How often have you gone to a local business and felt too awkward to ask if they offered a military discount? How often have you just plain forgotten?
Entrepreneur Freddie Rothschild heard that gripe often.
“That stuck with me. Something that’s meant to show appreciation shouldn’t feel like a burden,” Rothschild said.
While Rothschild didn’t serve in the military, both of his grandfathers served in World War II.
“I grew up hearing about their stories from my dad. Those conversations left a big impression on me,” he said.
Rothschild reached out to Navy veteran Rylan Tuohy via LinkedIn with an idea: an app that would improve and automate the military discount experience.
“He said, “I think I’m going to call it Valor,” recalled Tuohy, “and a light bulb went on, and I said, “This is brilliant. Why hasn’t this been done before?”
You might have seen Tuohy’s work. He’s behind the viral Navy “spirit spots,” including “Naptown Funk,” “Big Decks,” and more. After graduating from the Naval Academy in 2016, he served five and a half years as a Seabee, a Civil Engineer Corps officer. His last duty station was in Coronado, Calif.
“After Freddie reached out, I kept harkening back to and thinking about how some of the best ideas are so simple, and I thought this could have a positive, direct impact on the military community,” Tuohy said.
He knew it was something he wanted to be a part of, so he joined Valor’s small founding team.
“My personal relationship with military discounts comes from slight embarrassment,” said Tuohy. “I grew up in a military family, a big family–I’m one of four siblings. My mom would always ask for a military discount, whether it was a big chain like Wal-Mart or a small, local business, and it always made me somewhat uncomfortable.”
Tuohy said he would only ask for a discount as an active-duty service member if the business met him more than halfway.
“You know, if they had a big sign at the checkout counter saying they offered military discounts, then sure, I’d pull out my military ID.”
And Tuohy wasn’t the only one who felt that way. A survey by Valor found that 76% of people don’t ask for military discounts because they feel too uncomfortable. That same survey asked if there was an easier, more seamless way to find and utilize a military discount, would you?
“Nine out of 10 people said “yes,” so that was really, really eye-opening for us,” Tuohy said.
So, how–
“We knew there was this problem and that we could find a solution, so it was just a series of figuring out the best way to approach it, and there’s a million ways that we could have,” Tuohy said.
–and where to start?
“At first, we were talking about San Diego, but then we took a step back, and when we talk about automatic local military discounts, that local piece is so important to us. And so we realized we needed a neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach,” Tuohy said.
And with a tight-knit small business community and a large population of active-duty military and veterans, “Coronado seemed like the perfect spot to test this out and launch Valor,” he said.
The first step was developing an app. Next, the Valor team went door-to-door to get local businesses on board.
“We sat down with the businesses to explain how it would work, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.”
The app is free. You download the app. After that, your military affiliation is verified through a third-party system.
“All of your information is completely secure,” Tuohy said.
After that, you link a credit card within the app and visit the businesses featured on the app. When you pay with that card, you’ll receive automatic military discounts in the form of cash back into your Valor account.
“So let’s say I hit up Better Buzz Coffee: my bill is $10, and their discount is 10 percent, so I pay that $10 at the register, but then $1 will show up in my Valor wallet. And just like Venmo or something similar, you can cash out your Valor wallet to your bank anytime,” Tuohy explained.
The app supports active-duty military, reservists, veterans, and military spouses.
“We realize how important the spouse component is. Military spouses are often the ones making financial decisions for their households,” Tuohy said.
While the Valor app launched in Coronado, it has also been up and running in Imperial Beach, Point Loma, and Chula Vista since that time. The team hopes to be live throughout San Diego by the end of this summer.
“The response has made all of the blood, sweat, and tears worth it for our team,” said Rothschild. “We’ve had over 5,000 members sign up, hundreds of people tell us they can’t believe something like this didn’t already exist, and business owners across all types of industries have started reaching out on their own to get involved.”
And there’s no need to worry if you’re not in the San Diego area. The Valor team has big plans to expand across the country, with military hubs like San Antonio, Texas and Tampa, Fla.
Washington, D.C. and Annapolis, Md. are on the shortlist.
For more information, check out www.joinvalor.com. The Valor app itself can be found on the App Store or on Google Play.
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