Episode #40: Navy Seal Alex West Founder of Liquid Stand Up Paddle Board Talks How to Add Adventure to Your Vacation

Alex West is an active duty Navy SEAL with over 16 years of service. He has completed multiple tours of duty to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is currently an SEAL instructor stationed in Coronado, CA and co owns Liquid Stand Up Paddle Board with his wife Brittney.

Alex went through BUD/s in 1999.  He has served on both East and West coast teams.

He found himself giving stand up paddle (SUP) lessons to friends and family. One day he decided to get certified by the World Paddle Association (WPA). While there the instructor told him to claim the expense on his taxes as a business expense. That night a Legal Zoom commercial came on promoting easy LLC setups. A light bulb went on!

“We conduct 3-4 private paddle board lessons a month (we could do more if we had more people or if the venture was full-time . Prices range from $55-90 an hr (pr person) depending on one on one surf lesson or group bay lesson with rental. We conduct 2-3 rental board drop offs a month. $30 an hr pr board, paddle and life jacket

Our online stores (lsupob.com, eBay and Amazon) sell products from eight of the leading brands in SUP and surfing (we look to grow).

When I was a kid (8yrs) I would dub cassette tapes and go house to house selling mixes. When I was 25 I started a real estate investing company: West Discovery Group, LLC. I currently own and rent three houses in Virginia Beach, VA. I love the ability of being my own boss. I am passionate about finding creative solutions. At my J.O.B (which I do enjoy) I’ve always had a boss even when I was in a leadership position. I would consider being an entrepreneur as an opportunity to make mistakes and own them. I know I can always learn things from people which can be found at a 9-5 under a boss.”

What advice do you have for Veterans that are looking to transition into entrepreneurship?

“Things that are expected in the military are not always expectations in the outside world. For example: showing up 5-10 min early, bringing a note pad/pen everywhere and taking notes, having a presentable appearance, respecting authority, cracking jokes when the situation sucks and most importantly nothing in the civilian world will ever been more stressful than a gun fight.

Our goal of our crowd fund is to help us grow into our second phase of our 6 phase business plan. This will not only include hiring 1-2 more employees but expand our rental board fleet and grow our Research and Development department which we hope will begin to develop new items such as surf board repair kits, surf trip first aid kits and items that we can not disclose at this time but we hope will be finished before FY 2016.”

For more information please visit:

www.lsupob.com

Crowd fund site: Vetlaunch USA Campaign