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We at Bunker Labs would like to take a moment to collectively wish all veterans a happy Veterans Day. 103 years ago, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the Allied Forces signed an armistice agreement with the Germans in a glade in France’s Compiègne Forest, 40 miles north of Paris, effectively ending World War One. The world has celebrated November 11th since then under many names, including Armistice Day, Remembrance Day, and here in the United States, Veterans Day.
No matter the name, November 11th is a day of gratitude not just for the fighting men and women of that era, who fought to hold back the chaos and violence that had so gripped the world over a century ago, but the brave men and women that continue to volunteer their all to stand against such horrors.
Bunker Labs honors veterans year-round, but we have a lot planned to celebrate Veterans Day, and we’re excited to share the details with you!
How Will You Celebrate?
There are a lot of ways to celebrate Veterans Day. Some people set aside time to visit veteran memorial sites, or even volunteer at a VA hospital. Some might assemble care packages to ship to future veterans serving overseas. One of the best ways to support veterans is to donate to the charities and nonprofits that serve them.
We at Bunker Labs would love if you celebrated our nation’s veterans with a tax-deductible financial gift today. Our nonprofit has been helping veterans and military spouses realize their dreams of entrepreneurship since 2014. With your assistance, we can help even more.
Join Our Mission
By donating today, you can help us enable more veterans and military spouses to go from bulletproof vests and base housing to business suits and boardrooms. Help us empower Bunker Labs entrepreneurs to make a difference, disrupt monopolized industries, solve entrenched issues facing our nation, and grow their neighborhood economies—adding jobs on Main Street, not Wall Street.
Simply select the amount you’d like to give, and we’ll put your dollars to work helping veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs right away.
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Bunker Labs Celebrates Veterans
Starting this November, Bunker Labs is pulling out all the stops to celebrate our community, and making Veterans Day last the rest of the year.
Holiday Gift Guide Release
This November 1st, the Bunker Labs Holiday Gift Guide is back again! This year, we’re featuring 60+ products from veteran and military spouse-owned companies from the Bunker Labs community. Shop now and avoid the holiday shopping stress!
Founder Todd Connor on Bunker Labs Office Hours
On November 1st, Bunker Labs’ founder, Todd Connor, will appear on Bunker Labs Office Hours, our weekly live-stream show, to talk about what Veterans Day means to him. This is a great opportunity for newer members of our community to virtually meet and interact with Todd, ask questions about veteran entrepreneurship, and learn a bit about the origins of Bunker Labs.
Not sure how to watch? Sign up for a reminder with Eventbrite and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter at 11 AM Eastern (8 AM Pacific) to watch the show live and interact via the stream’s chat or comment features. There are new shows every Tuesday morning!
SBA National Veteran Small Business Week
The SBA is celebrating Veteran Small Business Week from Oct 31st through Nov 4th, and there are over 150 events across the nation and online for veteran entrepreneurs. While they each vary in content, they’ll be connecting veteran entrepreneurs with resources, and making an effort to raise awareness and access to resources available to the veteran entrepreneur community. Check the events schedule and participate!
CEOcircle Cohort Kickoff
From November 6th through the 8th, Bunker Labs’ CEOcircle program will host a fly-in event in New York City, powered by JPMorgan Chase. There, the 41 members of the initial pilot cohort will complete the program, while ushering in 71 new veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs as they begin their yearlong journey to scale their businesses. The fly-in theme is “Amplify your story,” and the graduating cohort will enjoy a story crafting workshop presented by the Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP) to help define and broadcast their stories and brands.
USAA Pitch Competition Finale
On November 10th, in partnership with Bunker Labs, the USAA 100th Anniversary Pitch Competition comes to a head! Our six regional pitch competition winners will face off against each other and four wild card entrants for a share of $190,000 in prize money!
Veterans in Residence Showcase
On Wednesday evening, December 7th, Bunker Labs will feature the graduates of the Veterans in Residence (ViR) 22B cohort and their companies in events across the country in our bi-annual showcase. This event, put on by Bunker Labs’ Ambassador Corps, rallies local entrepreneurial ecosystems around our graduates, empowering them to make asks of their local business community and meet key contacts. The incoming ViR 23A cohort will also be in attendance to support their predecessors and introduce their businesses to the community.
Mark your calendar and reserve free tickets to attend.
Difference Makers
Many of the veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs from our programs have made giving back their full-time mission. Here are some of our favorite stories about Bunker Labs entrepreneurs making the world a better place from the past year.
Melissa Green & Badass Coffee Causes
Both a Navy Veteran and military spouse, Melissa Green’s online coffee and accessories store spotlights and fundraises for new charities every month. Her S3 coffee supports military spouse charities and organizations, while her Rise Above Coffee benefits the LGBTQ+ community. She’s participated in Bunker Labs’ Breaking Barriers in Entrepreneurship and Veterans in Residence programs multiple times. Learn more about the work she’s doing.
“The connections I’m making this year at Bunker Labs are going to fuel tremendous growth for next year. The new contacts and networks, and the partnerships that have resulted have already proven invaluable.”
—Melissa Green
Alexa Modero & Brett Dalessadro & Backpacks for Life
Brett Dalessadro’s deployment to Afghanistan with the Marine Corps left him to transition to civilian life with anxiety and PTSD. Over the course of his treatment, in the cold of winter, he came across a homeless veteran and talked with him a bit. Brett put together a backpack full of essentials for the man, and Backpacks for Life was born. Military spouse and CEO Alexa Modero has worked with Brett to hand out over 9,000 backpacks to homeless veterans, and during Covid they pitched in to make 1,000 masks and 105,000 medical gowns for the New York/New Jersey area. Learn more about the work Alexa and Brett are doing with Backpacks for Life.
“Bunker Labs taught us how to embrace the discomfort of entrepreneurship, pitch our business, and really connected us quality people who still volunteer, donate, or sit on our board today. Four years later, a lot of those Bunker Labs connections have grown into some of our closest friends—we consider them family.”
-Alexa Modero
Shauntae E. Lewis & Grant Life Consulting
After launching a nonprofit to help women reclaim their identities and get back on their feet after traumatic experiences such as divorce, assault, or abuse, Air Force veteran Shauntae E. Lewis recognized how tedious and difficult grant writing is for nonprofit ventures. Determined to help even more women, Lewis launched Grant Life Consulting, which helps organizations with their grant writing strategy, or even helps them outsource their grant writing to her team entirely. Learn more about Grant Life Consulting.
“Bunker Labs gave me the confidence to stop fulfilling the dreams of others and start walking in my purpose!”
-Shaunte E. Lewis
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Help Us Empower More Veterans
Melissa, Brett, Alexa, and Shauntae have amazing stories, but they’re just a sample of the kinds of amazing, successful entrepreneurs Bunker Labs helps, working to make the world a better place and realize their dreams.
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