SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
MARTIN J. WHITMAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
DEPARTMENT OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND EMERGING ENTERPRISES

Entrepreneurship ‘Bootcamp’ for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV)

Purpose

The ‘Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities’ (EBV) is a novel and ‘one-of-a-kind’ initiative designed to leverage the skills, resources, and infrastructure of higher education to offer cutting edge, experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management to veterans with disabilities resulting from their military service in Iraq and Afghanistan.  The aim of the program is to open the door to entrepreneurial opportunity for our veterans, by developing their competencies in the many steps and activities associated with creating and sustaining an entrepreneurial venture. The EBV program is a social venture, created and delivered by a network of some of the best business schools in the United States.  The program is funded entirely by the private sector. 

The Need in Context

The number of American service-members sustaining combat injuries as a result of their support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as of September 2009, has exceeded 40,000.  As a result of improvements in medical technology, and well as advances in war-fighting technology, the number of Americans surviving major combat injuries is unprecedented in U.S. history.  However for many, the resulting disability may have profound implications for the future.  Approximately 20 percent of these survivors have head or spinal injuries, 18 percent incurred serious wounds that have resulted in a physical or mental impairment, and an additional 6 percent have amputations. Many of the estimated 8,000 veterans with brain, spinal, amputation and other serious injuries may require lifetime specialized care. Moreover, more than 4,000 American soldiers have suffered some sort of brain injury, and in half of these cases, the trauma will have lasting implications for their capacity to think, their memory, their mood, their behavior, and their ability to work. 

Beyond physical wounds, the nature of how this war is being fought [IEDs, an often unknown/unseen enemy, civilian causalities, and other factors] directly contributes to the exceedingly high rates of Post-Traumatic Stress experienced by returning service-members.  If one were to combine the rates of physical and psychological ‘injury’ represented by the population of those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001, data would suggest that 30% of those Americans who have served in combat theaters since 9/11 will transition from military to civilian life with a significant physical or psychological disability.  Some experts argue that this estimate is exceedingly conservative.  Regardless, if we were to assume a 30% rate of disability - in light of the fact that more than two-million Americans have deployed to combat theaters since 2001 - this estimate suggests that more than 600,000 Americans will transition from military to civilian life with an enduring disability.  Notably, many of these veterans are young adults, in their early to mid-20s.  The Associated Press recently described this circumstance as an impending ‘social and economic tsunami that will be felt in this country for generations.’  

For the veteran with a disability, it is often the case that the traditional means through which to ‘climb the economic ladder’ are closed as a result of their disability, as well as policy and attitudinal barriers to their employment.  Given this, it is also noteworthy that “small towns are quietly bearing a disproportionate burden” of the war in terms of military causalities. One out of five soldiers who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan come from towns with less than 5,000 inhabitants.  The opportunity cost to a community when one of its residents is killed or disabled– especially one in the prime of his/her life in terms of economic productivity – is significant.  While we describe this challenge as unprecedented, to be clear we offer this distinction only to describe the magnitude of the challenge; the experiences of veterans returning from Vietnam offers insight into the consequences of inaction with regard to programs specifically focused on promoting education, employment opportunities, and vocational training to our veterans.  Today, almost one-third of the homeless population in America is made up of veterans from the Vietnam era.  Recently both ABC News and the Washington Times have reported on the fact that homeless advocacy groups are now beginning to register the first wave of young, OIF/OEF veterans and their families arriving at the doors of homeless shelters across the U.S.  These veterans report that their homelessness is a result of their inability to earn a living wage because they are either 1) not qualified for living wage jobs because of a lack of education or training, and/or 2) unable to seek traditional employment as a result of their disability, required medical care, or family situation.

Put simply, entrepreneurship and small business ownership represents a means through which veterans with disabilities can engage the economic engine of their community, and ultimately our nation.  Many people with disabilities, particularly those in rural areas where jobs are often scarce, have already created opportunities for themselves through entrepreneurship. In fact, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, people with disabilities are nearly twice as likely to be self-employed as the general population, 14.7 percent compared to 8 percent.  Further, the academic literature focused on the role of entrepreneurship as a alternative (non-traditional) means to realize economic advancement supports the general proposition that entrepreneurship and small business ownership serve disadvantaged classes (whether that disadvantage is physical, cognitive, social, or ethnic).  Research demonstrates that entrepreneurship represents a vehicle through which people with disabilities can move forward economically and at the same time accommodate their disability, and also overcome barriers across a myriad of other important dimensions (socially,  psychologically, etc).

