Forward with NACCE

Entrepreneurship for Veterans with Professor Andy Gold

May 31, 2021 National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship Season 2021 Episode 21
Forward with NACCE
Entrepreneurship for Veterans with Professor Andy Gold
Show Notes Transcript

Join Dr. Andrew M. Gold and Dr. Rebecca Corbin in a special edition of our podcast honoring our nation's heroes on Memorial Day. Learn about the three-step entrepreneurship education model successfully implemented at the InLab@HCC, and how a pen pal program for deployed service members sparked the launch of an entrepreneurship program that provides education, mentorship, and support to the veteran community. Learn more about NACCE's Veterans Entrepreneurship Center of Practice and the work that we are doing in partnership with HCC and others at nacce.com/veterans.

Subscribe to our podcast and share your insights and comments from this episode on your favorite platform. Connect with @NACCE on social media, and use hashtags #NACCEPodcast and #MakingOurWayFoward in your posts. We welcome NACCE members to continue the conversation on NACCEMeets, our exclusive member forum.
 
Do you want to be a guest speaker and meet our hosts? Email NACCE Podcast Producer Nataliia Berezhna, or learn more at nacce.com/podcast

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Rebecca Corbin (00:02):

Welcome to making our way forward a podcast where we share compelling life stories and learn from the experience of everyday entrepreneurs at NACY. We celebrate diversity and invite you to join the conversation. As we talk to entrepreneurs and leaders from all walks of life, we hope that by telling their stories, we bring you inspiration, empower you to take action and ignite entrepreneurship in your community.

Rebecca Corbin (00:48):

Welcome making our way forward podcast and happy Memorial day. It honors the lives of so many people. And today we have with us a very special guest to talk about some of the wonderful, amazing, impactful programs that are going on at Hillsborough community college and around the country. So it's my pleasure to welcome Dr. Andy gold, who we're going to call on this program, Andy, because he is a good friend of Nacy's and, um, just a wonderful collaborative leader. So welcome to the program, Andy, how are you doing today?

Andy Gold (01:22):

Oh, I'm doing great. Thank you so much, Becky, for everything you do. And for inviting me to join you today on the podcast, I'm really excited to be here.

Rebecca Corbin (01:32):

Yeah. We're excited to have you and where we have a lot to get into over the next 20 minutes or so, but as you and I were speaking about a little bit earlier this morning, we were looking back at the history of Memorial day. And as we know, it, it honors men and women who died serving our country. So it is really a solemn, uh, Memorial, um, and thinking about those who made the ultimate sacrifice. And one of the things that we know is that in, in 1971, um, prior to that, it was known as, um, decoration day. So it really made that transformation. And as you and I spoke about, um, one of the conflicts, it, um, honors, the people who've died is the civil war, which ended in 1865, which was the greatest lives lost in an American conflict. So, um, we begin in a heavy place, uh, but it's a nice transition to talk about a book that you and your colleague, professor Beth curly. And I had a chance to write during the pandemic. And, uh, one of the things that you really advocated for that we all embraced was beginning with inequality. So I'd love for you to begin our conversation talking about impacted, um, and inequality and some of the research that you came upon as, as we were working on that project.

Andy Gold (02:53):

Great. So I'm sure as your listeners know already, cause you've probably mentioned impact at numerous times. Um, the book is basically, uh, all about how community college entrepreneurship, um, really helps to level the playing field of opportunity while at the same time, creating wonderful windows of access into equality, inclusion and diversity. And I think there's so much going on, uh, nationally, uh, in the community college system, but the, the chapter you referenced is the first chapter, um, the I and impact ed. And it really is an important chapter because, um, racial and economic inequality has been researched in great depth. I mean, there's an awful lot of scholarship around, um, those areas of any inequality, but what isn't really all that research is inequality as it relates to small business and small business enterprising. So the emphasis of that particular chapter, at least some of the research was centered on how much inequality exists within the landscape of a business enterprise and especially within small business communities and you know, what can really be done about that.

