This Veteran Risked His Savings to Build Better Armor

He bet his retirement. Now he runs a multi-million dollar business.

By Matt McCue • Aug 24, 2016

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

His story: I served in the Marine Corps with a man who was killed in Iraq from an IED blast. The plate he was wearing should have held the shrapnel, but it didn't. I started my business to make better body armor because I never respected the armor the Department of Defense produces -- the structure hasn't changed in a decade and a half, at least. I went to the drawing board in 2012 and broke down every single aspect of the armor plate to see what types of adhesives, threads and backings we could use to make it stronger. We came up with some prototypes that were a phenomenally superior product, and that's how we got started.

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