It takes a lot, yeah.

It's a disservice to all my fellow NCOs out there.

But, you know, being able to operate at that level is one thing.

But then you think about what's it take to be a colonel in the Marine Corps or the Army and lead a battalion of 5,000 Marines in combat.

That's just a different level of complexity.

And so as the organization scaled, we had to bring in, you know— plans, policies, and procedures.

We had to institute training curriculum.

Like, what was that decision about? And then, you know, we'll talk a little bit about winning the award.

Music

Hello, my name is Jake Wood, and I am the author of Once a Warrior, How One Veteran Found a New Mission Closer to Home.

The book is the inspiring story of my journey from college football's biggest stadiums to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to my troubling transition home.

Most importantly, this book is a front row seat to my work co-founding and scaling Team Rubicon, America's fastest growing nonprofit organization.

which recruits, trains, and deploys military veterans to the front lines of disaster zones and humanitarian crises around the world, I am going to share with you five of the key insights from my book.

Insight number one.

Leaders are nothing if they are not virtuous.

So how does software and charity come together? How do you help and encourage companies to do more with their money through software?

Well, first, I think most employees today are looking for their companies, the companies that employ them, to do more than just drive profit.

People are looking for purpose in and out of work.

And so I think the companies that are looking to best compete in that talent war are meeting that expectation.

What we're trying to do with Groundswell is to build a platform that allows companies to empower their employees to give back, whether that's their time, their talent or their treasure.

Specifically, we're doing that through donor advised funds, trying to make these tax advantage giving accounts an employee benefit, more accessible to the everyday employee.

Talk to us a little bit about the through line from being the CEO and starting a firm or an organization like Team Rubicon and then moving into, let's say, founding a company like Groundswell.

Yeah, I'd say service has always been at the core of what I've wanted to do in life.