Freedom Makers Accepted into Veterans in Residence Program

Freedom Makers has been admitted to the newest San Francisco cohort of WeWork Veterans in Residence powered by Bunker Labs. We are excited for this opportunity to help improve and grow our business, so that we can continue to support small business owners while also creating portable work opportunities for military spouses. Through our participation in this program, we aim to improve our operations and scalability, ensuring we give our clients and Freedom Makers even better experiences with us.

After just the first day last week, we came away with new marketing ideas and opportunities, met partners who can help us streamline operations, started to get to know each other, and learned about our membership with WeWork. We even met Todd Connor, the founder of Bunker Labs. The first day was inspiring and motivating. We are excited for what is in store!
To give some background, WeWork Veterans in Residence powered by Bunker Labs is a national initiative providing space, services, business mentorship, and community to help veteran and military family member entrepreneurs find their tribe and create their life’s work. It was first incubated in Denver in the summer of 2017 and launched nationally in 10 cities on Veterans Day 2017. Freedom Makers is part of the newest cohort in San Francisco that launched March 7, 2019.

“Per the SBA and U.S. Census Bureau, there are 2.52 million U.S. businesses that are majority-owned by military veterans,” shared Erik Casarez, the Bunker Labs City Leader for San Francisco and co-owner of Green Ledger CPA. “These businesses create $1.14 trillion in revenues annually - a massive contribution to our national economy. 252,377 veteran-owned businesses are in California.” Casarez has developed a unique curriculum for this next cohort, one that focuses on structured growth.

As part of its broader effort to connect transitioning service members and veterans to economic opportunity, WeWork’s Veterans Hiring Initiative is a commitment to hire 1500 veterans over the next five years.
Bunker Labs – a 501(c)(3) non-profit – is a national network of veteran entrepreneurs that supports all entrepreneurs in the veteran community to include military veterans, military spouses and family members. They support these entrepreneurs throughout the journey of starting a business: from the idea stage to the growth stage.

Freedom Makers looks forward to this new venture! We will keep you updated as we start this journey.