If you spent any time with Owners in Honor™ this year, you probably felt it. Room by room, range by range, campus by campus, a different kind of energy was moving through the Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition community.
Veterans who once thought “owning a business is for someone else” started to see themselves as buyers. Owners who spent a lifetime building something important finally had a path to exit with dignity. Advisers, funders, and community leaders began to view veteran-led ETA not as a nice idea but as a serious, scalable strategy to protect jobs and hometown economies.
That is the work Owners in Honor exists to do. This year, we saw it come to life in very real ways.
A Year Of Rooms That Changed People
Throughout 2025, our team showed up in boardrooms, university halls, co-working spaces, and on shooting ranges that became classrooms.
We hosted and supported conversations where buyers learned how to source, diligence, and close deals that fit their lives and goals; veteran sellers finally heard, “You are not alone in this. Your service and your decades of work matter, and there is a buyer who sees that”; wealth advisers and exit planners discovered why pairing veteran talent with small business ownership is one of the most powerful legacy plays they can make on behalf of their clients; communities began to connect the dots between veteran ownership and Main Street stability, good jobs, and long-term prosperity.
Fireside ETA events, Day Zero experiences, panels, and partner conferences all carried the same heartbeat. We told the truth about what ETA really looks like. We put real operators in front of aspiring ones. We connected buyers and sellers who would never have met each other without this ecosystem.
The result is not just more deals. The result is more veterans stepping into ownership with eyes open, more owners getting exits that respect their sacrifice, and more communities gaining long-term and values-driven leadership in the businesses that define their hometowns.
Supporting Buyers, Sellers, And The Communities In Between
Our mission is simple to say and complex to live out. We are here to support veteran buyers, veteran and patriotic sellers, and the communities that depend on their businesses.
This year, that looked like creating spaces where buyers could ask the uncomfortable questions about money, family, and risk; helping sellers think beyond only a closing number and consider the legacy they want for their people and their town; bringing together advisers, lenders, and partners who are willing to fight for veteran led ownership rather than only talk about it; elevating the stories of main street businesses that quietly anchor entire neighborhoods so their transition does not happen in the dark.
Owners in Honor is not about token patriotism. It is about the long and sometimes messy work of transition. It is about making sure that when a veteran steps into ownership, they are not only buying a business. They are stepping into a mission with support behind them.
2026: A Busy Calendar And A Bigger Vision
Our 2026 calendar is already filling up with events that touch buyers, sellers, advisers, and community leaders across the country. Confirmed dates so far:
January 2026: Wealth Adviser Roundtable in Philadelphia, PA (The Union League of Philadelphia); Veteran ETA Education in Philadelphia, PA; NACCE Gainesville (tentative); Range Day with Staccato in Las Vegas and Pahrump, NV; Green Beret Reunion engagement.
February 2026: UT Austin Veteran ETA Event (two-day); DAV Myrtle Beach, FL; Operator Support Shoot in Dallas, TX; Veteran ETA Event at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.
March 2026: Veteran EDGE 2026 in Dallas, TX; Operator Support Shoot and Dinner with Staccato in Florence, TX; Owners in Honor Miami Events (two-day).
April 2026: Operator Support Shoot in Nashville, TN; Exit Planning Institute Summit in Nashville, TN; Operator Support Shoot and Veteran ETA Day Zero at Vanderbilt University (The Wondry).
May 2026: SOF Week OSS and Veteran Booster Dinner in Tampa, FL; SOF Week 2026 in Tampa, FL; Veteran ETA Panel on Veterans and Wealth and Exit Planners at Embarc Collective, Tampa, FL; Operator Support Shoot in Washington, DC; Veteran Entrepreneurship Summit in Washington, DC.
June 2026: Utah Veteran Entrepreneurship Event in Lehi, UT (week-long, with DAV and VBRC).
July 2026: Owners in Honor ETA Experience in Boston, MA (multi-day).
September 2026: William and Mary ETA Day Zero in Williamsburg, VA; Southeast ETA Conference in the NC/VA region (touching William and Mary, Duke Fuqua, Emory, Kennesaw State, and other campuses).
How To Stay Up To Date On Details
Ticket blocks, team slots, sponsorship opportunities, registration links, and specific agendas for each event will be shared as they go live. Many events have limited capacity, especially the paid range days, operator support shoots, roundtables, and dinners. Follow Owners in Honor on social channels and subscribe to email updates for the first look at new dates and registration links.
