Why We Do It

“It’s not just WHAT you know or WHO you know,
it’s WHO KNOWS YOU!”
– Meegan Kriley-Mackay, Collaborative Element Organizer (CEO)

Our “why” is best demonstrated with our logo.
It has been said that no two people are more than six degrees apart. We hope to constantly shrink that separation by connecting brilliant minds and businesses who collaborate together.
One Degree acts as the nucleus of an atom, the central part of a collaborative partnership. The members of the collaboration act as the atoms. Without them, the molecule cannot exist nor interact and create new ideas through their actions.
“Atoms make up 99 percent of the individual human element. When two or more atoms connect they create a molecule, which is essential for all human life.”
Rutherford Bohr
Collaborating is more than connecting.
It is a partnership which involves working together to achieve common tasks and goals, holding each individual accountable, while staying motivated.
We are passionate about assisting entrepreneurs, especially vetrepreneurs. Vetreprenuers, or veteran entrepreneurs, are in a unique position. Many of them have never known anything but a military career and have the opportunity to retire from the military with many good years ahead of them to build a business.
Many of those in our collaboration are veterans or veteran spouses. We understand these unique challenges and stress of leaving military life to begin your own business.
The Vetrepreneur process
We help our veteran business owners in the following ways:
- Before you can move forward, we help you take a step back and think about your strengths, weaknesses, and goals. Ask yourself what you want to do, why, and how.
- We will help you begin brainstorming and realizing all the beginning decisions you need to make in the initial phases of business planning.
- Once you know what you want to do and how, you must overcome your fears to do it! We will provide you with a 4 day workshop tailored to start-up business owners. These workshops are like building muscles. Sometimes it feels like you’re being broken down during these intense sessions. You will come back from the workshops feeling more powerful and ready to accomplish your goals than ever!
- Wearing all the hats? Getting the funding you need? Managing your time? These are some of the top struggles startup business owners face. We will help you conquer all these challenges and more!
Reach out to us before you even officially retire if you are a future vetrepreneur. The earlier you meet with us, the better!
Through working with us you will discover:

There is a big difference between networking, connecting, and collaborating.

Networking is interacting with other people to exchange information and develop contacts, especially to further one’s career.

Connecting is developing a relationship by which a person, idea, or object is linked or associated with something else, like an atom, which is essential for all human life.

Collaborating is the act of communicating and creating with others through individual and social networks, to achieve positive results (One Degree of Collaboration).