Starting a business is daunting and for veterans coming out of the service, it can be extra challenging. But ShapeConnect, a veteran-founded business-to-business platform, is trying to make things easier for small business owners, especially veterans.

Brian Zielinski, founder of ShapeConnect and U.S. Army Reservist, created the company in 2021 as a way to help entrepreneurs with some of the mundane tasks involved with running a business.

“We try to help them define what’s right for them,” Zielinski said. “You can Google ‘website provider’ and find hundreds of thousands of firms that can do that work, but how do you know what’s right for you?”

ShapeConnect links businesses to help serve as a virtual networking platform to build relationships between companies. It can connect businesses that focus on accounting, content creation, search engine optimization, and other aspects of running a business and also allow businesses to grow their networks.

“Companies in need of a new website (for example), they use our platform to scope their needs properly and understand what they’re looking to accomplish,” Zielinski said.

Zielinski said ShapeConnect has more than 1,000 users and has helped more than 560 transactions through the platform.

As businesses learned to be more virtual in a post-pandemic world, people became more comfortable with making those online connections, Zielinski said.

“People had to make virtual business to business connections and our platform was another way to do that,” Zielinski said. “When the in-person events had gone away, I think people turned to us a bit more for finding their partners.”

Connecting with Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce

Although ShapeConnect is not exclusively for veterans, there are some benefits with working with ShapeConnect that veteran entrepreneurs can benefit from.

Zielinski said his first few customers were veterans and he reached out to the Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce to connect with more.

“They’re a catalyst for that around the greater Milwaukee area. They're consistent,” Zielinski said. “I’ve already met with some people through chamber events that are partners... we do that kind of sharing.”

Saul Newton, president and CEO of Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce, said he saw a natural alignment with veteran owned businesses.

Newton said one area where veteran business owners struggle is technical assistance and having an established network that they can leverage to build their business.

“My running joke is that veterans are incredibly entrepreneurial, they possess a lot of skills but QuickBooks isn’t really covered in basic training,” Newton said. “Having access to a resource like Brian, can help fill in some of those gaps and make sure they can focus on starting to grow their business and have the support and backing to make sure they’re set up for success.”

Newton said Zielinski being in the military helps veteran businesses feel comfortable using his platform because he’s someone who has gone through difficult questions like, “How do I find an accountant? How do I write an employee handbook? How do I build a social media presence? How do I build a website?”

“It comes down to opportunities that are sacrificed as part as military service,” Newton said adding civilians often go into a trade or college after high school and spend the next few years gaining work experience and building relationships.

“When you’re in the military, the military is inherently isolated and segregated from the rest of the country. When you’re in the military, you’re not building a professional network that you can leverage for investors, or you’re not building a professional network that you can leverage for mentorship or peer support.”

Often when veterans leave the service, and they go back to their hometown or city, they have to make new connections.

“Even those folks that returned where they’re originally from, they’ve been gone for years or even decades at a time... the world doesn’t stand still when you’re serving in the military,” Newton said. “Even though they might have a personal support network from family and friends established, again, it comes down to those professional relationships that others have had the opportunity to develop that folks who have been in the military, that’s part of the sacrifice that they have made.”

Veterans lack an 'alumni association'

Mike Moran, co-owner of Kaufy Painting, is an Iraq War U.S. Army veteran who graduated from DePaul University with a finance degree.

“What we don’t have as veterans is, like, an alumni association,” Moran said. “Veterans go out, we do a lot of different things. We’re everything from presidents to garbage men to construction contractors and surgeons. We’re everywhere, people just don’t always realize it and we don’t always realize it.”

In the past groups like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion, helped fill those roles but there are less veterans.

Moran said he’s worked next to people for years without knowing they were veterans.

“We’re just such a smaller population (veterans) my age and the veterans that are coming out now... it takes a little bit more effort to find each other,” Moran said.

With Kaufy Painting, which paints residential and commercial properties between Milwaukee and Chicago, ShapeConnect is helping them with marketing, SEO optimization and content posting.

“I can give them pictures and video, and they can splice that up, put it everywhere I need it; make sure everything is captured correctly and I don’t have to become a professional in that (task) in order to do it,” Moran said.

“There’s time value in money. If I’m spending time doing that stuff, I’m not out doing estimates, I’m not doing takeoffs on commercial projects. So the more I can have somebody like that take care of that, the better off I am.”

Moran enjoys working with a company as opposed to paying for a company to do social media without much teamwork.

“It gives us more collaboration which, frankly, is what we’re used to. In the military everybody works, at least, in a two-man team,” Moran said. “I’m building a relationship, they’re building a long-term relationship, we’ve got a road map and a strategy and we’re working through it.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: A veteran founded ShapeConnect to help businesses and other veterans