Leaving the military is hard.
It shouldn't be.
Broken government searches. Confusing MOU requirements. No central place to search or apply. We've seen it firsthand. We built Milivate to fix it.
What we're fixing
The DoW built a great program, but not the tools to use it
SkillBridge is a real opportunity, but the official site wasn't built for actually searching it. Thousands of listings, almost no filters. Service members spend hours clicking through roles that don't fit. The program exists. The tools to use it don't.
“SkillBridge website sucks, can't filter things right, etc. Location is the main thing.”
Translating military experience is harder than it should be
"Infantry Squad Leader" doesn't map to "Operations Manager." Service members have the skills but not the vocabulary. Civilian employers don't know how to read military experience. Service members don't know if they qualify. Employers don't know how to evaluate a 25B.
“One of the struggles earlier on: What terminology I use vs what sounds really good for a resume. I don't know what most of this means in the job opportunity.”
The transition is lonely
After you hit send, silence. No tracking, no visibility, no sense of what happens next. Service members navigate a major career change with nothing but a directory of POC emails.
“I already wake up in the middle of the night with some anxiety. Been in the Air Force for 22 years, my entire adulthood. Fully aware I don't know how to be a civilian. I just want to learn how to integrate.”
Limited support for companies to understand service members
Employers want to hire veterans but can't read military backgrounds. Program managers get applications full of terminology they don't recognize — no context on what a "25B" or "0311" actually did. So qualified candidates get filtered out anyway.
“I don't want to get overlooked or not even looked at due to me leaving out a keyword or something stupid like that. Seems from the outside perspective, that you'd filter out people that might be a good fit.”
Milivate fills those gaps: search that actually filters by salary and location, application tracking, and military-to-civilian translation so neither side is guessing. Free for service members. Always.
FAQ
Common questions
Things we get asked a lot — answered directly.
Who's behind this
Milivate was founded by Air Force veteran Justin Dal Colletto, who ran a SkillBridge program at a major cargo airline, and Kasen Stephensen, who built job marketplaces at Turing and Leland. Justin brought five years of SkillBridge program management experience. Kasen brought technical expertise and deep roots in the military community — he grew up on Air Force bases, and his father is a Colonel at the Academy. Today, Kasen leads Milivate, committed to giving service members the tools they deserve.
Kasen Stephensen
Co-Founder & Engineer · Leading Milivate now
Software engineer from Silicon Valley marketplaces Turing and Leland. Grew up on Air Force bases, military family, accepted to the Naval Academy.
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Justin Dal Colletto
Co-Founder · SkillBridge expert
Air National Guard veteran, F-15 mechanic, and director who built the Patriot to Pilot SkillBridge program at a major cargo airline. Five years placing service members into civilian careers.
Connect on LinkedInReady to get started?
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