100K Entrepreneurs Impacted - D'Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families

100K Celebration

One hundred thousand deserves to be celebrated — loudly and proudly. Head over to our 100K Celebration Toolkit to access a full suite of graphics, social media assets, and branded materials designed to help you share this milestone with your networks. Let’s make some noise together!

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That's not just a number

One hundred thousand. That’s not a scoreboard update or a fundraising talking point. It’s 100,000 veterans and military spouses who looked at everything they’d been through and decided it was worth betting on themselves. It’s the Marine who came home and turned logistics expertise into a company. The Army spouse who built something portable enough to survive the next set of orders. The veteran who couldn’t make a 9-5 feel like enough after wearing a uniform.

However, 100,000 entrepreneurs didn’t show up just because the D’aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) built a good program or two. It happened because IVMF built an ecosystem and a community. Eight programs. Fifty states. Twenty years of EBV. Thirty V-WISE cohorts. These are programs military entrepreneurs feel ownership of, where they belong and are surrounded by peers, mentors, and support. It didn’t happen overnight.

Where it began

First Ever EBV Group Photo

In 2007, seventeen veterans walked into a classroom at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management. The Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV) was one of the first programs of its kind, built on the premise that the discipline, adaptability, and mission focus veterans acquire during military service translate well to business ownership. Seventeen became a hundred. A hundred became a thousand. By 2011 Syracuse University launched the Institute for Veterans and Military Families with the mission of serving all veterans and their families as they create their very best post-service lives, including those chasing entrepreneurship. IVMF’s entrepreneurship portfolio added programs as it identified gaps. A national university consortium pushed the footprint beyond Syracuse. IVMF has come a long way since the first cohort of 17 veterans, but the mission hasn’t changed, just the scope and scale.

IVMF is built different

Programs Backed By Research

Most veteran service organizations count participants. IVMF tracks what happens to them. As a part of Syracuse University, an R1 research institution, IVMF maintains one of the only longitudinal datasets on veteran entrepreneurship in the country, following alumni businesses over years to measure real outcomes. That research doesn’t just validate what works. It shapes federal policy, informs non-profits and programs across the country, and even gets presented to Congress.

When veterans and military spouses walk into an IVMF program, they benefit from the experience of every participant before them. In IVMF’s latest alumni survey, 93% of respondents are still in business. That’s a result of always-improving programming that puts participants at the center of everything IVMF does.

Programs for Every Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship looks different at every stage, and IVMF’s eight programs are built around that reality. Every program is designed to surround IVMF’s veteran and military spouse participants with people who share their experience, not just their military background, but their business stage, and in some programs even more commonalities. IVMF participants get an experience built around the challenges they’re facing right now. It also creates a community that bonds over shared challenges and supports each other in achieving their goals.

Recent News

Stephannie Addo

Government Killed Her First Business, Then Became Her Biggest Customer.

Thereasa Black

IVMF is overjoyed to congratulate IVMF program alumni Thereasa Black, CEO and founder of Bon AppéSweet, on her $175,000 Shark Tank investment win.

David Park

“I am passionate about helping service members, veterans and military spouses shorten the trial-and-error cycle, build confidence and… grow successful ventures,”

Wakeena Dickens

The Gumbo Was Perfect. The Business Wasn’t. The Question That Changed Everything

Impact

Average Annual Revenue

$2.9M

Per Alumni Business

States Represented

50

All 50 States Represented
by Our Alumni

Military Spouses

16.2%

of Alumni Are
Military Spouses

Entrepreneurship Graduates Still in Business Today

Alumni
93%

Program Reach

V-WISE

30

Cohorts

4,200+

Graduates to Date

EBV

20

Years of Programming

3,300+

Graduates to Date

Boots to Business

78,000+

Participants to Date

100K Celebration at Veteran EDGE 2026

Veteran edge 2025 group photo.

At Veteran EDGE 2026 in Dallas, IVMF is marked the 100,000 milestone the right way. By putting veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs front and center. Some of the most experienced founders in the IVMF community are gathering to share what it actually takes to build and scale a business after service. The real lessons. The hard moments. The strategies that worked and the ones that didn’t.

Veteran EDGE is where the IVMF entrepreneurship community comes together every year to connect, learn, and push each other forward. This year the conversation is bigger than ever. One hundred thousand stories brought us here. The ones being told this week will shape what comes next.

This is not the finish line

Reaching 100,000 veteran entrepreneurs is a remarkable achievement, but for IVMF, it’s not the finish line.

IVMF is always searching for gaps, deepening partnerships, and exploring new pathways for veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs to thrive. Courses are always being improved, and the IVMF network of entrepreneurs grows stronger with every cohort.

Every veteran and military spouse with an interest in entrepreneurship deserves access to education, support, and a community that understands where they’ve been. That’s what IVMF is building toward. Not just a bigger number, but a system where no one who served has to figure this out alone.

Explore All The IVMF Programs