How a Much-Anticipated Veteran Startup Overcame Extraordinary Funding Problems

I love this story! Go Marines! Crayons Ready-to-Eat offers colors for each branch of the service. Jarhead Red, Squid Blue, Dogface Green, Flyboy Yellow, Puddle Pirate Orange and his new color for the Space Force, Space Cadet White, come in a package of CREs.
With the help of a friend who is also a chef, he developed a crayon that could write, was edible and was also a pretty good treat. In 2018. He pitched his idea to a Bunker Labs Veterans In Residence event. The reception Crayons Ready-to-Eat received there told him he was on to something.
He set up the business, the website and product line, and began generating some buzz around it. Then COVID-19 hit, along with all the restrictions, stoppages and economic fallout that came after the pandemic. "We had only done nine or 10 events," Manteau says. "We sold over a thousand units, but we knew if we could get into farmers markets, major events and bases, we could scale up. But COVID hit us hard." After overcoming extraordinary COVID-19 restrictions, Manteau is ready for anything. "Veterans look at mission accomplishment, at pressing forward," he says. "It's what our experience has trained us to do: adapt and overcome.