process of
customer discovery and then the whole
process of what do you need to do
with your p and l sheets and your
personal finances and all that stuff
that needs to happen, all that work
needs to happen in the year previous
to where you need the capital.
That's right.
A hundred percent of remain
that groundwork before you
actually go down that path.
And if you don't, then
you're gonna really struggle.
'cause when you need
the cash, it's too late.
That's right.
So very good.
Thank you so much.
May I ask another question here?
Because you and I can go on about customer
development forever because I think it
core and so important, that's for sure.
Other than customer development, if
prospective founders of businesses
called you and said, Nate, what's
an insight you wanna share with me?
Before I start our business,
what would it be?
I think it would be that you really
wanna understand what your vision
is for what you want to accomplish.
You're gonna have hard
times in the business.
There are gonna be ups and downs.
If money is your only motivation, you're
gonna quit a year end because it's gonna
get, you need to have a vision for what
the world is going to be like after
you do this, why are you doing this?
What is your motivation for doing this?
Because honestly, there are
really sucky days ahead.
I don't know how else to say.
There are gonna be some really bad days.
You're gonna feel, one day you're gonna
feel on top of the world, you're gonna
be like, this is the best thing ever.
And the next day you're gonna be
like, what in the world am I thinking?
Why am I the one doing this?
What possessed me to even
think I could do this?
And you're gonna go from
that extreme to the other.
Elon Musk kind of refer to this as,
stir breaking glass and chewing it
and stirring it into the sunset.
I didn't even say it exactly the way
you said it, but it's essentially that
to some extent you have this vision
of what the world could be like.
In the process of that,
you're eating glass.
And so it's just this hard process of
what you're gonna go through as a founder
and you really need to know what your
vision is and why you're doing that.
And I think not, maybe not everybody
has the same religious background
that I have or the others have
from a faith perspective, but I.
I think that faith is a big part of this.
Like you need to understand what it
is, what's gonna take you through this
when you hit those hard times and for
everybody to look a little bit different.
But I think it's an important part and
I also think it's important for you
to really talk about with your family
what this is gonna really mean, because
it's gonna be a sacrifice not only on
your part, but your family is going
to also sacrifice for you to do this.
And That's right.
What is that gonna look like?
Most of us in the military are
very accustomed to sacrifice.
If you're married and your marriage
has been able to survive your military
career through all the deployments and
all the stuff that you go through in the
military, you're probably have pretty
good footing from a business perspective
to be able to actually have the support
that you need from a family perspective
and from your friends and stuff like that.
Just just some things to think about
as you're starting that business.
That shouldn't mean that
you shouldn't do it.
That just means that think
about what you're gonna need
from a support perspective.
And if you're a single person,
then who are you gonna be?
Your people that you're gonna rely on.
'cause you're gonna need 'em.
That's right.
That's right.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
We're Drawing.
Close an end to your, I
appreciate your time so much.
But Nate, who's another military community
founder that we might wanna champion
and celebrate through this podcast
'cause great people know great people.
Just hear your insights on that.
There are a lot of really good people.
I've met some fantastic people through the
IVMF for Terry Strickland, Jesse T. Henry,
ba, just to name a few, and Sam Westfall
down in Colorado Springs down here,
there, there are so many people doing
some amazing things with their businesses.
And I think the thing that strikes
me the most is that almost all of
these guys, all of them really, I
think their care is first, how do I
serve and then how do I make money?
As a business.
And so I think that's something
that is really common with veterans.
It's almost like the
business is important.
I think we all think
it's important, right?
But it's almost secondary
to why are we doing this and
bigger mission,
so many veteran businesses.
That's right.
It's very true.
Absolutely.
To say thank you for today, we're gonna
donate a hundred dollars in your name
to the Dick Loges Scholarship Fund.
And that goes to help fund the
first year of university or military
community child to, to attend university
or an accredited trade school.
And so appreciate it.
And this is just our small
way to give back so very cool.
Nate, thank you so much.
Thanks for joining us on
the Milcom Founders Podcast.
If you know a Milcom founder
with a story to share, reach
out to us@milcomfounders.com.
For each guest on our show, one
Degree Financial donates $100
to the Dick Veteran Entrepreneur
Scholarship supporting education.
Our children of a Milcom
business owner, stay ready.