Veteran Business Leadership Association

The Veteran Business Leadership Association’s primary mission is to serve our Veterans who are seeking support and assistance with running a business and in their pursuit of New York City Government contracting opportunities. Our leadership association is a consortium of partnerships across the public and private sectors, including NYC Small Business Services, LaGuardia APEX Accelerator, the Bunker Labs Ambassador Program, and JP Morgan Chase, that have come together to support veteran small business owners and entrepreneurs across the five boroughs. The VLBA offers veterans a suite of wide-ranging services, including one-on-one counseling, coaching and mentorship, M/WBE certification assistance, capital and financing assistance, and marketing strategy.

If you are interested in connecting to services related to the VBLA, please fill out the VetConnectNYC form and select "Entrepreneurship" as your preferred service:

Request Services on VetConnectNYC

More information about our partners:

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NYC Small Business Services

The Department of Small Business Services (SBS) offers a wide variety of free and high-quality services to help start, operate, and grow a small business in NYC. Through our expanded partnership we offer direct connection to the NYC SBS "BEST" Team to assist with any issue or question that a business owner may have. The form can be accessed "here". SBS also offers assistance with obtaining an M/WBE certification. To Find out more about how the City can help your business by calling our hotline at 888-SBS-4NYC or visiting https://nyc-business.nyc.gov/nycbusiness/

One-on-one counseling to VOBs preparing to compete in private and government contracting opportunities.
Assistance with completing and submitting New York City Minority/Women Business Enterprise Certification applications and NYC Emerging Business Enterprise Certification applications.
Sponsor of various boot camp-style programs and workshops, including the Fast Trac Veterans program.
Access to NYC SBS Business Express Service Team (BEST) to provide one-on-one support for various issues when it comes to small business support through a virtual form that gets routed to their BEST team (Business Express Service Team)
Boss-Up Veteran Entrepreneurship Competition
- Funded by the Ron and Kerry Moelis Foundation, this competition will provide seven to 10 veteran entrepreneurs each with a grant of $20,000 and enrollment in SBS’s small business mentorship program to help build and grow their businesses.

LaGuardia Community College APEX Accelerator

Assistance with submitting a Federal Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business and Veteran-Owned Small Business application and the New York State Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business certification applications.
Guide non- profit 501c-3 and 501c-19 organizations in creating NYC vendor Passport and Procurement Information Portal (PIP) accounts.
Market Research for contracting opportunities for VOBs.
One-on-one government contracting counseling on best practices to market products and services to sell to the government.
The LaGuardia Community College Apex Program also hosts the Queens LaGuardia Small Business Development Center, the United States Department of Transportation Small Business Transportation Resource Center North East Region and is a member of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program
The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business’s program provides small businesses across the country with practical business education, access to capital, access to the program alumni network that is comprised of 14,500 small businesses.
Learn more about these LaGuardia Community College Affiliate Programs:

JP Morgan and Chase: Coaching for Impact

Offers mentorship and coaching to established VOBs with revenues of $100,000 in the last two years
Provides training programs on operations management, cash flow management, business development, and access to capital
Learn more: JP Morgan and Chase: Coaching for Impact

Bunker Labs Ambassador Program/IVMF

Syracuse University’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) recently integrated the Bunker Labs team to support military-connected entrepreneurs
This ongoing collaboration provides veterans with unparalleled access to resources, programming, mentorship, and a robust network of business leaders
This aims to empower veteran entrepreneurs by facilitating opportunities for business development, fostering innovation, and driving economic impact within our communities
Learn more about all of IVMF’s entrepreneurship training opportunities, now including the additional Bunker Labs programs and upcoming events at IVMF’s official site

To learn more about how the VBLA and New York City can help your veteran-owned business, visit our Business and Entrepreneurship page.