In celebration of our companions and the nice work they do to advance financial progress for all, we interviewed a few of our Nasdaq Basis quarterly grant recipients about their roles, backgrounds and the significance of their work. We spoke with Meghan Ogilvie, Chief Government Officer of Canine Tag Inc., on their mission to equip veterans, navy spouses, and caregivers with the instruments and schooling to construct resilience, discover renewed objective, and forge group past the navy.
Inform us about Canine Tag, Inc. What’s its core mission?
The Canine Tag Entrepreneurial 5-month Fellowship Program equips veterans, navy spouses, and caregivers with the instruments and schooling to construct resilience, discover renewed objective, and forge group past the navy. Canine Tag supplies a bridge from navy service to the civilian world via a Enterprise Administration Certificates Program at Georgetown College Faculty of Persevering with Research, a Capstone presentation, analysis on funding alternatives, and sensible utility in a DC bakery to set them up for achievement as small enterprise homeowners. Paired with a holistic method to wellness, this system permits fellows to develop as people within the context of a brand new circle of help.
The social affect mannequin of Canine Tag features a brick and mortar bakery within the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, that infuses the local people with $400,000 yearly by using native bakers, cooks, and catering workers. Revenue from the bakery helps fund this system, giving companions and donors the chance to attach with the mission and be a part of the Canine Tag group with one thing so simple as a cup of espresso.
Our funding companions are lively individuals in our success from opening their doorways to host pitch classes, resume assessment, and networking, to providing perception on finance, enterprise chemistry, and aggressive markets. Within the spirit of the group, greater than 40% of program alumni go on to help different veterans through their very own companies or working in different organizations with renewed objective and dedication.
Are you able to share a narrative that illustrates the affect of Canine Tag?
Whereas it is an attention-grabbing line merchandise that our most profitable methodology of recruitment is word-of-mouth; greater than flyers, or tables, or social media, it’s consultant of one thing a lot deeper.
Nnana Obioha was a fellow in Canine Tag’s fifth cohort, an Military veteran that now works in Cybersecurity for the EPA. He’s been a powerful alumni companion in all the years since, however extra importantly when he met George Jensen on an engagement for Mission Continues, a Veteran Service Group targeted on group tasks for veterans, and found his aim of small enterprise possession, his first suggestion was to grow to be a Canine Tag fellow. A Marine veteran with a service related incapacity, George joined cohort 18 and realized to take his merchandising machine start-up to the following degree. It was such a transformative expertise for him, personally and professionally, that his spouse, Sasha Savage, observed the distinction. She utilized to Canine Tag and was accepted into cohort 19 the next Spring the place she workshopped and developed her management teaching enterprise. Every little thing from logos and displays to draft funds, technique, and an outreach plan – The Savage Mannequin was born in this system.
This camaraderie was felt by different members of the cohort and continues to be felt by present fellows as all of them attend Canine Tag graduations and networking occasions to move alongside the spirit of entrepreneurship, management, and group to the person on their proper.
Are you able to inform us why Canine Tag’s mission is so vital? What affect are you hoping the Nasdaq Basis’s Quarterly Grant could have on Canine Tag, Inc.’s success?
The significance of Canine Tag’s mission is made clear on a regular basis when alumni from the primary cohort, 10 years in the past, return to show a studying lab to present fellows and share what they’ve realized concerning the realities of small enterprise possession. When on the finish of 5-month’s of redefining what success seems like for themselves and incorporating particular person identification and targets into a brand new group, a fellow will get up on stage to inform their story and shares that she as soon as “held a human coronary heart in her palms as a cardiac nurse; that it’s important to maintain it firmly, however gently; and that on this program the human coronary heart is held with care differently because the work is finished to make it entire.”
With Nasdaq Basis’s Quarterly grant Canine Tag could have the agility to be attentive to surveys and suggestions from our fellows in addition to cross organizational strategic planning. We can’t serve and thrive by staying the identical. This funding in our future will imply fellows obtain the lodging they must be profitable in a hybrid program – permitting candidates from all 50 states to interact. We will share the affect of a high-touch person-first transition mannequin that leads to extra veteran entrepreneurs in addition to extra companies led by girls and other people of colour, extra extensively. We will, and can, stretch the definition of ‘group’ to its fullest potential by frequently providing assets for alumni companies to thrive together with steering on loans, registrations, licensing, moral AI, grant packages, and occasions. Canine Tag’s success is measured by that of our fellows and the impact of the group now we have constructed.
What’s on the horizon in 2025 for Canine Tag?
Canine Tag is taking classes realized over ten years of service, and the perception of its fellows, to proceed to optimize the format and execution of the 5 month program, using the distinctive social affect of the bakery. In partnership with stakeholders, Canine Tag has discovered its place in a altering workforce panorama in Washington, DC, and for veterans and navy households redefining objective after service and federal employment nationwide. Canine Tag is not going to hesitate to be one of the best subsequent step to take when these households must pivot. With the help of our companions, each academic {and professional}, we are going to proceed to share present greatest practices for entrepreneurship.
Our relationship with Georgetown College Faculty of Persevering with Research is stronger and higher aligned to activate the unimaginable expertise in our group than ever. The bakery continues to construct wholesale partnerships that feed this system on each degree. We intend to be seen by those that can profit from Canine Tag in order that the affect can proceed.
