VetTechTrek is a nonprofit founded last year with the goal of helping military veterans network with the technology industry.
Over the last 12 months they have worked toward this goal by hosting multiple “treks” that brought more than 180 veterans and spouses to meet with veterans who work at more than 60 technology startups in New York, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC. Some companies have included Dropbox, Twitter, Facebook and Y Combinator.
While feedback was great, the nonprofit became overwhelmed with requests from both veterans and companies wanting to participate.
So today VetTechTrek is launching Project Standard, an e-learning platform that will house a library of resources to help veterans build great post-military careers. Essentially, the nonprofit plans to help veterans with anything “that can help translate their military experiences to stories and skills that make sense for hiring managers and founding teams.”
These lessons will be broken down into content based on Companies, Topics and Roles.
The Companies portion will function like video-based “treks” to replicate the experience of their in-person events. The other two sections will focus on helping veterans with things like resume development, networking and other topics relevant to transitioning service members.
 
To build the platform, VetTechTrek just launched a Kickstarter to raise $50,000, which will be used to pay pre- and post-production crews to film about 100 “Netflix-quality” instructional videos.
But why use Kickstarter to raise funding when the nonprofit could presumably easily fundraise from the over 60 companies that have already supported the initiative?
VetTechTrek explains that they wanted to validate “without a shadow of a doubt” that they’re building something that veterans actually want.
The nonprofit was started by Steve Weiner and Mike Slagh, two navy veterans who now work in the tech industry in San Francisco.
While the group will continue running a few in-person treks each year, the majority of the nonprofit’s resources will be dedicated to the new e-learning platform.
You can check out their Kickstarter here, which will be live for three more weeks, and has already raised $12,000 out of their $50,000 goal.