Andy Gold (04:09):

And community colleges is probably one of the best gateways for addressing that particular challenge. Um, just to give you some data around it over the course of COVID approximately 41% of all black owned businesses will have closed. Um, unfortunately as a result of COVID, uh, and that compares with about 16 or 17% of white owned businesses, um, access to capital is another huge, uh, inequity within the landscape of small business, enterprising many, um, small business owners from under-resourced communities had enormous difficulty and challenges accessing capital. And even today are still experiencing that to some degree, it's gotten a lot better in the past couple of months. Um, but it's still a huge challenge. So there's so much there. I don't, I mean, I could talk about that. I got the, I'll talk about that chapter for an hour as you know, but, but there's a lot there. Yeah.

Rebecca Corbin (05:06):

You know, and one of the things that I love about the work that we have done together along with, um, Beth curly and other colleagues is really being solution oriented because really that's the mindset of an entrepreneur, right? You don't shop a solution, you look at a problem, you ideate on it. You look at what's at hand and try to come up with solutions. So one of the things that, that you and Beth really spent a lot of time on that, I, um, have thought about a lot and to be honest, try to advocate as much as I can in conversations that we are having with the small business administration is really looking at, um, not only the inequality and how black owned businesses were adversely hurt, but the startup of new businesses during the pandemic it's historic and you all came up with, I think, a very creative solution that we are in the midst of advocating for adoption, perhaps through a national pilot and in combination with government. But why don't you share with our listeners? We now have listeners in 15 countries and over 225 cities. So I want people to really understand, um, the opportunity that we have. So, um, maybe share a bit about that.

Andy Gold (06:22):

Sure. So the number of new business applications is at the highest level it's been at in approximately 20 years or so, but it's really important to parse that data out. So there's, there's really two categories of people that have filed to create new businesses. One form is called a necessity entrepreneur. And these are people that really out of economic desperation, um, are considering starting a business and file to create a new business. Um, those applications are way up, um, as you mentioned, beginning in the third quarter of last year and continuing on today, the second type of business application is what's called a high propensity business application. Now these are businesses that are much more likely to track toward hiring employees and becoming what's called cash flow, positive, you know, generating more money coming into your business. Then it's going out in a very short period of time.

Andy Gold (07:22):

So that type of that's also at a 20, almost a 20 year high. Those are the ones that we're really focused on here because those businesses are going to be, uh, economic drivers. And we know that the failure rate is really high. Um, unfortunately even today, after all of the education that's advanced, it's not as bad as it used to be, but it's still pretty bad about 21% of all businesses fail the first year, they're in business, 50% within five years and seven out of 10 businesses within 10 years. So we're thinking, you know, let's approach this from a policy perspective. And this was really, um, my colleague Beth's brain child, you know, she came up with this idea. I was sharing the data with her and she's like, oh my God, there's a great policy opportunity here. So what we're we're proposing is for people that haven't yet actually launched their business, let's use the model that NACY and all of the community colleges that are part of that community have worked so hard to develop, which is to educate first, um, inject some mentorship along the way, then offer funding and then have very intrusive mentoring.

Andy Gold (08:35):

Post-funding we believe based on the experience we've had with that model, that that's the secret sauce to sustaining businesses beyond that one year and five year, period of time. So we'd be really excited to really advance that on a larger scale.

Rebecca Corbin (08:51):

Yeah, I think that is it's, it's so simple. And, and we're going to get into that in a minute, talking about some of the success stories that, um, are captured in impact ad. And I know at the end of the episode, we have just a very, um, wonderful tribute to share, which connects to Memorial day. However, I do want to, since we have you here thinking, um, blue sky and opportunity, I, you know, there's many reasons to feel, you know, an angst and concern about, you know, the divisions and some of the things that are going on. But, uh, we've talked before about how entrepreneurship is a very unifying, uh, thing. It, um, crosses parties, it crosses communities. It's something that people can rally around because it's really about rebuilding and it's really about the American dream. So one of the things that we've spoken about with, um, the founders of everyday entrepreneur venture fund and our executive committee that you and Beth serve on as well, is the opportunity for the entrepreneurship caucus.

