The Academy Insider Podcast - Your Guide to The Naval Academy Experience

#110 The Comma Club: Insight Into Struggling Academically at the Naval Academy. Will You be Okay?

• GRANT VERMEER • Season 3 • Episode 110

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Why Struggling at Annapolis Doesn't Define Your Future Success

Struggling academically at the Naval Academy? You're not alone, and this episode proves that your worth isn't defined by your class rank. Stefan Simkovic, Class of 2009, graduated in the "Comma Club" – the very bottom of his class – yet went on to build a thriving international business that's now working with billion-dollar companies.

As we approach the 12-week exam period when academic stress peaks, this conversation offers hope and perspective for any midshipman facing academic challenges. Stefan's story demonstrates that the grit and resilience you develop at Annapolis – even while struggling – becomes the foundation for future success.

What You'll Learn About Academic Struggles at the Academy
 - How failing chemistry plebe year started a cascade of academic anxiety and self-doubt
 - The reality of living with constant uncertainty about graduation
 - Why some midshipmen need more "soak time" to absorb material than others
 - How comparing yourself to high-achieving classmates can rob you of confidence
 - The importance of utilizing Extra Instruction (EI) and building relationships with professors

Key Takeaways for Struggling Midshipmen and Parents
- Academic rank doesn't determine your future potential or leadership ability
The Naval Academy network becomes invaluable throughout your career
- Pressure and adversity at Annapolis build resilience for entrepreneurial success
- Learning to listen to subject matter experts is a crucial leadership skill
- Staying present and responding with logic rather than emotion during difficult times
- Essential Questions for Parents
- When your midshipman calls home struggling academically, consider asking: Have you attended Extra Instruction? Are you getting adequate sleep? - What other factors might be affecting you

The Vermeer Group is a residential real company matching military families with trusted real estate teams across the country.  If you have any real estate questions at all, please text Grant at (650) 282-1964 or email grant@thevermeergroup.com

To stay most up to date with Grant, Naval Academy updates, and real estate insights, follow him on LinkedIn

The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.

Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.

He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a residential real estate company that matches service academy families with trusted real estate teams all across the country. Text (650) 282-1964 with any real estate questions.

We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.

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SPEAKER_01:

Hey everyone and welcome back to the Academy Insider Podcast. Today I'm joined by Stefan Simkovic, another Naval Academy grad, and he's gonna be talking today about the Comic Club. If you have no idea what the Comic Club is, well, listen to the episode. I'm excited to talk to you about it. But this is an episode that we're releasing around the 12-week exam, you know, mark in the semester, where some midshipmen out there may be struggling, maybe having a hard time. Again, the Naval Academy Academics program is extremely difficult. And there are a lot of midshipmen who struggle. And this is gonna be the story of someone who struggled deeply academically during their time at the academy. He graduated in the last, you know, very, very bottom of the class, which may be a hint about what the Comic Club is, and has gone on to live a very successful life and is in the current like stages of building out an incredible company and distributing worldwide with some things and bringing on some big investors. And so this is an exciting conversation. I'm really excited to get this out there and just share the story to show you that even though you may be struggling at the academy, even though you may have a deep level of stress and anxiety about the academic portion of being in Annapolis, it's gonna be okay. And as long as you continue to grind, continue to fight, and continue to ask for help, you will get there to the end. So I'm excited for you to listen. Thank you so much. Let me know if you have any questions. Otherwise, enjoy the episode. All right, hey Stefan, thank you so much for taking the time to join us on the Academy Insider podcast today. Excited for us to share your story and talk a little bit about one, this idea of the Comma Club, which will come up, but just generally the difficulties that is the Service Academy Academic, like the monster that is Naval Academy Academics, and how it's again established and prepared you for life. But before we jump into the main discussion, if you don't mind just introducing yourself and providing a little bit of background about where you're from, your upbringing, how you ended up at the Naval Academy, and now currently where you're at now and what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00:

