Veterans non-profit debuts in Rapid City

Mitch Nachtigall gives the opening talk at a soft opening Bunker Brew at Contraband Distillery in October of 2019. (Photo by Travis Dewes)

RAPID CITY – Bunker labs is now officially operating in Rapid City after their chapter launch at Zymurcracy Beer Company on Tuesday, February 18. Bunker Labs is a national non-profit organization of veteran and military spouse entrepreneurs who are dedicated to assisting others in beginning their business ventures. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Bunker Labs has a foundational statistic that 25% of transitioning service members want to start a business and they need outlets to assist them in doing so.
Mitch Nachtigall, the incoming director of Ascent Innovation, is a Bunker Labs city leader who, with John Schneider and David Kneafsey, has spent the last 8 months in efforts of gaining local traction for the organization. “A lot of it was initially phone calls and small discussions” said Nachtigall, “and then each of us were interviewed by Bunker Labs to see if we were a good fit. All three of us continued on to the North regional summit, which is our region, in Denver.”
Contact with local veterans and entrepreneurs right now is mostly done by grassroots efforts from the three city leaders. John Schneider and David Kneafsey are both active in their VFW chapters, and Nachtigall is active in the National Guard and also talks to many entrepreneurs at Ascent Innovation. Email lists have been created and can be signed up for on the Bunker Labs Rapid City website.
A report published in 2014 by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs stated that 5.7% of the more than 62,000 veterans living in South Dakota were American Indian or Alaska Native. Also, there are currently 31,000 active duty military personal that identify as American Indian or Alaska Native according to the National Native American Veterans Memorial Website.
Despite little Native American involvement so far in the Rapid City chapter of Bunker Labs, Nachtigall intends to visit organizations like Oglala Lakota College to gain interest. “The Native community has a lot of veterans with a proud warrior heritage” he said but veteran or not, everyone is welcome, “We need all entrepreneurs whether you are civilian or military. It is entrepreneurial involvement with an emphasis on veterans. Everything else is free and open to the public.”
Rich Greenman, owner of taxidermy, game processing, and fly tying service FreedomWild Outdoors, started his business in Box Elder after retiring from the Air Force. Without an organization like Bunker Labs operating locally, Greenman didn’t have much assistance starting his business in 2015. He said “a big thing was finding the regulations that applied, and what licenses. But I think the toughest was market research when I first got started. You have to start somewhere, and all I pretty much had was the internet.”
If FreedomWild Outdoors was created today, Greenman could have the opportunity to be put in contact with successful business owners and taxidermists in the area via Bunker Labs to point him in the right direction of licensing, market research, and any other concerns he would have.
Greenman recalled a good number of his peers from his 20 years of service that were interested in starting a business, but almost all of them work in the private sector or went back to work for a government organization. “None of them actually took the plunge to start a business, and I think job security has to do with that” said Greenman “but, at least in my experience, owning your own business is definitely a more fulfilling path”
A monthly Bunker Brew is hosted at locally owned businesses. The first Bunker Brew in Rapid City was hosted at Contraband Distillery, but they have also been hosted at Zymurcracy Beer Company and Ascent Innovation. Zymurcracy Beer Company is hosting the official launch of the Rapid City chapter and is owned by former Air Force couple Jay and Shanon Waldner. Bunker Brews feature a speaker and networking time for anyone to access the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Launch Lab Online is an online learning platform that provides potential business owners with preliminary exploration into owning a business. The Launch Lab is considered a primary first step for newcomers to Bunker Labs as it has entrepreneurs know themselves, the customers, the market, and, of course, money.
Potential entrepreneurs are welcome to apply for the Veterans in Residence program, the result of a partnership between Bunker Labs and WeWork, which is described on the Bunker Lab website as “a six-month startup incubator”. Members of Veterans in Residence receive a working space with mutual meeting areas, and connections to similar business owners and mentors alike world-wide. The closest cities that the Veterans in Residence program operates are Denver and Minneapolis, but there are over 20 other cities nationwide that host the program.
The Veterans in Residence program will be replicated in Rapid City soon, but it may be named differently since WeWork is the organization that provides the work space, and Rapid City does not have a WeWork space. Hopefully Ascent Innovation will be hosting Rapid City’s version of the program as soon as June of this year.
Bunker Labs does not only serve potential or new business owners. There is a program with Bunker Labs for advanced and established businesses called the CEOCircle which provides support specifically for companies that have different needs than a startup. There is not a CEOCircle established in Rapid City yet, but there will be soon.

(Contact Travis Dewes at travisldewes@gmail.com)

Visit Original Source