Making it easier to identify veteran-led businesses on Google

Since leaving the service in 2007, I’ve felt a strong pull to support my fellow veterans. I honor the  camaraderie and sense of community we share, and continue to be inspired by the new missions veterans find once we leave the service.  I've found my passion in data science, but for many veterans, starting a business is their new calling. More than 2.5 million businesses in the U.S. are majority-owned by veterans, and one way that I stay connected to the veteran community is by supporting those veteran-owned businesses. It's something I can do all throughout my day, whether I'm grabbing a coffee or recommending a local restaurant to a friend.

Now, as part of a broader effort to use technology to help the veteran community, Google is making it easier to identify your local business as veteran-led on Google Search and Maps. If your business is owned, led, or founded by a veteran, you can enable this "Veteran-Led” attribute through Google My Business, and it will appear on your Google listing alongside other details like “Has Wifi” or “Outdoor Seating.” You can add the Veteran-Led attribute to your  listing by following these steps.

There's no limit to the ways that veteran-led small businesses can impact their communities. Take Kevin Ryan, for example. Kevin is a West Point graduate and former Army commander who began brewing beer with the help of YouTube tutorials. Less than two years later, he and his partner Meredith Sutton, founded Service Brewing Company. In addition to creating a successful craft brewery, their mission is to give back to veterans and their community. In their first three years of business they’ve helped raise more than $70,000 for organizations that assist veterans and first responders, and about half of their 12 employees are veterans.

This is just one of a set of new resources and initiatives we announced today to support veterans through technology. Learn more about what we're doing via Grow with Google, including a new ability to search for jobs with an MOS code, at g.co/grow/veterans.