For sure. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm super stoked to be here. Stefan Simkovic's class of 2009. I was born and raised in New York City. Parents divorced in 93. So my mom raised me in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. You know, growing up, I went to middle school in Manhattan, and then I was able to go to kind of a boarding school in upstate New York, a prep school. And uh, you know, when it came time to looking at colleges and everything like that, I kind of wanted something a little bit bigger. You know, it was a small liberal arts boarding school, and a lot of the students matriculated to small liberal arts colleges, kind of like Hamilton, Colby, Tuff, and state in the New England area. I would like to say, being from New York City and I was a sophomore during 9-11, that kind of played a role and giving back, you know, in in service to kind of to play my part there. And, you know, I went to the Naval Academy, I followed my friend there who was actually getting highly recruited for lacrosse. And I just happened to tag along. And then when I went there and walked and saw the mids and kind of the structure, high level, I was like, I think I can dig this. I think I would like this a lot. And then, you know, so I, you know, caught wind of Naps. You know, I'm a Napster, 2005, and I heard nothing good things about Napsters and you know the camaraderie we have there, and you know, my little Navy text thread. All 15 of us are napsters. So, you know, not thinking too far ahead. If I ever had a kid, I I would push them going to Napst, even if they could get directly in that's that's a five-year program, baby. Come on now. And everyone, no one when you're 39 years old, no one's gonna ask like where you lost a year or anything like that. I'm kind of all about preparation and friendship. So I did fall into the category of a low SAT score, but pretty good GPA and active in the high school. I even was adamant on my Annapolis application that like prefers naps, will go to naps. You know, I did look at some Naval Academy Foundation schools, you know, some of those prep schools in New England to do a PG or under the foundation. But luckily I got into NAPS. I reported to NAPS in July of 2004. Yep, and then I got through naps, and then we'll get into the academy stuff. And I graduated in May of 2009. I was a SWO for five years, took the untraditional route when I got out. You know, I became a lifeguard for the city of San Diego. Also during that time, I was a uh ski bum in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I've been a barista twice in my life, and then kind of leading up to what I'm doing now, I was in a hospitality software company called CloudBeds. I started off at an entry-level sales position. You know, my back was kind of against the wall, applying to jobs, and I needed a job at that time. And then I got laid off from that position or that job, that company in February 2023. And then six months later, I started the LLC for my company that I'm currently doing now. The DBA doing business houses Rassant Straps. The LLC name, as we'll get into it, is the Comma Club because that's what I graduated in. And now I'm kind of an entrepreneur that created an experience-based solution of a fast release utility strap that was originally, you know, the idea sparked when I was a lifeguard. And now we're making a lot of headway with that strap being nationwide, and then recently in New Zealand now, and then also working with a lot of kind of big companies, including Granger and Polaris, looking to implement my product into their accessory line. So I guess, you know, long story short, I know your audience is a lot of parents, and you know, there are parents that will have mids from now until the end of time where mids are struggling academically and they're they're they're questioning their self-worth. And, you know, they even think beyond like, am I just gonna be this maybe average person because I feel like I'm average and below average at Annapolis? But you know, things can change for you overnight with an idea or a job, and then before you know it, you're talking to, you know, you know, the the companies I'm talking to are multi-billion dollar companies that that I'm working with, and uh, you know, being back at Annapolis with like a 2.0 GPA and not finding out that I was gonna graduate until the week prior. I'll never forget logging into that system. I forget what it was called. Logging into mid to heart was dropping, you know. I was at an off-campus house and uh it said two point something, and I said, I'm out. I'm good.

SPEAKER_01:

Peace, I'm out. Yeah, no, uh, and we'll we'll kind of jump right into it. At like at what point in the Naval Academy experience, like, did you have a moment like first semester plebe year where you're like, oh crap, like this is gonna like this is gonna be rough for me, right? What was your experience early on with the Naval Academy academic side of things?

