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Bravery to us is the quiet resilience, right? Being that this company represents the military spouse, right? The homeront heroes, the family, the children, the caregivers, the ones who are behind the scenes, the ones who serve and often times aren't thanked. It has a little Easter egg in it. Bravo. And we wanted them to know that we always applaud them. I'm Aaron Bondre. And I'm Nick Vandre. and we are the owners of Bravery Bake House here in Southern Pines, North Carolina. He's in charge of partnerships. And this is the CEO, Chief Everything Officer. Bravery would be just a bunch of great ideas if we didn't have her baked goods. You had been always told to make this into a company by I would just bake and give them away to
everyone. Like, it was my way of connecting with people, making friends. When I met Nick, I was really proud and honored to be a military spouse and also stand by his side and feel like I'm serving in my own way. Finally, the challenges that military spouses face, I mean, from uncertainty to where your loved one is and if they're okay to moving to having to start all over again and not really ever get a stable footing anywhere. To me, they are the brave ones. I started baking in 2022. I think we launched orders in August and it wasn't until this last July 2025 that we opened our doors. The support that I received from the spouse community was incredible. It was special to me because
I finally felt like I was a part of something. My military career was uh over two decades, exactly 22 years in service uh for the US Army. We wanted to find a way to continue the mission after retirement and so and also serve together. We knew how to live life, but we didn't know how to live as entrepreneurs. And so, you know, I think the biggest piece of that is always going to be capital. And so, that was something that Navy Federal allowed us to do. I would tell other military spouses who want to start a business to just not to be afraid to ask for help from the community because it's absolutely there.
Dog Tag was a fivemonth business program that is sponsored by Navy Federal. And before I started the program, I was on the edge of do I want to keep doing this? This is so hard to do this by myself. And I was very burnt out. And they teach you everything that you could possibly need to know about entrepreneurship. The give back part of this mission is really, really important to us. And in the near future, we're launching Bravery Foundation, which is our 501c3 nonprofit to really drive where the capital needs to go to make a change in your community. My dad's military. Anytime there is a business that's veteran or veteran honored, it gets promotional and I get excited for them.
What I would say to a fellow veteran is that you've done the hard thing and the mission continues. That same purpose that drove you to join the military is there to align you to your next mission. And if that's your calling is to be an entrepreneur or to be whatever servant leader and sacrifice that you want to make, it's there to do it. And you have a team of people that will be here to support you.
