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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.
Today I'm excited to introduce
you to Jake Dial, a former US
Army intelligence professional who
served for 13 years and has since
founded an innovative tech company.
Jake has over a decade of
experience leading research
and development teams in rapid.
Prototyping efforts in big data
and advanced analytics, working on
classified and unclassified projects
for military and government clients.
In 2021, Jake Co-founded Service Corps,
a Tampa based company specializing in.
Generative AI, data
transparency Solutions.
Jake, thanks for taking the time to
join us today for this conversation.
Appreciate it so much.
Yeah, thanks for having me on.
absolutely . Looking forward to it.
We're gonna start with, name, rank,
and serial number, if that's okay.
And what I mean by that is I'd like
to learn about, about you as a person
first, and then we'll go into military
and transition and then learn about your
business just to kind of frame that up.
But if you could just to.
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I was in the, the Army for, 13 years, and
I, I, I was lucky enough to actually come
back to where I'm from, so I'm actually
in Tampa talking to you from Tampa and
I'm one of the rare Tampa native, so that
Wow.
That's still here.
And city's grown and changed, quite a bit.
And we're really excited
to build a company here.
where, where I grew up.
Absolutely.
I was just down in Tampa
about, two months ago.
It's right downtown, right
along the river there.
I was shocked to see how much
it's changed since I was there
last about seven years ago.
It was fantastic.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I remember when I was a kid, my, my
dad was an attorney and pretty much you
wanted to be an attorney or a banker.
You could stay in Tampa and have a
good life, but beyond that, you had
to go and I wasn't really into that.
So, for me.
Join joining the military was,
was a great way, to get out of
Tampa and, explore the wide world.
But like you, when I came back, I was
like, wow, this place got grown and into
this real metropolis, it was kind of
this tiny little city that could before
and then now it's more of a real city,
yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
So what are you passionate about?
What do you like to do when
you're not, not working and, and
driving service core forward?
I
have pretty much only one hobby
and it's a Brazilian jiujitsu.
I. Been doing it now,
I guess 12, 13 years.
Fortunate not to get my,
black belt last year.
And, it's just really fun.
but it comes with, the hard, the
hardships, of injuries at times.
So I'm nursing myself through
an injury now, but just really
excited to get back on the map.
Yeah, that's, that's very cool.
It's amazing the different, sports and
activities that, that we do, people do
to find their own zen, their own peace.
And I imagine when you're out there
doing Brazilian jujitsu . Just
nothing else you can think about.
You can't think about, well,
will this customer do this?
I mean, you're in the
zone, you're in the moment,
right?
Yeah.
that, and that's the best part about
it, is, nothing else in your life can
affect you while you're on the mats.
'cause if, if it does, you're going to,
you're gonna get punished, quite a bit.
If you're thinking about not being there.
So it's the, exercising that, that
muscle in your brain be present and,
focus on what is happening now is
a great part of it and what I've
really always enjoyed about it.
you've been doing that
for 13 years or?
How long was it?
Yeah, yeah.
13 years.
Well, I started actually in the military.
my first introduction was through when I
was at Special Operations Command South.
There was a guy there who had gotten
his blue belt in Brazilian jujitsu,
but he was a judo black belt, and he
invited a couple of us to the mats.
it was really interesting.
But I didn't really do it
full time until I left.
Very cool.
I just met another gentleman.
He was, MARSOC.
His name's Rory Bechtel, and I think
he does Brazilian jiujitsu as well.
And, pretty amazing.
But what a discipline for sure.
Very cool.
So what's a personal challenge that
you've overcome yourself in life?
Let's
see,
a lot of 'em, making transitions.
I was in the military for 13 years
and then after that was fortunate
enough transition to civilian
career in government still.
So making that transition was really hard.
I had small children at the
time, it was not knowing what
the future would look like.
And then, transitioning to running
a business from being a government
civilian, having basically.
No real commercial expertise,
just a, a willingness to learn
and, a desire to get it done.
that's been a a big transition.
A big obstacle.
there's a lot of things I didn't
know, plenty that I still don't,
but I'm fortunate that I can be in
a place to, to learn from others.
