Welcome to the articles of Military Mentors. Our social network connects military professionals to each other and to the resources that they need for professional development.
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At the same time that Military Mentors is getting off the ground, I am fortunate to have the chance to take a course about entrepreneurship. The course is called “Starting a Startup that Matters,” and it should not be surprising that this resonates with me. The course just started (Georgetown’s MBA calendar is odd) and it immediately inspired some serious reflection.
One of our guests this week was Donna Harris. She is the co-founder of 1776 which is a DC-based start-up incubator that leverages the unique social, political, intellectual, and financial landscape of our national capitol. The company is less than 3 years old and Donna’s inspiration to launch it came from her own previous experiences as an entrepreneur.
She launched her first company in 1998 in the sarcastically described great venture capital hub of Michigan. After meeting with the state’s two VC firms, she had no outside investment and her company did not fare so well. Over the next fifteen years, she experienced the ups and downs of the tech bubble and her insights eventually led to launching 1776.
I didn’t understand the impact of the tech bubble until she laid it out – three major changes came out of it. First, cloud computing empowered a sea change in innovation. By giving access to distributed users, it reduces seed costs and thereby localizes and democratizes startups. Second, online social collaboration such as Skype, Google Drive, #Slack, Twitter, and more empowered far reaching networks. Now, a voice can be heard with no middlemen. This bridged social and physical divides that were previously impossible. Third, ubiquitous smart phones made stores and offices irrelevant to many businesses.
This all seemed to make sense. After all, I am a Millenial and I had lived through it. But the significance didn’t quite click for me. If this is all true, why hasn’t the defense sector taken off until now?
She mentioned something else during the discussion about the tech bubble, and eventually, I somehow just put it all together. Donna spoke about a recent survey report published by the World Economic Forum about Millenials. The report shows that Millenials want most to have a life with impact. Moreover, Millenials are distrustful of the existing institutions.
Most of our company grade leaders are Millenials so, they not only want to serve, but also know that their service has been valuable. And they are not waiting for the DoD to keep up.
Incremental innovation is easy to disregard, but large-scale, disruptive innovation creates waves. The military’s institutional concrete is so resistant to change that it took a wave to have an impact. We are leveraging the same power of entrepreneurs and start-ups in business and applying it to the military. Entrepreneurs tackle inefficient systems and the military has plenty.
To prove this point to myself, I even started making of a list: Aaron and Yinon at RallyPoint, Ben Kohlmann at Defense Entrepreneurs Forum, Matt Griffin at Combat Flip Flops, and Kim Jung at Rumi Spice. Add to that networks like The Military Writers Guild, Team RWB, Team Rubicon, The Mission Continues, and the support systems created by Todd Connor at The Bunker Labs and Emily McMahon at Capitol Post. Regardless of your definition of Millenials, each of them saw problems and chose to make an impact.
Military Mentors isn’t on that level yet, but I saw a massive leadership failure and a problem that the military could not solve for itself. I wanted to do something about it for myself and for others. The hierarchy and silos of the military prevent these relationships from growing naturally while mandatory mentoring is an oxymoron. Cybersecurity and CAC readers make access horrible. Meanwhile, the military needs leaders who want to engage others, but blogs are uni-directional and Twitter reduces relationships to 140 characters. It is time to innovate.
Why did you join the military? People join for reasons that are as diverse and unique as they are. Through this diversity, military professionals all share a desire to serve. Service is a concept that can manifest itself in many ways, too. To some, service means hardship and time in elite units known for their rigor. To others, it can also mean putting priceless skills towards the greater good as a linguist, IT expert, or medical professional. Regardless of how you define it for yourself, service values impact over income.
I believe that providing mentoring to other military professionals is an even more selfless form of service. Our national security depends on having the best and brightest stay and find the right career paths. More importantly, we need them to be engaged and to understand what they cannot possibly know. How will you measure your life’s impact? What will it take for you to truly serve? Why not start now.
Be a part of the wave of defense innovation. We’re Military Mentors and we are starting a startup that matters.