We do not receive government support for Guild directly, although lately DOD has recognized financial literacy as a critical national security issue. We built our company precisely because we recognized there wasn't a company serving the military community for personal wealth, and because candidly DOD is doing an inadequate job of teaching financial literacy to its service members.

That by the way is not a knock on DoD, and I believe the Pentagon would agree with us. We have the former SECNAV join the board of our company precisely because he agreed it was necessary for the private sector to help with this effort. He recognized this issue during his tenure and is supporting us in helping close the wealth and knowledge gap.

We (Sean and I) identified this wealth and knowledge gap independently. Sean understood it from a Wall St. perspective. Especially when he was serving as an intelligence officer in the Navy and everyone at his command from the E-1 to the CO was soliciting his advice as someone who had owned and run successful investing businesses. For me, I approached it from the lens of Veterans service. I had helped found two large VSO designed to help veterans with a sense of mission and purpose. I realized during a decade of this work, that purpose was important but so was purse. Veterans (and active duty) needed this kind of support. If the government wasn't doing it effectively enough, we felt compelled from a mission perspective to fill the gap.