Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program

Are you a veteran looking to embark on an exciting entrepreneurial journey? Get help starting your veteran-owned business.

We're thrilled to introduce you to the Florida Atlantic Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program. We recognize the unique skills, determination, and leadership qualities that veterans and their spouses bring to the business world. Since 2015, our program has empowered veterans to harness their talents and transform their entrepreneurial dreams into reality.

Business Model Canvas (BMC) Program Cohorts (Fall 2024 and Spring 2025): If you join one of our BMC Cohorts, you will complete and produce a Business Model Canvas with the assistance of a mentor. You will determine if your idea, business, or new product or service is or is not validated and marketable. After successfully completing the program, you will be eligible to enter Florida Atlantic's annual Business Pitch Competition to compete for startup seed funding.

Getting Started Program Cohort (April 2025): If you have successfully completed any of the Startup or Business Model Canvas Cohorts through the Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program at Florida Atlantic University, since the inception of the program in 2015, you may join this intensive 3-week Facilitated Getting Started Program Cohort. The curruculum is decided by the participants via survey. The six 2-hour sessions may be one of, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Incorporate your Vet-Owned Business
• Marketing and Branding Strategies
• How to Source Funding for your Enterprise 
• AI and Machine Learning for Business
• Financial Management
• Operations and Supply Chain Management
• Cybersecurity Essentials
• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Negotiation Skills
• E-commerce and Digital Transformation

Growth Cohort: If you join our Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program Facilitated Growth Program Cohort, you will receive training designed to provide you with plans to grow and expand your business. You are not required to have any employees but should have a business generating revenue. You will create a Business Model Canvas with the assistance of a mentor and will determine if your business is validated/marketable and if it is scalable/expandable.Your business must be a registered for-profit business entity or incorporated with the State of Florida on Sunbiz and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Participants must be:
● A Florida resident.
● Discharged veteran with other than bad conduct or dishonorable discharge; participants must provide electronic copy of DD214 Member 4 or U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs letter verifying other than bad conduct or dishonorable discharge.
● Active duty member of the United States military within 12 months of End Term of Service (ETS), or a member of the Florida National Guard or United States Reserves; participants must provide letter confirming guard/reserve or active duty status.
● Spouse or unremarried former spouse of a veteran or servicemember with documentation of letter verifying marriage or former marriage to a veteran or servicemember, their DD214 Member 4 copy or U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs letter verifying other than bad conduct or dishonorable discharge or letter confirming guard/reserve or active duty status.
● An entrepreneur with a for-profit idea, startup business, or established business and a need to test their risks and assumptions for a new product or service.

● Registered for-profit business entity or incorporated with the State of Florida on Sunbiz and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).(For Spring 2025 Facilitated Growth Program only.)

Veterans Florida Expo

Veterans Florida hosts an annual statewide pitch competition where Florida Atlantic may recommend a pitch contestant from one of the cohorts listed above. The Expo is a two day event for veterans, separating or retiring service members, entrepreneurs, and spouses. It includes a career fair, entrepreneur resource fair with a pitch competition, and benefits exhibition to showcase everything veterans and their families need to know about working and living in Florida.

Florida Atlantic 2024 Business Pitch Competition | Veteran Track

Each year, Florida Atlantic University holds an annual Business Pitch Competition with a Veteran track sponsored by Eric. H. Shaw and Office Depot. Veterans who successfully completed one of the 2023-24 Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program Startup Cohorts were eligible to enter the competition to compete for startup seed funding.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Florida Atlantic Business Pitch Competition | Veteran Track

• 1st place | $1,500 Dr. Eric H. Shaw Veterans Florida Entrepreneurial Excellence Award: Barracks Legend Foundation (Angelo Martinez. Natalia Earle, & Duke!)
• 2nd place | $1,000 Office Depot award: Tennessee Bob's Hot Sauce Company (Robery Vasvary)
  

Congratulations to all who competed. We wish you all much success in your entrepreneurial endeavors!

See them all here: Florida Atlantic 2024 Business Pitch Competition | Veteran Track

Florida Atlantic's Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program (VFEP) Alumni Success Stories

Steve Edwards, founder of PremierVirtual, virtual job fair platfrom continues expansion and success

Governor's Young Entrepreneur Award goes to Florida Atlantic's Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program (VFEP) graduate.

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Boca Raton businessman Logan Skees received the Governor's Young Entrepreneur Award in 2017 as a graduate of the Florida Veterans Entrepreneurship program offered by FAU Adams Center for Entrepreneurship

Contact Us 

Kevin Cox
Director, Adams Center for Entrepreneurship
kcox24@fau.edu

Jennifer Granger
Program Manager, Veterans Florida Entrepreneurship Program
jlgranger@fau.edu

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Adams Center for Entrepreneurship
777 Glades Road 
Carl DeSantis Pavilion, DS-201 
Boca Raton, FL 33431 
adamscenter@fau.edu | +1 (561) 297-3653