SPEAKER_00:

I think the one that comes to mind is plebe chemistry. You know, even though I took chemistry at NAPS, and a lot of the courses you've taken naps are redundant and you repeat plebe year. I think the first time I thought I was kind of in trouble or just it was gonna be challenging is when we took the plebe exam summer, the the exams during the summer, and you know, some plebs can like validate and then all of a sudden like go to sophomore year classes, even junior year classes. So I remember going into plebe year, and a lot of plebes in my company were very smart, and they ought to, you know, the chem two out of the way, chem one out of the way, and already that the comparison, comparing, you know, comparing is the when you compare, you you you rob the gift of joy. I feel like that's one of the quotes. And um, yeah, plea I remember plea chemistry. I had a uh a big class, you know. Usually the classes at Annapolis are small and intimate and get to know, but it was like 23 of us in there or more. I remember us all being elbow to elbow, and my teacher spoke okay English. She was good. I forgot her name. She was very nice, very sweet, but she was definitely not from the United States. And she was a good teacher. And yeah, during that time it moved so fast, and chemistry was tough. And then when I failed that class, I knew I think I was in I was in trouble a little bit. So I knew this was gonna be uh a resisted, you know, challenging path and taking chem one again during second semester and you seeing, you know, and I just felt like everyone, maybe I didn't notice, or just everyone around me, I felt like they were just waiting to graduation. And then there was like people like me and you know, people like me that were fighting to graduation, and and we just like did not know the next day.

SPEAKER_01:

And you know, did that lead to any like either confidence issues or like make you nervous in the classroom? Like, I I how was like your overall demeanor? Like, were I mean were you just stressed out the whole time, like thinking like I'm on my last leg here and I may not make it?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you know, I I thought there was times, you know, I did go to ACT boards throughout my four years. There was one ACT board during my senior year where it was recommended that I delayed grad. But I had a professor, uh, my advisor, Dr. Good, she was in the history department. She was very, very kind and adamant about getting her advisees out the door at uh at the right time. And I'll never forget, she finagled my schedule so I could graduate on time. There was a lot of credits in there. There's like 20 credits, but she was able to get me out there. So, yeah, the the failing of chemistry started the compounding of you know, anxiety, depression, am I gonna make it? You know, you go on that that website that tells you the rankings of teachers and everything like that. I forget what it was called.

SPEAKER_01:

Like my teacher, I think it was.

SPEAKER_00:

