Women Who Disrupt
Aerial Resupply Coffee Shares Their Top 12 Veteran-Owned Companies to Support in 2023
Did you know that there are over 2.5 million businesses in the United States that are owned by veterans? That is an amazing statistic, and it just goes to show how strong the veteran community is. In this blog post, we will be talking about 12 of the best veteran-owned companies you should support in 2023, according to Michael Klemmer, Veteran and owner of Aerial Resupply Coffee. These companies do a phenomenal job of giving back to the veteran community, and they deserve your support in the new year!
Consequence of Habit – JT Frank
This 501c3 Nonprofit organization, Led by a board of individuals with diverse backgrounds, including Veterans and First Responders Consequence of Habit, is a leading non-profit that focuses on habits. Providing cutting-edge education, connections, inspiration, and purpose. Powerful storytelling can serve as a starting point for beginning new positive habits or coping mechanisms to help start the journey to eradicate poor habits. Purpose-driven events which deliver experiential service work combined with inspirational, educational aspects of recovery and positive habit forming.
Learn More about Consequence of Habit
Empower Employ – Lindsay Helm
Re-launched in 2021, Empower Employ solves the issues of connecting employers to the military community to focus on training prospective employers on not only how to hire veterans and Military Spouses, but on the value that the talent can bring to organizations, as well as how to transform organizational culture to include and support Military hires.
Inspired by the founder Lindsay’s discriminatory experience years earlier, She realized that she could build the best technology in the world, but unless companies were willing to educate themselves on the Military community, the existing gap would remain. With this renewed focus, she officially relaunched Empower Employ in June 2021, during a pcs move cross-country from NY to Hawaii. Empower Empoy is 100% Female, Veteran, & Military Spouse owned. Without a single investor. They have generated 17 corporate partners and have placed 80+ Spouses and Veterans in roles this year.
Learn More about Empower Employ
Saddleback Leather Co – Jason Scoggins
Saddleback Leather Co makes absurdly high quality leather bags. To put it simply, Saddleback’s goal is this: To love people around the world by making excessively high quality leather designs. Being Veteran owned and offering their incredible 100 year warranty they’re a great option to consider in the new year!
Learn More About Saddleback Leather Co
GoWild. – Brad Luttrell
GoWild is a free social community helping outdoor enthusiasts improve their skills, discover gear & earn rewards. Everybody has been doing more and more camping and getting into nature of the last couple of years. When it’s time to upgrade your equipment or plan your next trip, you might as well do it with the support of a community that gets it. Even better if you get to support a veteran-owned company at the same time.
Work Culture Consultant – Brittinay Lenhart
After serving eight years in the air force and managing projects and teams for the military, DOD/NASA contracting, and fortune 500 company to the private sector, she decided to bring her services to the public. Brittinay’s mission is to improve the work culture and Toxic Workplace concerns at all levels of a company so that a company can thrive emotionally and thusly, financially. Bringing her military background, she can help companies take an educated approach to hiring and maintaining veteran employees.
Learn More About Work Culture Consultant
Kristen Burke
Kristin Burke is a US army Veteran and transition coach. Her transition wasn’t easy, and she had to learn how to navigate civilian life without a guide. Kristen is on a mission to #change22. This means she has taken to bring down the statistic that we are losing an average of 22 veterans daily. That is roughly one veteran every 65 minutes. She is working to help veterans create a life worth living and will never leave a fallen comrade.
Learn More About Kristen Burke
MacSon Protection Services – Bruce McElhaney
MacSon Protection Services LLC is a Texas corporation that offers a customizable portfolio of private security services. MacSon is Licensed by the Texas Department of Public Safety (B24067201) and is fully insured. They are Veteran owned and operated with over 18 years of military background, 27 years of Law Enforcement service, and over 30 years of private security experience. They believe in and live by the principles of integrity, honesty, and respect in our personal lives and business operations.
Learn More About MacSon Protection Services
Lonestar Landscape DFW – Kevin Marshall
Lonestar Landscape is a veteran-owned landscaping and outdoor living company in Fort Worth, serving residential and commercial clients throughout Dallas-Fort Worth and surrounding areas. Their management team of seasoned professionals are dedicated to their core values and offer expertise in water management, native Texas horticulture, and solid business practices.
Learn More About Lonestar Landscape DFW
Vets2Industry – Brian Arrington
Brian Arrington started Vets2Industry to provide a free resource library for the military community – active, guard, reserve, veteran, military-spouse, dependent children, Blue-Star & Gold-Star Families, and caregivers – so they know which organizations provide free services and benefits through the 501c3 nonprofit organization. V2I also serves to break the circle of ignorance by listing companies that have opportunities for veterans, those that have specific military hiring programs, those that are on the 100 Military Friendly companies list, and those that selflessly provide Fortune 500 mentors for a year to transitioning service members through their partnership with American Corporate Partners. The goal is to educate all 220,000 to 240,000 transitioning service members each year and their dependents on free resources to ease their transition and life needs and, more importantly, provide hope.
Learn More about Vets2Industry
O’conner Woodworking – Jeffery O’Connor
Owned by Jeff O’Connor, a retired U.S. Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Master Chief and a former Chicago Law Enforcement Officer.
Jeff has been woodworking for 25 years, and in 2019 he was accepted into the Purple Heart Project. The PHP is a hand-tool woodworking course for Combat Wounded Veterans taught by world-renowned woodworker Rob Cosman. This course changed his life forever and inspired him to launch O’Connor Woodworking!
He currently resides in Virginia Beach, Virginia, with his artisan wife, Kim, and creates custom woodworking pieces for clients worldwide.
Learn More About O’Conner Woodworking
Boots 2 Books – Peter Cline
Boots to Books is a 501c3 nonprofit network of students, veterans, and professionals across multiple industries committed to helping veterans through every facet of their education and employment, always for free.
Learn More About Boots 2 Books
VetJourney – Mark Delaney
A classic idea “born-in-a-garage” story, Vet Journey started with two neighbors, beer-in-hand, looking for a better way for veterans to transition into the civilian sector using advanced data analytics and an intuitive user experience. Since that moment, Vet Journey has grown through trial-and-error and phenomenal feedback from veterans.
Today, they help active-duty service members across the globe build their next career using our cutting-edge platform. They offer a personalized experience complete with a curated collection of resources from the world’s largest single veterans transition resource library. Their culminating goal is to equip service members for their next big transition, whether that is in academia, as an entrepreneur, or beginning their role in the private sector.
Conclusion There are a lot of things we will all need to purchase throughout the year and many service providers we will need to hire. We might as well give back to those who have served us and buy from veteran-owned businesses. Speaking of, while planning out all your priorities for the new year, make sure you enjoy a hot cup of Aerial Resupply Coffee from our friend Michael Klemmer who worked so diligently to help us put this article together!