Absolutely.
You know, I, I find that.
Founders that are coachable and
willing to learn are usually
the ones that go further.
The ones who think they've got it all
figured out usually don't go too far,
and the ones that don't collaborate
don't make it as, as far so it's
interesting to talk about that.
Yeah.
Community's a big part
of getting anywhere.
we're really fortunate to
be at the Embark Collective.
It's a tech incubator here in Tampa.
And being one of the few people involved
in national security and defense from
a business perspective, we've been able
to coach, some of the other companies.
'cause we've got not just myself,
my two co-founders, they were in the
military and then doing stuff in defense.
the head of sales was too.
So we can coach a lot of the companies
who are interested in defense tech.
This is how, contracts work or acquisition
works, or, or doesn't, so, but that
community aspect is a, a real big
part of how, we've been successful.
we've got our, our branding and
marketing coach, we ended up
hiring 'cause she was so good.
And we know, we knew so little.
short of dc I think Tampa is probably
one of the best place to have a,
a defense tech business, isn't it?
Yeah, AB absolutely.
you've got two, four star
commands, central Command and
US Special Operations Command.
You got a Theater Special Operations
Command with SOC sent Special
Operations Command Central.
You've got all these other,
subordinate elements.
under centcom, you've got the Air
Force unit that's here, the sixth
air wing, air refueling wing.
So there's a lot, just, and then there,
there's such a, a deep amount of talent
that's in the local area as as a result.
So, yeah, a lot opportunities.
Absolutely.
That's, that's great.
It's one of my favorite
cities, that's for sure.
So you're probably 18 when
you joined the military?
No,
I was 20.
20.
Yeah, I was 20.
Okay.
Couple years of life experience.
Understood.
And, and why did you join the military?
So I joined the military because
I. I really believed in service.
I had gone to Jesuit Catholic school
where, there was a lot of discussion
about service to others and, I,
fortunately I came from a family that,
that had a deep background in service.
My grandfather was in Army Air Corps,
then the Air Force, my dad, or, briefly.
So it was an opportunity
to, to grow and to learn.
in a way, and then also to
have a path towards a potential
that, was a great opportunity.
That's awesome.
That's
awesome.
Thank you.
it's amazing to see how many people that
have gone through the military have that
in their heart, in the core of them, that,
that willingness to serve before, during,
and after their service in the military,
so many nonprofits have started out of.
Through the veteran community,
it's unbeliev the give back.
that's built into the average veteran.
Yeah.
and that's part of why we ended
up, actually starting our business.
It's a weird turn of events.
It's all about, national security and
defense and me and my two co-founders we
were in and then trying to deliver and
trying to change things on the inside.
But there was this limitation of
like, well, you can't do that.
You're not a business.
You can't write software,
you can't deliver this stuff.
and.
We were building a program
office to do something.
And then finally it was like, if we
wanna really export this and then really
have impact , then we need to leave,
Uhhuh.
Wow.
It was a weird turn of events.
I never really thought I'd start a
business until we just came to that cross.
That's
amazing.
That's cool.
So, in, in the military, you were
there, I think you said 13 years.
Yeah.
And where did you, I
mean, you're in the army.
Tell me about your military.
yeah, so I was fortunate, enlisted,
for a period of five years and
then re-upped a bunch of times.
I, went to, language school for
Chinese, Mandarin, and I thought
for sure I would get sent to Asia.
Yeah.
And in the Army's wisdom,
they didn't send me to Asia.
They sent me to Fort Chuca, Arizona and
where I showed up after, two years of
training and, going to my MOS school and
then, going to language school, I remember
the, my platoon sergeant said, Hey, doc,
you figure out what post police is yet?
No Sergeant.
He's like, well, you're on it.
And I was picking up
trash that first week.
They want to make sure, hey, you went
to two years of school and just 'cause
you did all that does something special.
Now you're in the army.
That's right.
got to go to Chuca and then was, got
reenlisted to go to a special operations
unit in seventh Special Forces group.
one, it was in Puerto Rico, so
Charlie Company, third time,
seventh Special Forces group.
That was great assignment.