Rebecca Corbin (09:56):

That's chaired by Senator Amy Klobuchar, char, uh, from, uh, Minnesota and Senator Tim Scott from the state of South Carolina to really think about capturing the moment. Um, we understand that the entrepreneurship caucus was formed a few years ago with the purpose of, um, kind of fostering and igniting more businesses. Will we accomplish that? Right? So what we want to do, I think is what you're talking about is, is how can we support these businesses? Either? The people that like you spoke about are, um, entrepreneurs by necessity or others that have high propensity. So I'm going to put you on the spot. Um, if you were speaking right now to the entrepreneurship caucus, senators, Clovis, char Scott and their bi-partisan colleagues, what do you imagine could be a hugely impactful program that could really seize the moment?

Andy Gold (10:52):

Well, I think the first thing is to get that caucus to re-imagine what entrepreneurship actually is. So I would want to talk with them about the broader nature of how entrepreneurship education can not only lead to job creation through that three-step model of, you know, educate, fond and mentor that we just spoke about, but also amp up the skills that a young people, middle-aged people, people in job transition a little bit later on in life desperately need, so they can find their place in the economy of today. And all of those skills are directly aligned with entrepreneurial competencies that we teach. So I would want to really stress to get behind an initiative that really allows people to take advantage of educational opportunities throughout the community college system, but really amp up the offerings, you know, bring in people that are not, you know, these famous entrepreneurs, but people that have achieved great success, uh, but came out of nowhere to do so.

Andy Gold (11:59):

We've heard of their names, but let those people come in and really get behind an entrepreneurship program throughout the nation and give people a chance to aspire towards something and figure out a way to do it through the pathway of other people's lives. And I think with the right support from Congress and from federal agencies and national partners that we have, we should be able to aggregate those types of individuals that could be life-changing for so many people that will see themselves in people that look like them that speak like them that come from communities like them. And they will then begin to realize, gosh, I knew that that existed, but now I realize it's an opportunity that I can actually pursue. Cause someone just like me is successful. And now I can do the same thing.

Rebecca Corbin (12:48):

That is great. So you threw down the gauntlet. And one of the things that we've been imagining is really the opportunity and August, and we have a site visit to make in Minneapolis, Minnesota. So we have a number of like-minded colleagues that want to come together and have a great announcement, which, um, really ties us back to a lot of the work that we've been doing through the everyday entrepreneur venture fund, because you're right, these are not famous people. These are our neighbors. These are people in our communities that with a little bit of support, sometimes with a little bit of seed funding, they may be folks that don't qualify for a traditional loan, but that they have skills. They have the opportunity to create something amazing. So there's going to be more to come on that. Um, but I tell you this would not be possible without, um, faculty who have also been entrepreneurs.

Rebecca Corbin (13:43):

So we're going to bring you back at another time to talk about your whole story coming from wall street to Tampa and meeting John Travolta along the way. So that's a little teaser for some of our listeners, but Andy, because we only have a few minutes left, I want you to share a story and an artifact. So maybe you can describe it verbally. When we released the video edition, people will be able to see it, but close us out and share with us, um, uh, a very impactful story as we honor, um, this solemn holiday of Memorial day and begin the summer of 2021.

Andy Gold (14:19):

Okay, sure. I have two quick stories and I promise I'll make them as quick as possible. Um, so the first one is, uh, back in the mid two thousands, my wife Anne was working at a small private college in New York called purchase college. And, uh, she worked for the college president and she taught a communications course there. And one of her students was a young man by the name of Juan Salice. And he entered into the reserves initially and got deployed to Iraq. And when he was there and wrote to him as did the college, and when he came back, he spoke about how meaningful that was for him. You know, he's a person that comes from a single mom and you know, that whole type of upbringing. So we launched a pen pal writing program in the mid two thousands called my soldier and it blew up.