If your teacher had like a red hot chili pepper, you know, they were good to go. And you know, and then some teachers you just wanted to avoid completely, and I did get those. So, yeah, you know, as you can see, I'm an I'm I'm a big extrovert. I think I have a good IQ, but my EQ. So if I got a you know, I went into a class and you know, there were classes like problem stats, double E, and it just like kind of compounded. So yeah, I did kind of experience anxiety and and depression and like and questioned my self-worth during that time at Annapolis. And I think you know, each semester there was classes that like I did okay, and you know, I wasn't like a complete disaster, B's and C's, but then like I owe those big classes, those core classes, the chemistry, the physics, like if you get an A in that class, it's like worth you know, like like B and like three other classes, I believe I remember.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's just weighted, it's a it's a massive, it's there's a large, it's it's a large credit class, right? Like it's usually like a four credit class versus a lot of the two credit classes you take, right? So if you get an A and it it heavily weights your cooper in a positive direction, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And yeah, so the big classes like that, physics, chemistry, province stats, calculus. I guess I just I just never was like kind of a math person, and and uh I'll never forget this. Some I remember this this was said to me years ago, and some things stick with me, you know, Annapolis gives you too much to do and too little time with too little resources, you know, and you know, I wasn't I didn't have the mindset of, you know, after a four-stall lecture, you know, going back to my room and studying for a physics exam or stuff like that, for for some reason my my mind and my soak time was kind of working against me in that. And like, oh man, I you know, I want to go to bed too, and and and everything like that. So yeah, the troublesome classes compounded me and did and and it did, you know, it did it did affect my self-worth and my belonging to be here. And you know, you know, on the outside, I you know, I am a very confident person and I speak well, but internally I started self-doubting myself and to be transparent. I'm like, am I dumb? Like, do I belong here? Should I look at other options? Should I look to transfer? And then it only gets worse. The comparing only gets worse along the way because you know, you get mids are starting to get like, you know, your classmates are starting to get road scholar positions, you know, you have the select few that get to go doctor right out. You have the select few that actually, you know, senior year or second semester, they're not putting on a uniform, they're starting their graduate degrees at like university in Maryland and Hopkins, and like oh, why can't you know I be in that um in that realm? But I just kind of realized over time that, you know, I think I was smart. I think I was intelligent, just my soak time needed to be longer, and my soak time of absorbing material was not in parallel with the Annapolis's speed. So say we learned something on Monday and the test was like Wednesday, you know, the high caliber mid can pick that up immediately. Whereas I may have needed like the next Monday to kind of do well in that exam, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it makes sense. And uh so what's what's interesting again as we you know talk on Academy Insider and do a little bit of then versus now, like your time versus my time versus what the midshipmen are currently going through, is as we know, the Academy changes, it it adjusts, it it evolves over time. And uh some of those things are legitimate. And I think, like you're saying, some of the soak time comes down to an absorbing time of information, comes down to pure sleep deprivation and uh and and like external obligations on certain things. And so recently, as of this year, actually, brand new this year, they've introduced what's known as the trident period. And so they've adjusted the academic schedule. They made the morning classes earlier and the afternoon classes later. So now there's like an hour block in the lunch period, like after meal, afternoon meal, where it's designed a couple days out of the week for like academic extra instruction if they want to go. There's a couple of military training days, and they will do now all four stall lectures and any kind of thing that was like what we would do after evening meal, like in the evenings, they're doing in that lunch period now. So now it's like guaranteed that like after evening meal, you can go back to your room and study and do homework, right? And so, like those evening obligations are now no longer a thing. They've been shifted to like the noon meal.

SPEAKER_00:

That's very they've seen like an increase in like graduating or grades or GPA. Well, so this will be the first year.

SPEAKER_01:

This is really gonna be like the trial year. Like this is gonna be the trial year on on that and how it goes. They did it the spring semester of last year, like after spring break, they tried it out as like a pure trial run. And I guess it it seems like it would have gone well enough that they've decided to implement it full time this year.

SPEAKER_00:

That's awesome because you know, you know, it it is it does happen where you know someone will graduate in the top 100 and they may not be the best leader, but you have people in the bottom of the class that I think have more tend towards an IQ that can be very, very successful in the fleet. But I'm actually glad that I hear I hear that because it kind of gives maybe someone that was like in my shoes just a little buffer, a little more time, decrease the stress. And you know, the Annapolis is an emotional time. You know, we are college kids. You know, our brain isn't fully developed yet in terms of responding with logic. You know, there are times where we most likely will react with emotion. And I was telling the baristas today around the corner from my house that, you know, there will, you know, I'm gonna be on a podcast. They asked what it's about. And I'm like, it's basically about when a midshipman calls home and goes, I don't want to be here anymore. And, you know, the parent, like you said, there's no playbook for that. So you have to navigate those emotions and then navigate the game plan on why we should stay, on why you should be there, and everything like that. But that's that's great that the academy is evolving to accommodate, you know, their I like that because they're setting the mids up for success. And I truly believe that if a mid goes more than halfway and capitalizes on that time and builds a relationship with their teacher and their professor and really can get down into the nitt and gritty and spend an hour in their office where it's like one-on-one. Where, you know, and then some midshipmen in class may not ask questions. I know I didn't ask questions, I didn't want to look dumb, you know, and tell my peers. But in that, you know, with that allocated time and EI, looking back on it, I should have capitalized on EI a lot more and build a rapport with my teachers and actually kind of gone line by line of what those learning objectives were, and it would have been like a, you know, probably would have been maybe a little sick more successful. And it definitely would have decreased the stress a little bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And so again, as we're saying this term EI, again, for parents who may be listening, this term EI stands for extra instruction. It's a think of it as the office hours, right? For your for your professors. Like they're basically offering again, quite literally extra instruction, one-on-one teaching in in this period for you to go and get help academically if you need it, you know, especially with like the teacher who is teaching your course.