Then got pulled into the theater,
special operations command stock South.
Then from there, got into real
niche in my job field, got to
go do more positive operation.
Went to, Europe.
So I was working for.
The NATO unit, out of Belgium at the
time and deployed to, Afghanistan during
that time, and then got stationed back
in Tampa for a special operations command
central and then, left the miitary.
Wow.
So, you're right.
It didn't sound like you got a lot
of chance to use your Mandarin.
Chinese during your 13?
Well, you would think,
but then I, when I was in, when I was in
seventh group and then I was in Socent, I
got deployed to Haiti and there was a very
large un contingent of, Chinese police
officers that were there from China.
now I thought that I would get to
speak a lot of Mandarin with them.
Turns out they were from Guangdong
down in the south, but a lot
of 'em did speak Mandarin.
But, I remember the
phrase, language school.
I don't fear heaven, I don't fear hell.
I just fear a Cantonese person
trying to, the accent was thick,
so I got to use a little bit there.
and then a little bit again in
the us got to do some work out.
So that was,
got it.
Very, so you get outta the military
and then you served in, I think,
Defense intelligence was that?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was a defense intelligence
program manager.
Did that for, yeah, 10 years.
Wow.
Okay.
Very cool.
And then, it's, it's interesting
'cause you went and you started
Certus Corps and I thought, why
did they call it Certus Corps?
I think, I think there's a neat,
I, I believe there's a neat
story behind the Certus Corps.
Yeah,
yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
it was something that we saw
that was kind of lacking.
It was the, truth and delivery,
the assurance of like, Hey,
we're gonna give you something.
In this case, the core of something that
will turn into value in your organization.
And, what we do is we have a
software platform that help people
create their own data products.
A need that we saw, military in defense
tells us throughout national security.
and we thought that, the creation of those
data products really the core of a lot
of decision making and a lot of success.
That these organizations could ask.
So we want, that's kind how we
model.
Yeah.
and researching it.
I think certus and Latin means trustworthy
or truth or something like that.
Is that right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's
like, certainty, and we also
saw like a lack of that Sure.
Delivery from a lot of,
contracted elements and
products that we were consuming.
we had a lot of people
say, oh, I can do that.
Of course we could do that.
And, a lot of services
contract, especially with, a
lot of systems integrators and
the reality was not as much.
And, we had to grow on the
government side to be able to
articulate those requirements better.
But then also I. I think there was a
misalignment of incentives, with some
of acquisition vehicles that were
happening, which is why we're a product,
and we always wanna be a product 'cause
we wanna be able to, have, an idea,
interact with our customer, focus in
on the a delivery within a time period.
And then get outta the way and, make
sure that they have the thing that
they said that they wanted and needed.
That's great.
Can you share with us
the founding story of Certus Core
That I think there's a few of,
yeah.
Yeah.
So, me and, co-founders, Tim
Toohill and Joe Blankenship.
We actually were all working together
in this, defense intelligence
research and development office.
It's under the concepts development
management organization, part of sector.
we worked for primarily Secretary
of Defense for inte, doing a bunch
of different programs for them.
And it was really interesting 'cause
we, I. We, we were government,
but we had government customers.
And so we were learning and interacting
with all of these different government
customers over time about, what their
problems were from a data perspective.
And we were delivering data
solutions, data analytics, data
science, and we spent a lot of time
in the realm of data engineering,
basically putting data together.
so we came up with what we
thought was a real innovative.
Way to do that.
We got some initial funding while we
were still in the organization, about
$1.8 million to put together this
program office focused more on, you
know, money laundering, identifying,
opportunities for, law enforcement
and defense and that grew into its
own program office, about $10 million.
Program office.
when you become a government civilian,
a lot of times people joke especially
a program manager, supposed to
build this program and kind of write
it off into the sunset, just keep
growing it and grab more budget.
but that wasn't what we wanted to do.
We wanted to solve the problem and
we kept running up against that.
even though we bought software,
we used all these contracts.
With these systems integrators, we
weren't solving the actual technical
problem of, I come up with an idea,
I need to then rapidly turn that idea
into a data product that I could use.
