VeteranCrowd Spotlight – Nick Black – Stop Soldier Suicide and GoodUnited
Combat has a way of shaping a veteran. This is perhaps the most powerful and intense podcast episode I have ever recorded. My guest is Nick Black.
Nick has been an innovator and leader at the intersection of business and social impact for over ten years.
He is the Founder and CEO of GoodUnited, a venture backed Software as a Service (SaaS) startup that helps nonprofits like Wounded Warrior Project, American Cancer Society, World Wildlife Fund create 1:1 relationships with their donors through the combination of data science and human judgement delivered in conversational messaging platforms.
Nick is also a co-founder of Stop Soldier Suicide stemming from his experiences leading Paratroopers as a Ranger qualified Army Officer with the 173rd Airborne during 27 months deployed to combat zones in Afghanistan.
A pathway to a lifetime of service
A senior in high school during 9-11, Nick shares his journey through college, ROTC, and into the Army. As a freshly-minted Second Lieutenant, Nick deployed to Afghanistan near the Pakistan border with the 173rd Airborne in 2007.
This fifteen month deployment was the subject of documentaries and movies, and shaped Nick and his comrades in ways he will never forget.
But after safely returning home with all of the soldiers in his unit, one took his own life two weeks after their homecoming.
It was this incident that set Nick on the path he blazes today .And this is a riveting story about service, commitment, and a burning desire to make a real impact on the lives of others.
During Nick’s six years of service he was awarded two Bronze Stars, an Army Commendation Medal for Valor and as a Field Artillery Officer, was repeatedly ranked 1st among 50 peer Officers in a premier Infantry Battalion.
Nick Black
Nick earned a BA from The Johns Hopkins University. At Johns Hopkins, Nick was a four-year member of the Varsity football team, the first two-time President of Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity and a four-year scholarship winner of the Army ROTC program. Nick earned an MBA from Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina. At Kenan-Flagler, Nick was awarded the Rollie Tillman Award for Leadership, selected as a Kenan Institute Leadership Fellow, was President of the Veterans Club and awarded the 2018 Distinguished Young Alumnus.
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-black-7658ab37/
Stop Soldier Suicide: https://stopsoldiersuicide.org/
GoodUnited: https://www.goodunited.io/