11/16/13 9:07 AMNational Defense University Foundation

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VETERANS VENTURE FORUMINVEST IN AMERICA'S VETERANS

5 VETERAN ENTREPRENEURS TO WATCHAt the Veterans Venture Forum: Read Their Pitches, Hear Their Stories.

Veterans know how to get the job done. And these ones are proving it by building their businesses from theground up

These five entrepreneurs are creative. They’re professional. They’re efficient. And they’re all members of theveteran community. Now, they’re starting their own businesses.

On October 29th these veterans will be attending the first ever Veteran Venture Forum Capstone Demo Day,where they will join veterans from the DC area to seek angel investments from 80 different investor groups to scaletheir businesses in to action. These veterans have been practicing and perfecting their shark-tank-style pitches inover six weeks of boot camp business classes, sponsored by the NDU Foundation and the Angel Venture Forum.They believe in the innovation and management expertise that these veterans have gained in their military careers.

As they break in to the private sector, watch out. They’re sharp, motivated, and more than anything, they havegreat ideas. Come see them pitch to investors on the 29th of October and see how far discipline and preciseexecution can get a small business.

1 Kelly Emerton Owner and Creator of Darling Betty

I am a military spouse who is supporting my husband through his career as a NavalAviator. He is an integral part of my business as he brings to the table an impeccableunderstanding of organizational and enterprise-level structure, resilience and success inthe midst of a stressful, highly-demanding environment, and the ability to see the biggerpicture even within a detail oriented environment. The military-spouse life has taughtme: your spouse is essential for success, sacrifice requires perseverance, and themilitary network provides access to an important, far-reaching support structure.

My pitch: In the days of disposable fashion, young girlsand parents alike, search for exquisitely crafted garments atincredible value that are reminiscent to the family heirlooms ofgenerations past.

Among my most treasured possessions is a vintage, 1950s dresspassed down to me from my aunt and a wedding dress from myhusband's grandmother. This obsession with all things vintageinspires me to recreate the circle-skirts and petticoat dresses thatwere once part of the fashion education for young girls.

Darling Betty, LLC provides age-appropriate, classic and

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To learn more about the Veteran VentureForum or the NDU Foundation, please visitwww.nduf.orgTo contact any of the veterans profiled in thisarticle, please call Megan Lowry at 202-685-9082 or email her at lowrym@nduf.org

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"Classic and timeless,vintage reproduction

clothing."

"People willfundamentally

change the way theymove."

timeless, vintage reproduction clothing to young girls fromsizes 2T to 8 to stoke the flames of passion for fashion at a young age. By embracing myfour principals of no inventory, customization, quick delivery, and competitive pricing, I amable to provide my customers with impeccable quality and tremendous value throughboth wholesale and e-commerce retail. Recent innovations include customization to takeadvantage of limited-run fabrics at lower costs and the addition of "Mommy and me"wear, allowing mother's to inspire their daughters with classic vintage.

Darling Betty has begun a journey of growth to eventuallyprovide these fully sourced and made in the USA styles toconsumers, both domestically and abroad, from the floor ofher very own factory. I am searching for support to provide

funding for industrial equipment, product development, marketing, branding, andmentoring in order to create an expanded range of garments and a broad and loyalcustomer base. As Darling Betty evolves in the future, she hopes that when parents are in search for "a little vintagefor their little darling," that her garments will become synonymous with that classic, vintage style. You can find more ofKelly’s designs at www.darlingbetty.com.

2 Craig Cummings and Joseph Kopser

Co-Founders of Ride Scout

Craig Cummings and Joseph Kopser were West Point friends and classmates. In the Army, Craig was a Military Intelligence Officer and Joseph was a CavalryOfficer, with both having earned Bronze Stars for service in Afghanistan andIraq, respectively. The two served together during their Army careers as well, toinclude a mid-career assignment at West Point where they were both AssistantProfessors in the Department of Social Sciences. One of the big lessons theylearned while in the military was to innovate solutions to complex problems. When they realized that there was no application that could organize all theways to get from point A to point B, they decided to build it themselves.