And, oh, by the way, I need to
make that data product reusable
'cause I'm gonna have a problem like this
again, but maybe only part of it so that.
Reusability that rapid creation,
those were the elements that
we thought that we needed.
And the co-founder, Tim, created the first
version when we were in government and,
integrated it into the program office.
But we realized this is not going really
have the broad impact that it could
have unless we get serious about it.
Mm-hmm.
And quit our job and, write new
software and do this full time.
So we were like, well,
we got a decision point.
What are we gonna do?
Had built this data product that
was, we thought really impactful,
spoke money laundering and sanctions
and, this was like early 2022.
It ed the you because we
thought for sure this is the
time that, people would use it.
But, it turns out they,
they were hesitant.
On and using it.
they didn't want the spotlight.
that was nailing the coffin.
We had one foot out the door already
thinking about leaving, but then
it was like, okay, now we gotta go.
We have to, and we have to
found the right opportunity
and left and built the business.
So there's two things that I find
very amazing in this part of the
story is that think all three of the
founders are veterans as well, right?
All three of you are,
yeah.
Yeah.
Tim served in the Air Force and then did
a lot of defense contracting as a software
engineer, and then Joe was in the army.
I think that's a, so we're also on of
defense contracting and as the government.
Wow.
and think about that three professionals
working in the government, very
secure jobs, that all three of
you decided to, let's go do this.
that takes a lot of trust, a lot of,
from your families even too, to say, Hey,
that's pretty cool and pretty unique.
I would say three civilian government
employees go start an endeavor like this.
that's pretty amazing.
Yeah.
like there was a little bit of.
We don't, we're ignorant to how
hard it is, but there was also, a
lot of trust amongst each other.
We've been working together for a
while already in these roles and,
we all could rely on each other.
Like Tim's the best engineer
I've ever worked with.
Joe is a real like innovator.
From, a data science perspective, it
has a deep appreciation for how you
can actually solve problems, with data.
So trusted their ability and they trusted
mine course had the opportunity to be did.
That's fantastic.
So let's, talk about a
product and I agree with you.
Tell me about the product.
I mean, how does it.
How does it, what's it,
yeah, yeah.
So we're, we're kind of old school
because, sometimes the government is,
we're a licensed software product,
so we deploy our software platform to
wherever the customer has their data and,
we enable them to take their mission.
whatever it is, in any writings they have,
type it in a prompt or copy and paste it.
And it generates the beginnings of
structure for the data product that
they're gonna create on our platform.
they curate it a little bit and
then, they get access to their own
enterprise data, whatever's relevant.
The good part about that
process is it tells them what.
They actually care about, from a data
perspective, it gives them a value
score of Hey, you care about this data.
You don't care about this
other, and for the mission
that they're trying to execute.
And, then they create their data
product and then they can, chat with it.
They can, prompt based, interact with it.
And if they have data scientists, any
kind of data professionals, they're given
a, a Python interface so that they can
run models against the data, improve
the product or, whatever they decide.
and your customer's ideal client profile.
is who?
So right
now it's exclusively national
security and defense.
We're finishing up, a fundraising now.
So we plan to expand scope beyond that.
But right now it's really truly, people
in national security and defense who have
autonomous systems and sensing related.
Data problems as well as better threat
mitigation, supply chain and logistics.
Big, big, big problems.
Yeah, big change and lots of huge
amounts of data that to sift through.
Yeah.
and there's a lot of complexity and
people, who've been doing this, they know
like they lose a lot of time, and time
is never been in any kind of conflict.
Time is the utmost important thing.
it it, it comes before everything.
Speed to action.
Speed to decision is what wins come.
So, that's what we're trying to
increase legality through speed.
Yeah, it's, it's really interesting
'cause I keep coming back to
your name of the company is, is.
Speed is important, but so
is having that right data and
having that certainty of service.
Yeah.
The core,
you have to trust it.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
If you don't, if you don't
trust your data, then you
know,
you, you're not gonna use it to
make
Yeah.
We always say bad data leads to
bad decisions, and Absolutely.
That's that's great learning.
What's one thing that's helped
you, well, let me take a step back.
You just mentioned.