The challenge for many individuals with disabilities is the inaccessibility of education and training programs focused on the ‘nuts and bolts’ of small business ownership – and more specifically education and training that integrates business tools and skills with specialized education related to the opportunities and challenges of being a business owner, with being a veteran with a disability.  It is neither the competency nor the focus of Defense or Veterans Agencies to provide education and training to disabled veterans that is focused toward both developing their efficacy, as well as their competency, in the area of entrepreneurship. 

The EBV Project

The circumstances described above - when considered together - set-up a ‘perfect storm’ in terms of the economic challenges that our veterans, their families, and our society will face for decades to come.  This challenge represents the foundation for the creation and launch of the EBV program.  The EBV, developed by Syracuse University’s top-ranked entrepreneurship program, is designed to offer experiential training in entrepreneurship and small-business management to veterans with disabilities resulting from their military service.  Put simply, the program is designed to leverage what higher education does well – train, teach, and inspire – to put our veterans on a meaningful path towards business creation and ownership in the face of their disability. 

The EBV program represents a 14-month intervention, and consists of three phases.  Phase 1 of the program begins with a 30-day, online course focused on the basic skills of entrepreneurship and the ‘language of business.’  Phase 2 of the program is a 9-day residency at the EBV University, where the veterans are exposed to some of the most accomplished entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship educators from across the U.S.  The residency includes more than 80-hours of instruction focused on topical areas that include opportunity recognition, business concept development, profit models, resource acquisition strategies, business plan development, venture launch methods, guerrilla marketing approaches, deal structuring and negotiation, valuation, entrepreneurial finance and unique funding opportunities for disabled veterans, operations and operating models, service delivery, risk management, human resource management, and legal and regulatory challenges.  Further, throughout the residency the veterans are exposed to more than 30 guest speakers to include successful entrepreneurs, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, professional athletes, leaders in government, and national experts in disability education.  The residency is intense, and is designed to both educate and motivate.  The veterans develop their own business ideas, and learn skills such as writing business plans, developing financial statements, constructing marketing plans, and financing their venture.  Phase 3 of the program involves 12-months of support and mentorship, delivered through a robust, comprehensive network of mentors and national partnerships. 

What makes the EBV uniquely suited to serve veterans with disabilities is a function of the fact that we also engage the services of leading experts in the areas of disability employment and self-employment, to develop a tailored curriculum that reflects the unique needs, challenges and opportunities confronting veterans with disabilities.  The Burton Blatt Institute: Centers of Innovation on Disability, Syracuse University, assists with development of the disability-related aspects of the program.   This tailored curriculum addresses personal supports related to managing the impact of disability in vital life areas, managing disability benefits, wellness, housing--specifically managing the relationship between property owned for the business and for personal use and its treatment by public benefits programs, medical treatment of disability, mobility, accessibility, transportation, and other issues, and understanding how to mesh the supports usually provided by a person’s disability services organization and others (including friends, family, and others) with the needs and supports provided of small-business ownership. Collaboration between disability-centric experts and entrepreneurship programs are critical, because programs without collaborations may lack an understanding of disability specific issues, accommodations, and existing policies, laws, and programs for people with disabilities.   The design of the EBV has utilized this knowledge to propose a multi-disciplinary and collaborative approach, bringing together people with disabilities, disability specialists, veterans, and entrepreneurship experts, with the knowledge and resources to establish a program addressing the unique needs of veterans with disabilities to start their own business. 

The EBV Pilot (2007) – and the EBV Consortium of Schools

The inaugural EBV was offered as a pilot in the summer of 2007 at the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University.  Our first class of twenty veterans with disabilities represented a diverse group who shared in common not only their service to our country, but also their dreams of entrepreneurial success.  Specifically, the first class accepted to the EBV represented all four military services, officers and enlisted, men and women, with ages ranging from the early 20s to their early 50s.  Our students represented 14 different states, and had a wide range of experiences and educational backgrounds. Many of our students have already overcome so much so early in life –we are confident that they are up to the challenges of business ownership. 