In celebration of our companions and the nice work they do to advance financial progress for all, we interviewed a few of our Nasdaq Basis quarterly grant recipients about their roles, backgrounds and the significance of their work. We spoke with Meghan Ogilvie, Chief Government Officer of Canine Tag Inc., on their mission to equip veterans, navy spouses, and caregivers with the instruments and schooling to construct resilience, discover renewed objective, and forge group past the navy.
Inform us about Canine Tag, Inc. What’s its core mission?
The Canine Tag Entrepreneurial 5-month Fellowship Program equips veterans, navy spouses, and caregivers with the instruments and schooling to construct resilience, discover renewed objective, and forge group past the navy. Canine Tag supplies a bridge from navy service to the civilian world via a Enterprise Administration Certificates Program at Georgetown College Faculty of Persevering with Research, a Capstone presentation, analysis on funding alternatives, and sensible utility in a DC bakery to set them up for achievement as small enterprise homeowners. Paired with a holistic method to wellness, this system permits fellows to develop as people within the context of a brand new circle of help.
The social affect mannequin of Canine Tag features a brick and mortar bakery within the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC, that infuses the local people with $400,000 yearly by using native bakers, cooks, and catering workers. Revenue from the bakery helps fund this system, giving companions and donors the chance to attach with the mission and be a part of the Canine Tag group with one thing so simple as a cup of espresso.
Our funding companions are lively individuals in our success from opening their doorways to host pitch classes, resume assessment, and networking, to providing perception on finance, enterprise chemistry, and aggressive markets. Within the spirit of the group, greater than 40% of program alumni go on to help different veterans through their very own companies or working in different organizations with renewed objective and dedication.
Are you able to share a narrative that illustrates the affect of Canine Tag?
Whereas it is an attention-grabbing line merchandise that our most profitable methodology of recruitment is word-of-mouth; greater than flyers, or tables, or social media, it’s consultant of one thing a lot deeper.
Nnana Obioha was a fellow in Canine Tag’s fifth cohort, an Military veteran that now works in Cybersecurity for the EPA. He’s been a powerful alumni companion in all the years since, however extra importantly when he met George Jensen on an engagement for Mission Continues, a Veteran Service Group targeted on group tasks for veterans, and found his aim of small enterprise possession, his first suggestion was to grow to be a Canine Tag fellow. A Marine veteran with a service related incapacity, George joined cohort 18 and realized to take his merchandising machine start-up to the following degree. It was such a transformative expertise for him, personally and professionally, that his spouse, Sasha Savage, observed the distinction. She utilized to Canine Tag and was accepted into cohort 19 the next Spring the place she workshopped and developed her management teaching enterprise. Every little thing from logos and displays to draft funds, technique, and an outreach plan – The Savage Mannequin was born in this system.
This camaraderie was felt by different members of the cohort and continues to be felt by present fellows as all of them attend Canine Tag graduations and networking occasions to move alongside the spirit of entrepreneurship, management, and group to the person on their proper.
Are you able to inform us why Canine Tag’s mission is so vital? What affect are you hoping the Nasdaq Basis’s Quarterly Grant could have on Canine Tag, Inc.’s success?
The significance of Canine Tag’s mission is made clear on a regular basis when alumni from the primary cohort, 10 years in the past, return to show a studying lab to present fellows and share what they’ve realized concerning the realities of small enterprise possession. When on the finish of 5-month’s of redefining what success seems like for themselves and incorporating particular person identification and targets into a brand new group, a fellow will get up on stage to inform their story and shares that she as soon as “held a human coronary heart in her palms as a cardiac nurse; that it’s important to maintain it firmly, however gently; and that on this program the human coronary heart is held with care differently because the work is finished to make it entire.”
With Nasdaq Basis’s Quarterly grant Canine Tag could have the agility to be attentive to surveys and suggestions from our fellows in addition to cross organizational strategic planning. We can’t serve and thrive by staying the identical. This funding in our future will imply fellows obtain the lodging they must be profitable in a hybrid program – permitting candidates from all 50 states to interact. We will share the affect of a high-touch person-first transition mannequin that leads to extra veteran entrepreneurs in addition to extra companies led by girls and other people of colour, extra extensively. We will, and can, stretch the definition of ‘group’ to its fullest potential by frequently providing assets for alumni companies to thrive together with steering on loans, registrations, licensing, moral AI, grant packages, and occasions. Canine Tag’s success is measured by that of our fellows and the impact of the group now we have constructed.
What’s on the horizon in 2025 for Canine Tag?
Canine Tag is taking classes realized over ten years of service, and the perception of its fellows, to proceed to optimize the format and execution of the 5 month program, using the distinctive social affect of the bakery. In partnership with stakeholders, Canine Tag has discovered its place in a altering workforce panorama in Washington, DC, and for veterans and navy households redefining objective after service and federal employment nationwide. Canine Tag is not going to hesitate to be one of the best subsequent step to take when these households must pivot. With the help of our companions, each academic {and professional}, we are going to proceed to share present greatest practices for entrepreneurship.
Our relationship with Georgetown College Faculty of Persevering with Research is stronger and higher aligned to activate the unimaginable expertise in our group than ever. The bakery continues to construct wholesale partnerships that feed this system on each degree. We intend to be seen by those that can profit from Canine Tag in order that the affect can proceed.