Our Pitch: Positioned to be the "Kayak of Ground Transportation,"RideScout is a free mobile app that provides real-time on-demand informationabout available ride options—public, private, and social—that can get you frompoint A to point B with ease.

Tell us where you are going and RideScout will show youdifferent ways to get you there, be it by bus, rail, taxi,Car2Go, SideCar, Silvercar, Bandwagon, BikeShare, andmore.By building an app that aggregates all the differenttransportation options onto one single platform, webelieve that people will fundamentally change the way

they move, relying more on existing ground transportation infrastructure, frombuses to cabs to rideshare to bikes.

We often joke that we spent careers in the Armyconsuming energy and now we're going to give it allback by showing people how they can go car-lite or car-free by using transportation options that many don't evenknow exist, discovering new options through RideScout.

Our vision for RideScout's app isthat it becomes THE groundtransportation platform whereeveryone goes to find their ride.

We are seeing so many new andexciting companies coming intothe travel space, like Uber, Lyft,Car2Go, SideCar, Hailo, and

others, but with the introduction of so many companiescomes great confusion on what is THE best way for meto travel given my time, cost, and convenience

The Angel Venture Forum is an ad hoc groupof more than 30 active, experienced angelinvestors from more than 24 angel investorgroups located throughout the Mid-Atlantic

region. Each of our colleagues shares amission to discover, develop, and invest instrong opportunities. The Angel Venture

Forum process makes it easier for companiesto meet the highest number of angel investorsin one place over the shortest period of time.

Learn more about AVF atwww.angelventureforum.com

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"These rugged, solid statedevices can operate fromcryogenic temperatures to

over 1,000 degrees C"

considerations. We want to be that one app that lays outall those options and empowers users to make greatchoices.

RideScout is launching in DC this fall, and believe wewill be "the next big thing" in DC. After DC, we arelaunching in Seattle, San Diego, and many more citiesnationally and, eventually, to international locations.

We are having good success raising money so far, andtwo of our bigger name investors are Rick Dalzell,former CIO of Amazon, and Rich Heise, the first investorinto Groupon. We will be raising a larger round this fallor next spring. Visit us at ridescoutapp.com.

3 Jackie Hines ASR&D Corporation

Jackie served on active duty in the U.S. Navy from 1984 through 1988,and served in the reserves until 1996. Jackie left the service as aLieutenant Commander. Jackie founded Applied Sensor Research &Development Corporation in 2005 to commercialize passive wirelessacoustic wave sensor technologies. Located outside Annapolis MD,ASR&D is an application engineering and contract research firmspecializing in innovative chemical, biological, and physical acousticwave sensor technologies for government and industrial clients.

My Pitch: ASR&D has developed proprietary sensors thatoperate wirelessly, without batteries, in extreme environments. Thesedevices are based on the commodity technology used to filter radio frequency (RF) signals in cellphones – known asSurface Acoustic Wave (SAW) technology - adapted to produce sensors for a wide range of physical, chemical, andbiological parameters.

These rugged, solid-state devices can operate from cryogenic temperatures to over1,000°C, and respond to a RF interrogation with the sensor ID and measurements. More detail can be found at our web site: www.asrdcorp.com

ASR&D is targeting two initial markets; arc flashprevention and pipeline leak monitoring. Every day, 5-10 people are hospitalized inNorth America alone due to injuries sustained while trying to maintain high voltagepower distribution equipment. This hazard can be prevented by monitoring thetemperature of the electrical distribution contacts within the high voltage panels usingwireless SAW temperature sensors. ASR&D technology can also be applied todetecting oil and gas pipeline leaks that lead to environmental damage, injuries anddeaths, and billions of dollars in costs each year. SAW chemical vapor sensortechnology can enable low-cost distributed wireless monitoring of pipelines for a widerange of industries.

With six issued US patents and more pending, ASR&D’s technology is unique in theindustry. Under NASA finding, we have developed a set of 32 prototype passivewireless temperature sensors and a wireless transceiver that can be used to read thesensors simultaneously at ranges of up to 55 feet or more.

