San Diego Veteran Entrepreneurs Summit 2017

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San Diego, CA and California ENTREPRENEURS! SUMMIT 2017!

RP Connections and Members in the San Diego, CA area and surrounding cities in California the National Veterans Transition Services, Inc (REBOOT), and the San Diego Veterans Coalition are coordinating the 2017 Veteran Entrepreneur Summit to be held on Saturday 23 September at the Liberty Station Conference Center.

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RP Members and Connections as you know, approximately 25% of our veterans express a desire to become entrepreneurs. We are now paying more attention to this group than in the past, leveraging community resources and the knowledge and skills of those of us on the board who can lend our direct experience.

The event, presented by the City of San Diego, will host over 350 active duty/veterans and spouses for for a day of SHARING, SUPPORTING, and SUCCEEDING to "Inspire Veteran Entrepreneurs to Achieve Their Goals At Warp Speed."  The Summit will provide workshops along 5 tracks, on: Starting a Business, Accessing Funding, Growing Your Business, Contracting, and Franchising.  Attendees will network with 40 exhibitors and nationally recognized speakers and subject matter experts -The keynote for the Summit is Marine Corps veteran Tony Perez, Founder of Surcuri which recently was purchased by Go DaDDY.  They will also have the opportunity to brainstorm with experts in topic related roundtables. To our knowledge this has never been done before and is long over due for a large military/veteran region like San Diego! 

San Diego has the largest concentration of military in the country and the 3rd highest population of post–9/11 veterans in the U.S. It is also the #1 destination for veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

For several years San Diego has been named by major national publications as the #1 place to start a business. And California Department of Veterans Affairs research tells us 25% of discharged veterans want to start a business. Many veterans and currently enlisted military have launched startup enterprises and many more are seeking valuable information to help them startup and succeed.

The veteran entrepreneur service ecosystem in San Diego consists of numerous non-profits, governmental, and higher learning institutions offering fragmented services that are not organized or coordinated. Additionally, there are several national organizations operating here in silos. This proliferation of assistance creates a daunting and confusing abundance of options.

This unique Summit will bring together organizations & veteran business owners throughout the Southern California region to establish cooperation and coordination of services focused on veteran and military entrepreneurs. The Summit will pull those varied services together in one event for a one-stop shopping experience where diverse services can be showcased in one area.

There are sponsorship & volunteer opportunities available if you wish to play role in the Summit. We offer you several different sponsor levels giving Company xyz  exposure/interaction with Summit participants – see the attached.

Please confirm that Company xyz wishes to leverage this opportunity as an EXHIBITOR or SPONSOR as soon as possible

For those veterans contemplating starting a business and those planning to expand their current business, Veteran Launch will be one of our sponsors and panelists. As you might recall, I serve on their advisory board of Veteran Launch, which is unique among Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) in that we provide micro loans (up to $250,000) for business startup and expansion, and only require the veteran to own 20% of the business, plus we have no credit score minimum requirement, thus removing the two biggest obstacles for veterans hoping to obtain debt financing. And because we are a nonprofit, we have been able to keep interest rate as low as possible (Prime plus 4% or currently 8.25%). At this point, Veteran Launch can only lend to CA businesses, but hopefully we’ll expand across the country soon.