SPEAKER_00:

And I've never heard of a of a teacher that denies EI or it's one of the beautiful things of the Naval Academy, dude.

SPEAKER_01:

Like the staff, more than anywhere else in the country, they will make themselves available to be present for you if you need EI. If you ask for help, you will get help. Right? Like that is cool.

SPEAKER_00:

And just not to divert, you know, for a parent watching this out there and for future midshipmen parents, you know, if if your mid calls you and they're having a breakdown on a class, you know, on a class and a grade and they might not make it through, you know, you can ask the proper questions of, okay, midshipmen, son, daughter, you know, have you gone to EI? Have we checked that box? You know, was there that did you get not a good night of sleep before? You know, is there anything else going on? You know, some midshipmen have relationships and and boyfriends and girlfriends, like, you know, that can play a role, you know, in your emotional stability. So, you know, for parents to kind of go down that checklist and find the crux of it, then they can make a plan for going forward. And I know personally, my mom didn't know what EI was. You know, if you're family at class, the first thing I'd ask, Well, are you going to EI? No. Well, okay, maybe we should consider going to EI.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. But you did go to EI and you made it. You made it to the very end. And even though they're saying you're maybe a little nervous, you may be a little nervous that we'd make it to graduation day, you made it happen. And you graduated in what is known as the comma club. You went explaining this term to the audience, like what the comma club is.

SPEAKER_00:

So the comma club is when very simply you graduate and there's a comma in your order of merit. And then there's the anchor man or the anchor person that is the last person in the class, and they're traditionally supposed to get a dollar from everyone in the class. And they'll and the thing is with Annapolis, it's not like we're your a class is 20,000 deep. You know, the comma callet is at the bottom because I I remember roughly each class is around 900 to 1200 people. And I actually, you know, not to divert, I had a friend that I think was trying to get the anchor man strategically. Like I think he actually went to some professors and was like, hey, you give me a D, I might get this I might get an extra thousand bucks. We work this out, like, you know. But yes, I graduated in the very bottom of the class of 2000.

SPEAKER_01:

And then and this is a really interesting, again, perspective for parents. I think you understand at the Naval Academy, you get a sense that like you are ranked and everything is evaluated, but that's really real, right? Like, again, when you're graduating in the comma club, it means your overall order of merit. Your overall order of merit is at the very bottom of the class. Right? Like you're saying, again, my class, I think we graduated about 1,050 people, which means there were about 50 people who were, again, order of merit 1000 to 1050. Yeah. Right. And like those folks would be a part of the comma club. And again, over your time at the academy, you're being evaluated. You have, again, our overall order of merit, which is a mix between your academic order of merit and how you do academically. And then also, I think it's like your military order of merit, just like your general, what they deem as like your quote unquote aptitude or like military performance, which includes the physical side, which includes the conduct side, which includes the honor side, the interpersonal side, et cetera.

SPEAKER_00:

Does the peer evaluations play a role in that too?

SPEAKER_01:

Like, oh, peer evaluations sir play a role in it, dude. Yeah, certainly play a role. It it goes into your aptitude grade. It goes into your aptitude grade.

