MOAA wants to hear from prior-service entrepreneurs as we help the VA update the support it provides to veterans interested in starting a small business.

Veterans owned 1.6 million businesses as of 2025, according to the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, and some of those entrepreneurs may have launched their startups with the help of the VA’s Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E) Self-Employment track.

Whether you’re familiar with the VR&E program or simply a prior-service entrepreneur with experiences to share, consider reaching out to MOAA via this link with:

• The types of support you found most valuable in the early stages of your entrepreneurial journey.
  
  
• Particular challenges – service-connected and otherwise – you had to overcome.
  
  
• Your assessment of VR&E Self-Employment resources: What programs were the most useful, which ones felt rushed or incomplete, and what VA officials could do to improve the program.
  
  
• Information about other entrepreneur and small-business assistance you’ve received, and how the VA might want to consider similar guidance or partnership opportunities with such programs.

MOAA will analyze this feedback and provide materials to the VA as part of the department’s request for information that would inform potential VR&E partnerships. Submit your materials by Nov. 23 for consideration.

[RELATED: Support for Servicemembers-Turned-Entrepreneurs]

About VR&E

Program benefits are available to veterans with a service-connected VA disability rating of at least 10% and who did not receive a dishonorable discharge. Those discharged before Jan. 1, 2013, have a 12-year eligibility window beginning the day they received their first VA service-connected disability rating. Veterans discharged after that date are eligible for life.

Currently serving members are also eligible if they are about to leave uniform and have a pre-discharge disability rating of 20% or higher, or if they are awaiting a discharge connected to injury or illness that took place while on active duty.

[RELATED: Leaving the Military? Get a Head Start on Your VA Disability Claim]

Learn more about the VR&E program at the VA website. Learn more about MOAA’s transition and career services, including many articles and resources for aspiring entrepreneurs, at our Transition and Career Center.