Built to Serve, Built to Own: Expanding Opportunity for Veteran Business Owners

Brit Karel

February 5, 2026

Built to Serve, Built to Own: Expanding Opportunity for Veteran Business Owners

A new partnership between SMB.co and Owners in Honor is creating clearer, more actionable pathways for veteran business owners to step into leadership through acquisition.

SMB.co × Owners in Honor -> some partnerships just make sense. This is one of them.

We’re proud to officially announce our partnership with Owners in Honor, a nonprofit doing the real work of helping veterans, military spouses, and Gold Star families step into small business ownership through Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA).

At SMB.co, our mission has always been simple: help good people find, understand, and confidently buy great small businesses, strengthening the ownership ecosystem that keeps Main Street thriving.

Owners in Honor brings something powerful to that mission: veteran business owners in the making, leaders who already know how to lead.

Why this partnership matters for veteran business owners

Veterans are uniquely wired for ownership.

They understand:

Responsibility
Decision-making under pressure
Long-term thinking
Team leadership
Stewardship over ego

And yet, many aspiring veteran business owners face an unnecessarily complex path into entrepreneurship spreadsheets without context, listings without clarity, and a process that assumes you already “know the game.”

That’s where this partnership comes in. Together, SMB.co and Owners in Honor are creating a clearer runway from readiness → ownership for veteran leaders.

Not theory.
Not someday.
Real businesses. Real data. Real momentum.

What this looks like in practice

Through this partnership, Owners in Honor participants gain:

Preferred access to SMB.co’s marketplace, including on- and off-market opportunities
Tools that help buyers understand what a business is actually worth (not just what it’s listed for)
Support that bridges the gap between “I’m ready” and “I’m making an offer”

For SMB.co, it means partnering with a community that values:

Long-term ownership over quick flips
Respect for legacy business owners
Building businesses that strengthen families and local economies

In short: values + execution, aligned — in service of veteran business owners and the communities they support.

Ownership is a form of service

We love how Owners in Honor puts it: ownership isn’t the end of service, it’s another way to serve.

When veteran business owners buy and steward Main Street businesses, they:

Preserve local jobs
Protect community institutions
Create generational opportunity
Anchor local economies

That’s the kind of ownership ecosystem we believe in. And it’s why this partnership goes far beyond a logo swap or a press release.

What’s next

We’re just getting started.

Join us on February 20 for a live webinar with Owners in Honor, where we’ll walk through:

What buyers need to know before they search
How sellers can think about readiness and timing
What makes ETA work when it’s done the right way

Register here -> https://www.ownersinhonor.org/event-details/deal-to-day-one-how-to-find-fund-and-close-the-right-business-acquisition

If you believe ownership should be accessible, transparent, and rooted in stewardship — especially for veteran business owners — you’re in the right place.

Let’s build this thing. Together. 💪

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At its core, this partnership is about expanding what’s possible for veteran business owners, not just helping them buy businesses, but helping them step into leadership roles that create jobs, preserve legacies, and strengthen communities. When the right preparation meets the right opportunities, ownership becomes more than a transaction, it becomes a continuation of service. We’re honored to stand alongside Owners in Honor to support the next generation of veteran business owners as they build, grow, and steward the businesses that keep Main Street thriving.

Brit Karel

Cofounder & CMO

Brit is the Cofounder and CMO of SMB.co, where she leads the company's mission to make small business ownership accessible to everyone. Before cofounding SMB, Brit built and scaled marketing engines at high-growth B2B SaaS companies, but it was her firsthand experience watching small business owners struggle to find buyers and navigate exits that sparked the vision for SMB. She cofounded the company alongside Joe Brown and Mike Hillenmeyer to give independent buyers and sellers the tools, data, and support that were previously only available to private equity firms. A certified leadership coach, Brit is driven by the belief that the next generation of entrepreneurs should have a real shot at owning the businesses that power local communities.