You're, you're doing a fundraise,
are you, are you doing a Series A?
Where are you Fundraising,
but we're, we're finishing up our
seed round seed.
Fantastic.
Yeah.
We were fortunate.
We had, a lot of wins early on.
We were able to build up, the
business primarily just on
the, the wins that we had.
And also we had a, some early
investors, some early angel
investors that invested in
we're gonna come back to a major
obstacle or opportunity in a second.
But what's a learning that other
founders, other military community
found learn that you might wanna
share with them regarding fundraising?
what's been the big
learning you've learned?
Yeah.
It's, learning the audience,
investors are very different.
they're, they're all different.
They're a different audience
from your customers and sometimes
investors want to hear the things
that you're saying to your customers
and sometimes investors wanna hear.
Things that matter to their investment.
and they all have different theses,
they, they all think about in investment
in a company like yours, differently.
mm-hmm.
We're, we're fortunate to have, like
our lead investor in this round.
Tampa Bay Ventures really took
a long view of, what it is that
we could do in the marketplace
within National Security Defense.
But outside of that.
that bubble.
And, they're all all very different.
So, knowing your audience and knowing
how to communicate what is valuable and
what things you have to say, and then
mm-hmm.
What they, you know, are important
to say or, you know, or, you
know, they're very different.
'cause you usually only have a
small, you know, window, maybe 30.
And Jake as, as you're
growing the business.
Do you ever run into the, the challenge
of should you stay focused on this
core market you have that's working
today or chase after that next market
that you know, is there waiting
for you, but are you ready for it?
Do you ever run into that challenge?
Oh
yeah,
quite a
bit.
quite a bit.
And we've found that the best thing
that you know, we can do is just
focus on where we know that we
can succeed and not try to get too
distracted and then slowly expand out.
But there's always opportunity.
it's just the limitation you have is your
team's style and their ability to focus.
So, you can only give them so many
sec Neo, you can only with a team
like ours of 11 people really focus
on, one industry and NASA defense.
Those don't know that industry.
So very broad, very big.
So, a lot of investors wanted us to
go out to the commercial landscape.
Before talking to them and we decided
against it because of that need
to.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think that focus is so important.
It's something I learned earlier in my
career, but I always have to be reminded
of that is, hey, stick to your core.
And when, when the time's right,
it'll almost knock you over
with, with obviousness of it's
okay to go after this market.
Stick to your core.
Stick to your focus.
Absolute.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what's something, The military that
has taught you that you use in your
business every day or that you rely on?
Yeah, so I, I was fortunate that
the roles I was in the military
had, some leadership experience.
Through that, I was able to learn how
to assess people's values, and values
that they bring to the organization.
as a result we have our own
internal hiring process and the
first thing we check is their.
Because there are a ton of highly
skilled people that yeah, can really
execute what you want them to do, but
they maybe don't have the same values,
or the values aren't necessarily aligned
with what your company's values are.
so checking that early was a real
discriminator, and it is proven to us
to, to add to our own internal value.
we all trust each other quite a bit.
one of the values that I've always
looked for, integrity, consci.
There's so many things that in a small
early stage company that you can't
check, you have to rely on people to
do, they have to have their own measure
of quality, and you have to trust.
I think that's an amazing insight
that you just shared there.
I'll call the values-based hiring process.
And Jake, I hope to buy you
a coffee offline sometime
and learn more about that.
I think that is just.
Key.
It's team members are the ones that
make the business make or break
100 percent
and having that alignment, those values
and vi vision mission are so critical.
So I'd love to hear more about that.
Hopefully over a cup of
coffee, sometime virtual or
otherwise next time we get down.
Okay.
Yeah, that'd be great.
That'd be great.
Thank you so much.
come to Tampa.
Any excuse?
I'll get down to there.
That's for sure.
Especially in the winter.
Especially in the way, so talk to
me about a major opportunity or
obstacle that you and your team have
overcome, and what learnings would
other veteran business owners, other
founders be able to learn from?
Love to hear.
Yeah.
So I think one of the obstacles
that we have encountered was you,
we see a lot of businesses that you
know are somewhat similar to us.
they have a SaaS product or.