SPEAKER_00:

And yeah, not to go to kind of too off the beaten path, but that, you know, those evaluations can break a person down as well, too.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, they can. We're we're actually going to do a full episode on the peer evaluations because those can get brutal.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, those can get gnarly. You don't know who they had come from, you know. Anonymous. The youngster class can rank you one, but the senior class can rank you last. It's a very big emotional jerk. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And so that's what the comic club is. And our good friend Stefan here was a member of the comic club. But so much as a part of your foundation now, again, it was the name of your LLC that you've used to create this company that you're currently running. And so, what I want to talk about and shift this conversation to on the second half a little bit, I want you to tell your story a little bit. You mentioned that you had to deal with, you know, a couple of layoffs, a couple of different situations, this transition in your work world until you found what you're doing now. Can you talk about how this experience of the Naval Academy, this struggle, this being a part of the comma club, put you in a position to be ready to handle some of these situations and just talk about your journey?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So, you know, a Naval Academy is has always kind of been described as a fire hose. You know, and there is one thing I've learned is that you find out you learn things and you can handle things better later in life. You know, so after the fact. So at Annapolis, you don't think you're learning anything, but subconsciously, you are learning how to handle pressure and deal with your peers. It is a leadership laboratory where you will work on your public speaking, you will like work on your presence in a room, you know, you will work with outside entities, foreign entities, you know, you will be going, you know, there you will be going on summer training where you might, you know, where you're a little pack of mids, you might be in charge. And, you know, there are some people in charge that are better than than others. And so learn having those pressures kind of subconsciously be implemented in me and and exposed to has definitely helped me like kind of later in life in and in the situations I've been in. And I have realized when you go to Annapolis, you know, you you don't just kind of accept the standard there, but for me personally, it's a standard for the rest of your life. You know, you know, you want to represent that school. It's the you know, it's the taxpayer's money. And I'm not saying you have to be like this big G.I. Joe type of person, but you know, I realize in myself that you know, you want it to make sense. When you walk into a room, you want to have, you know, that humbleness and that that that modest approach and, oh, you know, he went to Annapolis. Okay, that makes sense. You know, that I'm glad my tax dollars went to that. And I kind of realized that later in time. And, you know, I learned about, you know, so the pressures I learned there when I became an ocean lifeguard for the city of San Diego and, you know, going out on critical rescues, you know, I was able to stay calm, stay focused. You know, that kind of tribulations and challenges I had from 18 to 22 at Annapolis helped those situations very well. In the fleet, also, you know, I think I worked on a lot of kind of like I was a good speaker and Annapolis honed in on those. And I think I did well during my sea and anchor briefs when I was a first lieutenant. And then when I kind of, if you fast forward to when I was in cloud beds and my entry-level sales position, I was able to become a sales leadership position. And I was able to coach my the market managers underneath me very well, you know, with clear communication, clear next steps, and everything like that. And then, and then also my company, you know, realizing, you know, it's kind of weird, you know. I first initially came up with my idea for this fast release strap back in spring of 2020. But I got real motivated, but COVID happened, and that's kind of like a whole nother story. So then my strap went into a shoebox for a year, and then, or for four years, and then I get laid off and I I surface this idea and I create the Comic Club LLC as a little ode to you know myself and to possibly others saying, like, okay, you know, just because I graduated in the comic club doesn't mean I can't maybe do something cool, create, create a niche, a niche, something that doesn't exist, something that has validation, something that has a cool story behind it. And then I realized I was like, wow, you know, I learned about leadership at Annapolis. I learned I can do more than I can handle. You know, I learned, you know, the how to how to listen more than lead. I learned how to listen to the subject matter experts around me. And I learned to kind of have that balance of a leader. Like, you know, when I worked with my product designer for my strap, Mike was the subject matter expert. And, you know, him and I worked together on this. And I wouldn't say I led him, but I had a leadership presence where I listened to him. And, you know, there's plenty of times where he put me in my place in a way, and he said, No, we're not doing it that way. We're doing it this way. And, you know, Annapolis has taught me that as well to listen to the subject matter experts around you, whether it be in a four-stall lecture or your or your company officer, even that person that you interact with every day, allowed me to learn in this environment and apply it to what I'm doing now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And where are you at today with the progress on everything? Give us a full rundown of where you're at with the straps. And if people want to learn more about the straps, where should they go? Give us a rundown of where you're currently at and a little bit about what you're building.

