Entrepreneurship Resource Network
Key topics
We encourage representatives from organizations across the public, private, and non-profit sectors to work together to support military, veteran, and spouses who are entrepreneurs and are focused on:
Raising awareness of opportunities, programs, and opportunities for veteran owned businesses
Encouraging employment-focused organizations to also connect service members, veterans, and their families to entrepreneurship programs, small business opportunities, and incubators
Developing and maintaining a current list of Veteran Owned Businesses in Massachusetts to support outreach efforts and create an access point for those looking to do business with them
Sharing data regarding the landscape overall of Veteran Owned Businesses
Forming affinity groups to organize and facilitate community summits on relevant topics and issues and to collect and share information and resources on this page
Submitting events to the shared calendar using the tag #entrepreneurship and other tags as needed so they appear above and on relevant resource and community pages.
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On May 11, 2017, we convened an Employment & Entrepreneurship Summit, hosted by Brighton Marine. The focus of the summit was on programs supporting employment and entrepreneurship among veterans. We also reviewed RAND’s recent Assessment of Needs, Well-Being, & Available Resources for Veterans in Massachusetts. The program included presentations from:
Barry Rosenbloom, TechSandBox VET program for military entrepreneurs in tech
Chris Pratt, Veteran Entrepreneur Series
Christopher Feugill, on state, local, federal, and non-profit employment resources for veterans.
Presentations were followed by deep dive discussions in breakout groups on veteran entrepreneurship and employment, including discussion of the relevant findings from the RAND report.
Network Directory
Participants with a focus on entrepreneurship in the military and veteran community form the backbone of the Entrepreneurship Resource Network. This directory includes veteran owned businesses and nonprofits within the network and those supporting entrepreneurship among service members, veterans, and spouses.
Entrepreneurship
Veteran Owned businesses
Massachusetts Veteran Owned Businesses
The development of a current, centralized listing of Veteran Owned Businesses in Massachusetts has been a common need raised by Veterans Collaborative participants. This directory is primarily based on publicly available information and listings. This brainstorm is ongoing and the work is tedious – if you want to collaborate on this project or accelerate it, let us know or use the link below!
In October 2023, the US Census Bureau released the most recent 2022 data from the Annual Business Survey, which includes information at the state level on veteran-owned businesses within:
Company Summaries and Characteristics of Businesses tables by industry, sex, ethnicity, race, and veteran status and Characteristics of Business Owners tables by Service-Disabled and Other Veteran Characteristics
Module Business Characteristics tables by industry, sex, ethnicity, race, and veteran status, including Effect of Coronavirus on Business Sales, Level of Operations During Coronavirus Pandemic, Level of Operations During Coronavirus Pandemic, and Outstanding Debt
Grant Opportunities
The shared outreach calendar includes a tag for #grants. Use this tag when submitting open grants to be sure organizations can find them here. Enter the date/time of the event as when applications are due. You can add a notice with the dates applications are open.
Covid-19 Resource Tracker
“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”