Andy Gold (15:07):

I mean, there were at one, it was at one point over 300,000 Americans writing to deployed service members all over the world. Um, and in the correspondence I had, one of the things that really struck me was a lot of the deployed service members love to talk about what their aspirations were upon returning to the United States. And many of those aspirations included starting their own businesses. And I thought, man, if I was ever in a situation where I could help and aspiring veteran foreigners, we refer to them, uh, to be able to realize that dream I was going to do it. And Hillsborough community college and working with Beth and UW has really given us the chance to scale that impact. So that was one story. And I want people who don't know this to know that veterans are 42% more likely, uh, to pursue self-employment when compared with non-veterans and that's an SBA a data point, but it's an important data point because when you look at why that's, so it's because veterans already possessed a lot of the skills that entrepre entrepreneurs need most notably being able to function at a very high level, under conditions of extreme uncertainty, with enormous resource constraints and every entrepreneur out there that may be listening to this knows that that's something you need to do.

Andy Gold (16:32):

So the second story that you were alluding to was one of our rock star students is a young man by the name of Adam Lou. Well, he was working on a business when we first met him called axon motor company. It was a, it's a motor, a refabrication business where he reverse engineers, old motors to create 3d printed parks where you can no longer get parts for motors. Brilliant idea. He's an engineer. He came through the in-lab and R R program and then ultimately through our veterans program as well. And he's doing very well. The business is doing well, but he came by and visited with Beth and I a short while ago and he brought us a gift and it was really meaningful to him to give this to us. Um, but what a profound thing for us to receive the gift and we're really proud of it.

Andy Gold (17:19):

So I'm going to hold up first, um, the box that he gave us, which is a box of a folded American flag. You can see it's in this box here and then along with it, he explained, and he gave us this plaque here. So that flag was flown on, uh, several missions, uh, in the middle east, most notably over Syria and was given to us by Adam he's in the air force reserves. And it meant a lot for him to give that to us. And it means even so much more for us to have received it because we often, um, as civilians, don't really focus or think about, you know, the sacrifices that are deployed service, men and women are doing on our behalf to allow us to do things like this, to have a podcast, you know, to teach at a community college, you know, to do all these things that we sometimes take for granted every day, when I walk into the end lab, now that we're back on campus, which is awesome by the way to be back on campus.

Andy Gold (18:24):

Um, I look at that flag and I look at that plaque and I'm reminded, gosh, the in-lab as I see it, wouldn't be possible if not for the sacrifice that so many other people previous, um, have given, um, on our behalf. So that's what I wanted to share. And I wanted to really just thank all the service members that are currently serving veterans, but of course, the families that, uh, over the many years have lost service members, um, on behalf of fighting for the United States. So, um, that's really what I wanted to share with you today.

Rebecca Corbin (18:59):

Yeah. That's beautiful, Andy. And I'm going to actually close this out a second time. So for those of you who are looking I'm, I'm having the impact ed book, and I think it's safe to say that you Beth and I, along with our NACY colleagues wrote this book as our gift to everyone and as an invitation to everyone to get engaged with your community, um, we recommend through your community college or through NACY, but, but to do something. So I'm going to just close out with this quote and I'm going to thank you in advance, Andy, so that as we end our podcasts, we can just think and honor those people. We right. We are grateful that our paths have crossed with yours. We hope that this book will inspire you to take action in your community, whatever your gifts are, nation in the world need them. The time to act is now,

Andy Gold (19:54):

I don't know which one of us wrote that, but I have a feeling. It was you Becky. And that was brilliant. That was a really good, uh, section of the book. And I want to thank you for cobbling that really, um, strong statement together, because I think it represents everything we're trying to accomplish.

Speaker 4 (20:14):

Thank you so much for joining us. We hope they're listening to this podcast will help you to explore the many ways we might define entrepreneurship. Join us every other Wednesday for more episodes. As we celebrate opportunity, learn from one another and grow together. Subscribe to this podcast, connect with us on social media and learn more about today's speakers at nacy.com/pike. We look forward to making our way forward together with you.

Speaker 1 (20:46):

Have you heard our latest book impact ed, how community college entrepreneurship creates equity and prosperity. This is our roadmap for building back better in 50 states and globally in each chapter, we share the inspiring stories of everyday entrepreneurs and explain how community colleges play a crucial role in their success. Visit us at nacy.com/impact ad to order your copy now and join us in this work. Yeah.