SPEAKER_00:

So basically, you know, just kind of a little background story. I, when I was a lifeguard for the city of San Diego, I didn't know it at the time, but our rescue boards, which is our vital tool to get out to the ocean, you know, you could have six drowning victims hanging on to this thing. They were on our tacomas and tundras, and they were held down by traditional, traditional market surf straps. And they're very hard to get off, and no strap was configured the same way. If you worked in Ocean Beach, this the board might have been strapped down differently than if you worked in La Jolla. Didn't really think of it at the time. 2020 comes around. Uh, I look at I'm living in Ocean Beach. I'm working for that company, that that software company, and I'm looking in my old sergeant's truck. It's called OneSAM. And I'm looking, and I'm just like a normal entrepreneur story, I'm just looking at this truck and the the straps hanging on. I got this beautiful truck, a thousand dollar rescue board, and you have these awful, non-aesthetic, non, you know, working straps that are on this board. I'm like, and I just said to myself, like, you know, there has to be something better than this. This could be better. And so then I hit it, you know, and then if we found and then I hit it hard. I came up, you know, I was reorganizing information. I looked at straps, bungees, poles, and everything like that. You know, what can come off and on the same time every time? There's not multiple ways to configure it. And then I also realized, you know, straps in the regular world are are kind of cumbersome, you know, they it could just be a cam buckle with 20 foot of slack, and then here you go, user, figure it out. And I just wanted something a little more aesthetically pleasing, tactical for the lifeguard side. And even though it was dedicated for the lifeguards, that's kind of the homey entrepreneurial story. It's a general utility strap. It can be used by multiple markets in multiple, you know, fashions and truck beds and everything like that. So if we fast forward now, um the name, the doing business name is is Ressant Straps. And for those of anyone out there that wants to start a company, you can make an LLC name. But if you don't want that to be your forward-facing name in the market, you could do a doing business as. For personally, for me, I didn't want to have LLC behind, you know, my uh my company name. So I made the name Ressant Straps. Ressant is German for fast, quick, speedy, efficient. Kind of just kind of goes along with the whole strap theme, you know, for the actual product. We're on Instagram, Ressant Straps is the handle, Rassantstraps.com is the the website. We are on Amazon under Amazon Prime. So we fall under FBA. I have units at fulfillment centers right now. And then, you know, I was I really, you know, did my prior re you know research and I realized that this wasn't uh just an issue for the San Diego lifeguards, it was worldwide. You know, everyone is using some sort of bungee that can snap and hit you in the face or something like that, and there was no dedicated rescue strap. And that's how I kind of pitch it. It's it's not just a strap, it's a a rescue board or rescue equipment accessory. So, right now, currently, we're in 30 agencies plus across the United States. The majority of them, you know, being in Southern California, you know, I have city of San Diego, City of Coronado, Imperial Beach, Cal State Parks, San Diego Coast Districts were located on their vehicles. We're in Oregon, Florida, Alabama has beaches, the little Gulf shores, and uh, you know, we're through the Carolinas and up in the northeast in terms of New Hampshire. Hampshire and recently Nosset Beach Lifeguards in Orleans, Massachusetts. We are officially now in New Zealand on one of some of their lifeguard vehicles. We're being evaluated by United Kingdom, the Royal National Life Bar Lifeboat Institution, United Kingdom Lifeguards, Ireland. And then I have a couple straps floating around in Australia for testing. You know, I'm working with Polaris right now. Polaris is testing some straps on their vehicles to possibly be a part of their accessory line. You know, it'd be cool to be on their vehicles, both in their off-road and government defense. And it was great to even get past, you know, that kind of the first step because you have to think a lot of accessory departments come to Polaris. A lot of strap companies come to Polaris trying to be a part of their accessory line, and they kind of get denied. Like I remember when I talked to Polaris, a company came to Polaris was like, yeah, this would be great on your vehicles, but you can't go over 35 miles an hour. And Polaris was like, well, our vehicles go up 90 miles an hour. So it was very, it was a good part of validation for me. And remember, validation is a good thing, depending on how you use it and accept it. And it was great to be in those steps. And then great, and then Granger submitted my capability statement to Granger, one of the biggest construction supply companies in the world. And and I got I passed their kind of initial review. And at the end of this quarter, we'll be headed to the contractual aspect to actually becoming a supplier for Granger. Congratulations. Appreciate that. Yeah. And that's kind of the high level.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean, you you've gone, you've you've created something incredible, right? Like, and this is no like it's not just a prototype. Like you're out here distributing internationally now at this point, again, with the New Zealand contract and everything. And it's just it's just incredible, right? It's incredible to watch and see. And again, I just I wholeheartedly believe it's you know, the pitch I give when people are considering a Service Academy education, is that it's gonna power it's gonna provide the foundation of this ultimate grit and this ultimate message to Garcia. And despite like be getting beaten down and beaten down and be in this stressful and anxious environment, it's allowed you and provided you the foundation now looking back in retrospect to go and take these adversities you've experienced as an adult and build something great, right? And continue moving forward in that pathway. And so just a big congratulations to you. We're gonna get ready to, you know, to wrap this up, but I want to turn it back to you and give you one last opportunity to talk, you know, to anyone out there who, again, if it's a parent with a struggling midshipman or the midshipman that's who's struggling themselves or anything else, of you know, one last thing about your experience, the lessons that you've learned, you know, what you've learned in your entrepreneurial journey and where you've arrived now, and just what perspective would you give to someone who may be struggling and who may end up in that comic club?

