Dayton, Ohio – Wright State University has opened the doors to Ohio’s first Veterans Business Outreach Center (VBOC) at its Millett Hall. Established in cooperation with the Small Business Administration (SBA), this project seeks to enable veterans and military families to launch and grow their own companies.
Held Wednesday morning, the opening ceremony symbolizes a turning point in helping veterans in the state to embrace their entrepreneurial drive. The clear need for more committed resources for veteran entrepreneurs, underlined by the SBA’s latest report noting it provided $1.3 billion in loans to veteran entrepreneurs in fiscal year 2024, drove the founding of the VBOC in Ohio.
The Veteran and Military Center director at Wright State, Seth Gordon, clarified that the SBA’s two-year period of negotiations resulted in the decision to open a VBOC at Wright State. Wright State was a strategic site for this new office because of its proximity of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, one of the biggest Air Force facilities in the country, together with a significant concentration of defense contractors and veterans in the Dayton area.
“It’s a huge, big deal,” Gordon said as Dayton Daily News reported. “To add this means that we’re expanding our reach from just serving the students at Wright State University, to serving the veterans in the state of Ohio.”
The center seeks to provide veterans and military spouses wishing to enter the industry complete support, including capital and training. The customized services are meant to adapt the knowledge and discipline veterans gain in the military to the corporate sector.
President of Dayton’s Battle Sight Technologies Nicholas Ripplinger told his success story, which resulted from an SBA-backed program at Syracuse University and a later SBA loan during COVID. These tools enabled him to start and run his company during uncertain times.
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Supported by an SBA grant, the VBOC project provides evidence of the cooperative effort between federal and academic institutions to promote economic development and employment creation. Emphasizing the need of increasing knowledge and capital availability to veterans, Geri Aglipay, regional administrator for the SBA’s Great Lakes area, Aglipay clarified further that the Veterans Business Outreach Center seeks to ensure veterans have access to money, the money required to launch and grow their company, and that counseling services are also part of the project.
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Nicole Liatos, vice president of entrepreneurial initiatives for the Economic and Community Development Institute (ECDI), added to the offerings of the new office. These cover mentoring, coaching, and training with choices for both hybrid and virtual seminars across the state. The initiative accepts veterans from everywhere in Ohio as well as from the Dayton region.
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Veterans or military spouses interested in these services are encouraged to begin by visiting the ECDI website or getting in touch directly to the institute. More than just a resource, this innovative facility is a lighthouse of opportunity providing a link from military duty to entrepreneurship, therefore promoting community development and personal growth among veterans.
