Photo credit: Philip Gheorghiu '19
On Oct. 3 the 14 members of Cornell’s Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) presented their business plans for the dreams they have of entering the civilian sector as entrepreneurs.
After eight days at Cornell learning from faculty at the School of Hotel Administration and other experts in their respective fields, our heroes displayed the fruits of their labor and demonstrated their capacity for success. The veterans completed a three-week online component and will now go on to launch their ventures with one year of access to all the resources the EBV Technical Assistance Program has at its disposal, all free of charge.
EBV has provided our nation’s post-9/11 veterans with service-related disabilities experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management since its foundation by the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University in 2007. Now at ten universities including Cornell, EBV according to its website continues to “open the door to economic opportunity for veterans” by helping them develop the skills necessary to create and sustain an entrepreneurial venture.
Having just concluded its fourth year, the Cornell’s EBV remains the only program of its kind to focus exclusively on hospitality entrepreneurship, partnering with the Pillsbury Institute for Hospitality Entrepreneurship (PIHE) to offer veterans a taste of the greatest hospitality education in the world. Faculty and experienced professionals offer insight specifically regarding the food and beverage industry, which has experienced high demand among aspiring entrepreneurial veterans. Whether transitioning from the military to marketing or the front lines to food trucks, veterans can take advantage of the expertise volunteered by lecturers and guest speakers alike as a small token of gratitude for their service.
Moving forward, the 14 veterans of EBV Cornell 2015 hope to emulate the successes of their peers, which can be expressed by the following statistics from the national EBV program:
- 1,236 EBV graduates/aspiring entrepreneurs trained;
- $196 million (and growing) in revenue has been generated by EBV graduate businesses;
- 68% of EBV graduates have started their own businesses; 92% of those are still in business today;
- 1 out of every 4 EBV graduate businesses grosses over $100,000/year
- 72 – The average number of people employed by an EBV graduate
- EBV graduate businesses currently employ 1,886 people
We here at Cornell wish our veterans the best of luck in their future endeavors and would like to express our gratitude to the corporate partners and other sponsors of EBV that make this wonderful opportunity available to our heroes through their continued support. For more information, please visit http://vets.syr.edu/education/ebv/.