In the 18-months since the first class of EBV students graduated from the program at Syracuse, 65% have launched new ventures, 11% are employed in industries that represent the area where they have an interest in starting a business, and another 11% have started back at school full-time. Three of these new ventures have already generated revenues that exceed $1M in 2009.

John Raftrey was a member of that first class, and is representative of the outcomes we have seen from the EBV ‘intervention.’  John, 28 years old from Texas, was an enlisted Marine who struggled for many years with a number of physical and psychological challenges resulting from combat tours in Iraq.  He came to the EBV with some vague ideas about wanting to start some type of construction related business, but with no real training in business, no plan, and no resources.  In the year after John completed the EBV, he leveraged his training, the networks provided by the EBV program, and his own military experience, and his SDVOB status to launch Patriot Construction.  Today John has five employees – all veterans – and his company in on track to generate more than $2M in revenue in 2009.

After the successes represented by the first offering of the EBV, Syracuse University was approached by several other colleges and universities from across the U.S. that recognized the enormous impact that the program had on the veterans with disabilities – and the potential of a model based on leveraging their existing skills and competencies to serve veterans.  Expanding the EBV to serve more veterans represented a logical next step in the evolution of the program, and thus the impetus for the formation of the EBV Consortium of Schools. 

The EBV Consortium was formed in 2008 as a national, educational initiative designed to help veterans with disabilities to make the transition to self employment, to develop professional networks, and to ultimately start and grow sustainable businesses.   The EBV Consortium of Schools is composed of the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, Florida State University’s College of Business, and the Mays School of Business at Texas A&M University.  Purdue University joined the consortium in 2009.  Today, each of these world-class business schools offers the EBV program on their campuses, with Syracuse University serving as the national ‘host’ for the program, and The Burton Blatt Institute providing disability-expertise to each school and cohort of veterans.  The program continues to be privately funded, and offered at no cost to post-9/11 veterans with service-connected disabilities, and a passion for becoming a small business owner.  The EBV Consortium represents the first major partnership of America’s schools and colleges with the express purpose of serving military veterans since the end of World War II.

The ‘State’ of EBV

In only 24-months since the program was first launched at Syracuse, more than 220 veterans with disabilities have completed the EBV program.  The EBV has become an integral component of DoD’s efforts to transition military members with disabilities from to civilian life.  In 2009, the Department of the Army named the EBV as a national ‘best practice’ for programs serving soldiers and their families.  Brigadier General Cheek, Director of the Army’s Wounded Warrior Program, has designated the EBV as a ‘priority transition’ program for all wounded soldiers, and as a result we now accept not only veterans, but active duty soldiers who are in the process of being medically discharged from active duty.  The Marine Corps sent a team to study and evaluate the EBV as an options for transitioning Marines, and the assessment described the program as ‘world-class’ and an ‘ideal opportunity’ for Marines with disabilities.  Marines with disabilities now make up a full one-third of our EBV student pool.  The EBV program was the subject of a review by the Canadian Government in 2008, and in 2009 the EBV program was launched at Memorial University to serve Canadian service-members with disabilities resulting from post-9/11 military service.  This program is delivered by the University, but funded by the Canadian government.   Similar reviews of the EBV program are ongoing in other countries, with the idea of those governments developing similar programs for transitioning service-members.

The success of the EBV has motivated several notable national partnerships with organizations positioned to advance the small business goals of our veterans.  For example a major law firm joined our network as the provider of legal services to our EBV graduates, and today provides pro bono legal services to all EBV graduates in the areas of venture creation and growth.  We have similar agreements at the local level with financial services firms, consultants, veterans service organizations who have committed resources to advance the ‘cause’ of veteran entrepreneurship.

In summary, by all accounts the EBV program has developed into a truly world-class initiative that is representative of a novel programmatic approach to addressing a social and economic imperative. 

For profiles of some of the students who have participated in the program: http://whitman.syr.edu/ebv/students.asp

For more information on the EBV program: http://whitman.syr.edu/ebv/
For information on the Whitman School of Management: http://whitman.syr.edu/ebv/
For information about the Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises program: http://whitman.syr.edu/Academics/EEE/
For information about The Burton Blatt Institute: http://bbi.syr.edu