Today is Veterans Day, so I want to use this space to introduce you to something I’ve been building close to home. Some of you already know it. Most of you don’t. It’s called Leading2Win.
First, I want to provide a little context. When Pew asked Americans whether the public understands the problems faced by people in the military, 71% said no. Most of us have little or no idea. (84% of post-9/11 veterans said the same.) That survey is from years ago. I’d love to tell you the gap has closed in the fifteen years since. I don’t think it has.
The introduction that changed everything
I spent 20 years in the Army. Then I took off the uniform and co-founded RideScout. Every veteran I know who made that jump well can name the person who said “you two should talk.” A person who knew a person. It’s the power of people.
That’s the whole game. And it’s the part to many leave to luck.
Most communities has every piece of the puzzle
For instance, here in Central Texas we have tens of thousands of veterans, from Fort Hood to Round Rock to downtown Austin all the way to San Anotonio. We have employers who want to hire them, universities that want to teach them, founders who want to partner with them, and nonprofits and VSOs doing heroic work every single day.
And too often, every one of them is working its own piece of the problem alone. Two great groups book a breakfast on the same Saturday morning and split the room. A veteran who needs a mentor never hears about the meetup three miles away.
We don’t lack talent.
We don’t lack opportunity.
We lack connectivity and coordination.
What Leading2Win actually does
Leading2Win is a Texas nonprofit built to connect those pieces. We don’t provide a product or service that competes with anyone. We bring the organizations already doing the work into the same room, amplify them, and open doors across three lanes: education, employment and entrepreneurship.
Our philosophy fits on a napkin.
Connection creates collaboration. Collaboration builds momentum.
Every month we host a free Military Connected Mentorship Meetup in Austin, where service members, veterans, military spouses, employers and civilian allies sit at the same table and learn from each other. Every year we bring it all together at our summit. In September we held the fourth one, and it ran four days: a reception for Gold Star families at Camp Mabry, the main summit on September 11th at STATION Austin.
Why this belongs in US Tomorrow
If you’ve read this newsletter for a while, you know I keep coming back to one idea. Our country has a lot of people trying to divide us. It splits in the space between people.
It’s the same logic behind everything I write here, whether the topic is workforce readiness, mentoring the next generation, or making sure talent and opportunity actually meet. The sociologist Mark Granovetter showed decades ago that most people find their next job through weak ties, the acquaintance of an acquaintance. Not their best friend. The friend of a friend. The military-civilian gap is a weak-ties problem. A transitioning soldier at Fort Hood and a hiring manager in Austin are about an hour apart on I-35. Some days they might as well be in different countries.
A more competitive Texas depends on getting more people into the right rooms. And here’s the part that should keep all of us up at night. Every young person deciding whether to serve is watching how we treat our veterans who already did. If we want the next generation of American leadership to raise their hand, the ones who came home need to land well.
Three ways you can help
1. Make one introduction. Go ahead and thank a veteran today. Then do the part that takes five minutes. Pick one veteran or military spouse you know who’s looking for a next step, and introduce them to one person in your network who could open a door. One email. Two names. “You two should talk.” It’s really that easy.
2. Join the Leading2Win newsletter. Sign up on our Leading2Win website (after 10 seconds on the page we pop-up a sign up). It’s the best way to hear about the monthly meetup, the summit, and the opportunities that cross our desk. While you’re there, check out the Mil-Vet community calendar.
3. If you run an organization, put us on your list. Add calendar@leading2win.org to your newsletter or event distribution list. Everything helpful to the mil-vet community that lands there goes on that public calendar, so we can amplify your events, help everyone avoid stepping on each other’s dates, and make it easier for people to find what’s happening. Got a single event? Suggest it here. The more we share our calendars with each other, the stronger the whole community gets.
If you’re somewhere other than Central Texas, steal the idea. Every community near a base has the same pieces sitting in the same silos.
Connection creates collaboration. Collaboration builds momentum. That’s the work, and not just on Veterans Day. Every day.
Hit reply. I read every one.
Take care,
Joseph
Joseph Kopser
Co-Founder, USTomorrow.us
Co-Founder, Leading2Win
P.S. If you make an introduction because of this note, hit reply and tell me who. Those are my favorite emails to get.
Joseph Kopser is a lifelong problem solver committed to building the teams needed to take on our toughest challenges. He is currently President of Grayline after he co-founded and served as CEO of RideScout, before it was acquired by Mercedes. He served in the U.S. Army for 20 years earning the Combat Action Badge, Army Ranger Tab and Bronze Star. He is a graduate of West Point with a BS in Aerospace Engineering and also received a Masters from the Harvard Kennedy School and former member of the Army Science Board. He was recognized as a White House Champion of Change for his efforts in Energy and Transportation as well as won the U.S. DOT Data Innovation Award. He co-authored the book, Catalyst, a book focused on helping teams adapt to change. He is the Chair of the Board of Advisors for the CleanTX, an economic development and professional association for energy innovation. In 2025, Joseph was selected for the Texas Business Hall of Fame Future Texas Business Legend Award. Joseph and his wife of 31 years, Amy, live in Austin and they are extremely proud of their three adult daughters living their best lives.