The company is currently seeking investment to fund development of a temperature sensor product based on thisprototype, for introduction in the electrical power distribution equipment market. Additional funding is sought forpipeline leak detection sensor development. Information on this investment opportunity can be found at:https://gust.com/c/applied_sensor_research_development_corporation

4 Frank DeGeorge Co-Founder of Poker Fund

I'm a 3rd generation military veteran, with 8 years of service - enlisted as an infantryman and officer as a financialmanagement officer. Like many other service-members, I joined to support my country and to gain leadership skillsthat would help me throughout my career, both private and public sector.

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"PokerFund combinescrowdfunding with socialnetworking, in an all-or-nothing platform that allowsbackers to support pokerplayers."

"A thrilling passion for inovationtechnology and cyber securitysolutions."

I have worked for two Fortune 500 Companies, and have started a non-profit inFlorida, an LLC in Nevada, and have many tech start-ups still in the betaphases. There are two important things the military has taught me; teamworkand perseverance. The ability to work with a diverse group of people and tocontinually be working on an idea are what I think separates those businessesthat fail and those that succeed.

My Pitch: I consider myself a serial entrepreneur as I am alwaysworking on turning new ideas and thoughts into tangible businesses. Alongwith a close group of other like-minded individuals, I started 4F2B(www.4f2b.com) which is a collection of all our tech startups from idea toimplementation.

We are working on a couple of brick & mortar business, tech startups, and non-profits. My brother has been my business partner in crime for many years now, and there isone business in particular we are focusing on; PokerFund (www.pokerfund.us). PokerFund information can be found here:http://www.crunchbase.com/company/pokerfund

The company is the first eStaking business for live poker tournaments. PokerFundcombines crowdfunding with social networking, in an all or nothing platform that allows backers to support pokerplayers, while gaining potential pieces of the prize pool. Our users take pieces of action from semi-professionals,professional poker players, and celebrities. We will be the largest Fantasy poker and poker player database.

The latest milestone we have with PokerFund is the addition of a celebrity partner, JamieGold. The next step in our venture is to raise capital through private investors. My teamconsists of my brother Nick DeGeorge as the COO, Mike Ristoff as the CMO, Jamie Goldas our Celebrity Partner and Endorsement, and I am the CEO and Founder. Our one sentence pitch and tag line is to "give everyone the opportunity to be a worldchampion", meaning any ordinary person can participate in, for example the World Seriesof Poker. Users will be able to be at the forefront of these major tournaments, the sameway fans use Fantasy Sports Leagues, to interact and compete with others. We will besuccessful because we provide a unique experience that is not yet available in themarket. We also have partnerships with the leaders in the poker industry as well as well-known professionals and celebrities.

5 Rachelle Waite Waite Secured Line Technology Solutions

Ms. Shelly Waite is a service disabled veteran of the United States Air Force. She served nearly nine years as anactive duty Airman and honorably separated as a Non-commissioned officer.

My Pitch: Ms. Waite’s business,Waite Secured Line TechnologySolutions, will provide first-rate cybertechnology solutions to commercial,private and government entities. Ms. Waite will provide services by offeringclients cyber solutions for remediation, risk management, systemsdevelopment life cycle, incident handling, network monitoring and an array ofcyber security technology solutions.

Ms. Waite's business is destined for success because of her thrilling passionfor innovative technology and cyber security solutions! She’s attended NDU’sVVF boot camp sessions to help her prepare for pitching her ideas to potentialangel investors. In these courses, Ms. Waite has developed the skills needed

to achieve her goals as a successful entrepreneur. In addition to NDU’s VVF boot camp, Ms. Waite is also anattendant of UConn’s Entrepreneurship Boot camp for Veterans (EBV) program. Participating in these courses haveallowed Ms. Waite to incorporate skills learned while on active duty with the skills used working with some of the topfive consulting firms. Shelly is looking for investors to initially assist her business with minimal incidental start-up coststo get her business off the ground.

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