If you’re a veteran business owner, the support given from nonprofits, certification and corporations alike can help you to receive the funding you need to thrive. Thanks to a partnership between FedEx Founder’s Fund, part of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, and Hiring Our Heroes, veteran business owners Greg Hatcher and John Stigerwalt received a $10,000 grant to further White Knight Labs (WKL)—their cybersecurity company. We sat down with Hatcher to discuss his entrepreneurial career; the influence veteran service organizations can have on the community and the importance of business certification.
What inspired you to join the military and what branch did you serve in?
My parents raised me with a mindset for serving others. Growing up we were always volunteering at our church and helping the less fortunate. I served in the U.S. Army’s 5th Special Forces Group.
What prompted you to create White Knight Labs?
John and I started WKL because we were tired of seeing companies being taken advantage of by ‘fly-by-night’ penetration companies that were simply running a vulnerability scanner and passing that off as a penetration test. WKL as a company is a proof of concept for what can happen if you take only senior and principal level engineers that have decades of combined experience and give them loose left and right limits on their methods for completing objectives on engagements. We hire smart people so they can provide guidance to us and our clients, not the other way around.
How has your military service influenced your career?
My military service has influenced my career by instilling an extreme level of persistence. Being the senior communications sergeant on a Special Forces ODA forced me to learn to be self-sufficient.
There were several occasions during combat deployments where a new piece of technology would be sent to me without a manual and my leadership just expected me to figure it out. Flash-forward to my current career in offensive cybersecurity, oftentimes there is no formal guidance on how to learn something or even how to complete certain objectives on a red team engagement. This environment demands creativity and an unlimited amount of grit and persistence.
How has earning a Veteran-Owned Business certification helped your business?
Being a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and also a federal contractor has helped the business because it gives us access to a contract that the USG sets aside for SDVOSBs specifically, which means that we have the ability to bid contracts with limited competition.
You were recently chosen to receive the Hiring Our Heroes (HOH) Small Business Grant. How do funds like this help your business?
Funds like the HOH Small Business Grant help our business by allowing us to expend resources on hiring interns and also supporting veterans by giving away several seats in every virtual training that we teach. For instance, when WKL taught two courses at Hack Space Con recently, we gave away a total of 20 seats: 10 seats for WKL’s Offensive Development course and 10 seats for WKL’s Advanced Red Team Operations course. Without grants like the HOH grant, these initiatives would be impossible.
Why should other veterans certify their business?
Like I mentioned above, I recommend that veterans certify their business as either a VOSB or SDVOSB because it gives them the ability to bid on contracts that are ‘set aside’ by the USG and they’re competing against far fewer companies than in the private sector.
Read the complete article in the digital magazine here.
