Tom retired from the Army after 22 years and started a residential construction firm with another veteran. They were renting equipment by the day at brutal margins. Banks wanted 3 years of business tax returns; they had 14 months.
GrantsForYou identified two complementary programs: a federal veteran-owned small business grant and an Arizona Commerce Authority match for veteran-led companies. The AI eligibility breakdown explained — in plain English — that he could apply to both and stack the awards.
Federal grant: $50K. State match: $45K. Total $95K. He bought a used skid-steer, a trailer, and two compact excavators outright. Equipment-rental costs dropped from $4,200/month to zero.
"Half the veterans I served with don't know this funding exists. I'm trying to fix that."
Why veteran-owned businesses are dramatically under-funded
There's billions of dollars allocated annually for veteran-owned small business funding — federal, state, and private. But the application processes are notoriously bureaucratic and the discovery problem is enormous. "Half the guys I served with don't know any of this exists," Tom says.
Grant stacking 101
Most state programs are explicitly designed to match federal awards 1:1 or even 2:1. The trick is sequencing: apply for the federal first, get the award letter, then submit it as proof of match-eligibility to the state. GrantsForYou's matching engine flagged this stacking opportunity automatically.
What the AI did for someone without an MBA
Tom's previous attempts at SBA loan applications had stalled because the financial-projection sections felt like a foreign language. The AI drafter generated baseline 12-month projections from his current revenue, cost structure, and equipment purchase plan — which he then sanity-checked with a SCORE mentor. "It got me from 0% to 80%. The last 20% was me adding the lived experience."