Their services.
a systems integrator, they're not
a product company, but they say
they do some of the same thing.
And a real challenge early on was trying
to get everyone on the same page of Hey,
we have this product, we delivered this
product, and then we get out of the way.
That, that's hard sometimes for people
who've been in our industry for so long.
'cause our industry is all about, delivery
from a systems integration standpoint.
there's, the way the acquisition
methodology is set up, it's
defaulted over, this cost
plus system where you have.
labor that's tracked and you're supposed
to deliver towards milestones and
objectives and people on the other side
of the conversation, the government
is used to consuming things that way.
Mm-hmm.
So when you have a customer set
that's used to consuming things that
way, you kind of wanna default back
to that's how we should deliver it.
And to a certain degree, you have
to satisfy that a little bit.
But you also wanna over deliver
and then show your unique value.
So what we struggled with early
on, I think was really this
kind of identity crisis about,
yeah, yeah,
we have this product and yeah,
we know how to do this thing.
It's different, but people are wanting
us to do this more systems integration
stuff and maybe we should do that.
And fortunately we decided to lean into
what we did from a product standpoint.
It's been successful
and did do.
Do like most SaaS companies, do
you charge on a monthly basis
or do you charge on annual or
No, so we're a licensed software,
so we deploy as an annual
license, kind of old school.
if one of my investors were like,
yeah, you shrink wrap the DVD box.
I'm like, yeah, we're a Kubernetes
business, so maybe not quite,
but yes, we, we go to where.
The data is and deploy there, and if
someone needs a, a hosted solution,
then, that's something that Got
it.
Any, any other opportunities or
obstacles that you think other veteran
founders would be, be able to use?
Yeah,
I'd say learn about what this discipline
is, that's called pr, public relations
and marketing and, thought leadership.
we didn't know what those
things are, we were fortunate.
to me, PR meant personal recovery.
It came from a soft background
and I was like, oh, yeah, that's
how you get the people out.
Right?
So I didn't know it meant public relations
and I didn't really know what that
learning, what that is and how it can
benefit you, and how you can use those
mediums, use those to tell your story, and
then hopefully identify customers who can
reach out themselves that you never knew.
You would interact with really been key.
when I was in government and, in the
military, it was quite professional.
you don't talk about with, a lot
of the work that I did, I couldn't
talk about with my family, so I
was just used to that existence.
I didn't even really have a
social media account, like
mm-hmm.
that's how I was.
So when we started the business, I had
to create my LinkedIn account, and had
to start doing things there and learn
that This is not for any bad reason.
we're just trying to tell our story,
Uhhuh
in a way that, that people can
consume it and hopefully identify
something that's valuable to them
and then, and maybe reach out.
it's interesting.
I went to, I'll send you a LinkedIn
request this morning, I think when I was
having coffee and on my phone of course.
And, and, it's like.
Jake wants my email before I connect.
Ah, I'll do that later.
So yeah,
it's still, I ha it still have
the spam filter, I'm still have
this slight paranoia there.
cybersecurity training still kicks in, so,
yeah, absolutely.
Abso Well, hopefully you'll, you'll
approve my LinkedIn request when
you see it in the next couple days.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And so before we go, couple quick
questions and I so much appreciate
your time and your insights today.
what's some resources that you've found to
help to building, whether it's the books,
blogs, podcasts, personalities that you've
relied on or thought about, a lot as.
You would recommend a three and watch?
Yeah.
one of the biggest things that I do
consume from a business standpoint
is actually, I consume this thing.
the acquired podcast.
I don't know if you're familiar
with, they, they go through more
modern history of businesses that,
that, are successful, but businesses
that, that we may know and they tell
some of the more nuanced aspects of.
Of the history of the bus that, maybe
gets glossed over in, media or content.
definitely would recommend
the acquired podcast.
And then also, some, if there is
a local community resource for
entrepreneurs that you feel might have
a decent message, please go engage.
We're fortunate enough to
be at EM Embark Collective.
They're a fantastic resource for us New.
