The Challenge
After serving 12 years in the army, Isaac Belden knew he wanted to continue serving others. Transitioning out of the military, he found himself struggling to find his purpose again. It was during his journey into entrepreneurship that he discovered a new mission: to help other veterans and military spouses navigate the challenges of starting and running their own businesses.
In early 2018, Isaac founded the Veteran Entrepreneur Alliance (VEA), an organization dedicated to providing free business education and support to veterans and their families. With Isaac’s vision and the help of corporate sponsors including Zions Bank and Perkins Coie, what began as a single event soon became an official nonprofit organization. The VEA now offers comprehensive programs ranging from business ideation and planning to marketing, financial literacy, and beyond.
The fast growth of the organization is a testament to the need for this important work. But managing that growth and scaling the VEA’s efforts came with increasing operational challenges.
Managing growth with limited resources
As VEA expanded, Isaac increasingly faced difficulties in managing day-to-day operations. “Operationally, it was kind of a disaster,” he said. The organization relied on spreadsheets, emails, and HubSpot to track interactions with members and donors.
While HubSpot offered a nonprofit solution, its focus on sales didn’t align with the VEA’s needs, and the manual workarounds became increasingly cumbersome. The lack of a streamlined system also made it difficult to demonstrate impact through data — which is crucial for securing grants and donations.
“It was a lot of really frustrating, long, drawn-out days of trying to cobble together everything we were doing to be able to show an impact,” Isaac explained. Without reliable data, proving the value of the VEA’s work to would-be donors and sponsors was an uphill battle.
