A Missed Opportunity
"It's not possible," he chuckled. Those were the words that changed everything. They were spoken by a private maths tutor. I had asked him to help me qualify for university with an A-level in Mathematics. I had nine months and I needed an A-grade, despite working long days.
Six months earlier, I had left the Royal Marines without much of a plan. I was drifting and struggling, doing odd jobs while living in a dilapidated bedsit. I had no money, was lost and felt very alone. I had come from an elite brotherhood of like-minded people who had each other's backs. The motto was: "Once a Royal Marine, Always a Royal Marine." Why had I left? How had one of Her Majesty's finest ended up like this? But then the words of that maths tutor flipped a switch in me. I now had a mission: to turn things around and prove him wrong. His words became a challenge, a mission statement in my head. The only thing left to do was to work backwards from the result and figure out how to make it happen. "No cuff too tough" - that's what we used to say. Never tell a Royal Marine something isn't possible.
He was wrong. I got my A, despite working 12 hour days of hard labour. I got into university to study Mathematics. But this isn't a story about mathematics (although I could happily write one of those.) This is a story about military veterans and the huge opportunities that exist for those who are mission-driven, work backwards from an outcome, thrive in ambiguity, and have a dogged determination to make things happen. These are the traits military organisations like the Royal Marines select for and these are precisely the traits that a tech startup needs.
Some industries naturally attract service leavers: security, the public sector, cyber, and banking to name a few. We seem to seek other large institutions. In recent years, work in cyber-security has boomed with military leavers. The parallels with information warfare are obvious. However, I see very little mention of tech more generally, in particular early-stage tech startups and scale-ups. I find this strange. The tech industry in the UK alone is worth over a Trillion USD, only bettered by the US and China. The UK is the tech startup capital of Europe*.
Having worked in tech startups for the last few years, I think this is a real missed opportunity. When I think about the traits that we look for when hiring a great contributor at a startup, a lot of those traits are found in military leavers - especially those used operating in complex, fast-paced and hostile environments.
Mission Focus
In a fast-scaling tech company, you don't have the luxury of a big balance sheet or cash reserves. You may have a matter of months to win in the market. This means an absolute focus on the core mission of the business and getting value to your target customers. Everything you do must be towards your mission. There is no space for hiding or waste. Don't expect a task list. There is an outcome to achieve and you need to figure out how you and your team of rogues can get there.
Despite misconceptions about military leadership, this is exactly the approach to modern battlefield leadership. It is called "Mission Command". Every man and woman on the ground has the full context and situation of what it is their team, and their commanders above, are looking to achieve, and why. The single most important line in a set of orders is the 'commander's intent'. Why? Because in the chaos and infinite unknowns of battle, anything and everything that can go wrong, tends to (Murphy's Law). On the modern battlefield, commanders are often miles away and the battlefield is fast-moving, impossible to understand in its entirety, and highly unpredictable. Commanders must trust that their people on the ground have the context and training to make the right decisions. The people on the ground know that if they make the best decisions they can, with the information they have at the time, and never lose sight of the mission, their commanders have their backs. As the complexity unfolds, they figure out how to achieve the mission. And it works.
If you are a tech startup looking for someone with a laser focus on the mission, who can figure out how to get there, then military veterans might be a good option. If you are a military veteran and you want to be given the type of responsibility and trust you are used to, and you are not quite ready to give up the life of being deeply embedded in a mission and pivotal to the success of your team, then a tech startup may be for you.
Comfort with Ambiguity
In the military, especially combat units, ambiguity is the name of the game. You won't find a more complex, ambiguous, fast-moving environment than combat. Veterans used to kinetic operations often thrive in ambiguity - of biasing towards action, grabbing opportunities when they see them, and taking the lead when it is needed. Many of these capabilities cannot be trained, at least in the short term. The military ruthlessly selects these capabilities and then conditions them in a way that would be unlawful in most organisations. You can't fake this. The only environment in civvy street I have found that comes close to these levels of ambiguity is a tech startup. There are no rules, there is no playbook. By definition, no one has ever done what you are trying to do. You are pushing the boundaries and testing something new. Probing. At first, no one notices you, and then they do. Then you are rubbing old dinosaur institutions up the wrong way. And you have to figure out how to win, fast.
High Agency
The common thread tying the first two points together is the single most important trait early-stage tech companies should hire for. When I speak to founders, investors and other startup folk, this trait is overwhelmingly singled out as most important - being high agency. This means not accepting the narrative handed to you as anything more than a human-constructed story. It means not being a passive consequence of external factors. High-agency people write their own narratives. They quickly identify what they do control and then focus on that. They are either indifferent to misfortune or turn it to their advantage. They practice extreme ownership. In the unknowns and chaos of a startup, where you are reframing reality as a company, there is no trait more important in your people.
On military operations, there are so many things outside of your control - things that would leave a low-agency person dejected. You have no control over the overall strategy or politics influencing the mission, you have no control over enemy activity (never what you expect), supplies (never enough, always late, and always the same ration box), the terrain (always hilly), the weather (always too hot or too cold or too wet), and how long you are out there for (always longer than promised). Looking back, military operations could be framed as a sequence of disappointments and things going wrong. But elite military units don't worry about those things. They focus on what they can control. They change their environment and drive their own narrative. They take ownership.
Team First
In fast-paced military operations, there is no space for ego or bureaucratic sticking to "roles". The team mission is all that matters. Everyone in the team does whatever is needed to accomplish the mission. In a section of 8 (not dissimilar to a product 'squad'), each person has a role; but everyone in the section can also do every other role. The machine gunner can treat casualties, the signaller can pick up the machine gun if needed, the medic can use the comms equipment, and if the team leader can't lead there is a clear succession down to the last person. Communicating and operating as a single entity is drilled relentlessly. We need this type of team work in early stage companies. There is no space for siloed roles. Quickly probing and adjusting your offering to the market relies on a tight-knit cross-functional team where communication lag and misalignment is zero.
Next Steps
If you are a military leaver, then sure, have a look at what some of the bigger organisations can offer, many have great vet outreach programs, but also take a look at the startup community. You're bound to find startups at the cutting edge of innovation, looking to change the world in a way that excites you. Think back to the big game-changing stuff that has happened over the two decades - like social media, cloud computing, AI, streaming services, and crypto - it all came from startups. Startups need experienced and competent generalists. You might not be a software engineer but there are opportunities in sales, account management, project management, customer success, product management, QA and exec support that you can quickly turn your hand to, with a bit of hands-on training. Or why not dive in head first and found your own venture?
If you are a startup founder, think about looking for a military leaver as your next hire. They may have a few skill gaps vs more industry-specific hires, but you can bet your bottom dollar they will close those gaps faster than you can imagine. What you need are competent operators who can turn their hands to anything - anything to get the job done.
Do you have questions as a veteran wanting to get into early-stage tech? Or are you a tech company interested in hiring a veteran? Then I cannot recommend talking to Ben Read enough. He left the military after 10 years and had a super successful career in tech sales before founding his own company, Redeployable, helping vets get into tech sales.
Create an account on Redeployable now to start looking for your next role.
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