People, they have multiple events
throughout the year where they
bring in experts and, raising
capital with marketing and thought
leadership and sales and branding
and oh yeah, they have coaches.
if you can, whenever you can find someone
who's gonna give you objective advice
about your business, who has no stake.
And your success or failure,
then that is a good reason.
And you can find them.
That's absolute gold.
and they're in many different
Yep.
we need to find our tribes that
wanna champion and celebrate us.
That I think that's so important.
And if Embark Collective does
that for you, that is fantastic.
'cause the people that try to do it all
on, on their own, to build what that
old saying, wanna go fast, go alone.
If you wanna go far, go with others.
Yeah, yeah,
yeah.
And I didn't realize like how
fortunate I was with that.
Community aspect.
Not only am I not a solo founder, I
have two other co-founders that I can
rely on and talk to and they can have
their own discipline and advice, but
then, we have this larger that we can
rely on too and help shape what it
is we're doing, be more successful.
Absolutely.
What's something the audience can do?
You, I would say if you're
thinking about solving a data
problem, don't run to the data.
Think about what it is you're trying
to do and how that relates to the data.
And even just sit there with a whiteboard
and think through, okay, if I got this
type of data and this type of data
or these entity and I was able to put
them together, then that would be the
thing that would solve my problem.
If more people would think.
About what it is they're going to before
they do it in data, I think we'd have
a lot access as a federal government
be able to enable a lot more decisions.
But many people just die right
in, Hey, I, I put out this drone.
This drone got this data.
It must be the data.
I and,
that's not always the case.
Maybe you didn't need to do that
deployment, think through your mission.
Absolutely.
And How do we get in contact with you?
Yeah, so you can definitely
go to Certuscore.com, and
there's a requested demo there.
You can find us on LinkedIn at
Certus Corps, C-E-R-T-U-S-C-O-R-E.
reach out there.
Message, somebody will
always message you back.
usually within a couple hours
fantastic.
Hey, I think this is the last question,
who's another military community
founder that has inspired you?
I think that person is just amazing.
Learned a lot.
I can't think of another military
founder at the top of my head.
I, I can think of another community
founder is not in the military.
'cause I interact with
many of the founders here.
At br collected but not anonymous,
associated with the veteran.
And that would be Sean Ver Abel Nook.
able nook.com.
Amazing flat packed building solution.
You guys, mad scientist came up
with a way to, put together a
giant dwelling, two hours with no
tools, built through Lego stuff.
Sean continues to inspire me,
but not really any other, like
military community founders pop up.
Understood.
But that's able nook.com.
Able nook.com.
Yeah.
Wow.
Flat packed, like IKEA housing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Reusable parts.
Oh, we actually bought an able Nook from
Sean and, as part of a SOCOM project,
we were putting together this Internet
of Things lab, because sometimes you
need to show people what makes the data
Together.
So we bought an ablenook, and we put it
on a, a World War II vessel, 'cause it's
what you do, so it's in downtown Tampa.
Behind the aquarium there is
the, the Victory Ships World
War II Victory Glass Vessel.
And on top of it is an ablenook from Sean.
And now we have our software running in
there, a bunch of sensors running around.
You can deploy a bunch of autonomy,
music kind, kind of as our autonomy
lack, but, can't say enough great things
about Sean, his dedication community and
also just the innovative product he has.
it can be one unit or two like ours, or
it can be, 500, an infinitely expanded.
I look forward to, to,
to read more about that.
is there any other questions I
should have asked you and I, did
I, not that I can think of.
thank you for the time.
Thank our opportunity and really
appreciate the discussion today.
Yeah, thank you.
just so you know, we're gonna
make a hundred dollars donation
to our scholarship fund.
it's made an honor.
Dick Loges, he was my,
one of my grandfather's.
Both served in the military.
he was one of the first people into one
of the, the DOCAL concentration camp.
And, uh, so we'd make a hundred
dollars donation to that
scholarship fund in your name.
So I really do appreciate your
time, your insights today.
So
thank you very much.
Yeah, thank you.
And that, that's awesome that you do the,
the donation, have that scholarship fund.
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
CLO Veteran Entrepreneur Scholarship
Fund supporting education for
children of a Milcom Business Center.
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