SSG Daniel Alarik here, CEO of Grunt Style, coming by for a Q&A on 6/6. What questions do you have for me?

Great way to start!

Let's get started.

He's got some good apparrel, we've got some Grunt Style T-shirts and hoodies we wear fairly regularly.

Stephanie Jones - Awesome - thanks for the endorsement!

Was "Gruntstyle" your first choice for your brand?

SSG Daniel Alarik - thanks for your response to my question: What criteria would you recommend for entrepreneurs who are considering hiring veterans to sort the wheat from the chaff to benefit the company and the veterans?
"If you're hiring someone, make sure they're qualified with the basics on paper first. Then during the interview you job is to make sure what they say and what the wrote matches up. But after you interview 3 qualified people, take the very next one that is the best, even if you have to go back and hire the first one. This would immediately let you hire the top 25% of candidates. If you want to hire the top 1%, you'll need to interview 100 people and "Ain't nobody got time for that."
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Nope. But it was the first one on the list that had an available domain name.

I love this question Brian, can you give an example of self sabotage? (minor or severe)

Hi Robin!
Glad to elaborate. I jumped to the corporate world after living the Grunt life. I encountered laziness, highly unethical behavior, cut throat underhanded behavior; directed at people on the same team! Instead of languishing and complaining, the entrepreneurial bug bit. Developed an idea, did an angel and Series A funding round, pulled in vets to make it go; even wrangled a few Tier 1 guys to the business. For the most part, a very functional business that resulted in a successful exit. However, sadly there were a couple vets that came on board, hard chargers at first. But once some of the pressures of a start up and dealing with civilians, some very serious attitude problems and awful behavior in front of high end clients manifested. Rude, belligerent, and very much an "F-this" attitude flared. Naturally, we try to watch out for our own, but even after discussions to fix their headspace and timing, then "in-writing" counseling, they had to be let go because they chose to act out, and place responsibility for their terrible professional behavior on "f-ing civilians". They became rust in some very well oiled gears.

My second start up; founded by 4 vets. Rocket ship ride. 4 vet founders, and it turned into a rocket ride from us, into 46 employees and $20.3 million in revenue in three years. Arguably a functional business, mostly vet employees. Shockingly, the exact same problem manifested in a few of the vets. Severe attitude problems stemming from their inability, to put in the effort to adapt to working in the fast paced civilian world. Again, fully counseled, and fully aware that their behavior would lead to consequences that would see them relieved of their duties. Yet they chose to continue their ways despite so many chances to correct their headspace and timing.

These are guys who got their our process counseling, were told what to expect in the civilian world. Great lengths were gone to get guys the help they needed if there were other issues. Fully supported whatever needed to be done between they and the VA.

I'm not done with high tech entrepreneurialism, and/or working in roles that will have the ability to do something for our peers. But this time, it would be good to be able to help em all. There is nothing like a vet in the workplace. Selfishly, if the chance to have an all vet corporate team, that would be as good as it could get in the civvie work world.

SP5 Brian Oravetz we encounter that all the time. What we offer here is a bit different. In most companies veterans are the 1%, but here they are the majority. It helps to have men and women to your left and right understand you better.

However, times can get very desperate for many vets and we work with our partners and charities for assistant. Your job is safe if your seeking help.