In February, StreetShares awarded a $5,000 grant to one of the 32 enrollees in the VetToCEO Core Entrepreneurship program. The grant was given to Bryan Guilloty, a Special Operations Army Veteran. We were excited to catch up with Bryan and learn more about his plans to launch his business, Waking Giant Brewing Company.

by Laura Walton

Originally published March 11 on PRNewswire

Written by Mark L. Rockefeller: CEO, StreetShares

Check out this article from Entrepreneur.com that featured StreetShares as a great funding option for Veterans. [SPOILER ALERT]: We're under option 4: Online Lenders

WASHINGTON, D.C., March 3, 2015—Peer-to-peer lender StreetShares announced today the appointment of General George Casey to its Board of Advisors, effective immediately. Casey’s appointment expands the Board to three members, alongside Fenway Summer, LLC’s Managing Partner, Raj Date, formerly of the CFPB, and SoFi Co-Founder, Pete Hartigan.

StreetShares CoFounders Mark L. Rockefeller and Mickey Konson had the opportunity to present at FinovateEurope 2015 in early February. Their presentation was to an audience of financial and banking executives, venture capitalists and financial technology (FinTech) entrepreneurs in London. In this video, Mark and Mickey demo the StreetShares marketplace, and explain the idea behind our model of using social affinities to lend to small businesses: bringing the "peer" back into peer-to-peer lending.

Originally published on February 25, 2015 on PR Newswire

We'd like to give a big shout out to the  National Veteran Owned Business Association (NaVOBA) for featuring StreetShares and our CEO Mark L. Rockefeller on the cover of this month's Vetrepreneur Magazine. StreetShares is proud to partner with NaVOBA, whose mission is creating opportunities for our nation's veterans who launched their own businesses after leaving the military.

“Starting Spartan was all about giving people an opportunity they otherwise wouldn’t have. There are lots of good people out there, but few opportunities. I had already retired from the military, so this wasn’t about needing more money, but rather I had something to offer and enjoyed creating new things. Helping people comes from the heart—in helping someone you can change a life.”

Lorenzo Downing, President of Spartan Business and Technology, founded his business with the core mission of serving people. Spartan provides solutions to government agencies and institutions to improve their businesses through the use of new technology and management best practices. Spartan is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business located in National Harbor, Maryland, just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.