SPEAKER_00:

I think to stay calm, stay poised, stay in the present. Um, I've done a really good job on doing a lot of inner work and staying in the present. You know, just because you fail a class, don't project that situation to the future. You, you know, there will be mids that will fail class from now to the end of time. You know, kind of realize what you did wrong. You know, have those failures be your greatest teachers. You know, don't try the same thing twice, you know, reevaluate and go and and move forward with new perspective and utilize on maybe why you failed that class and reverse it. And uh if you do call home, please call home. Your parents, you know, should be your your biggest supporter, but uh meet your parents halfway and and and coming up with a game plan to keep emotions low, uh, and you know, we respond with logic and not react with emotion. And uh just because you graduate in the bottom of your class, you know, you you still are you know special, you know, you still are a part of this elite group that will graduate from the United States Naval Academy. No one really asked me my order of merit or grades moving forward. You know, I just talked to some potential investors last week that that may invest in the company, and that and that's and that's TBD so far. But you know, if I was told as a midshipman that you're gonna create a product that's very niche, that has a validation, and you might have investors you're gonna be working with companies that are worth a lot of money, I would have been like, yeah, right, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy of it from the first midshipman to graduation to the beginning of your class and the last, you are worthy of being there. You're supposed to be there, and you just, you know, some of us were just kind of born to be fighters, you know. They're for the mids out there, the parents, you know, your kid might just not have you know the natural talent to just look at a textbook five minutes before the class and ace the exam. You know, you may not have that natural raw intelligence, and that's fine. And some of us were born to fight. And, you know, the Annapolis, when you get to my stage or when you get laid all, you know, that network is a golden ticket. And I've always seen you post on on our on your various channels that it is a very good thing to have in your back pocket. And I wouldn't be where I am today if I wasn't an Annapolis grad and I didn't rely on my friends and the network that it provides. You know, I was able to get in touch with someone through the Commit Foundation to put me in touch with someone that wasn't Annapolis grad, was a vet is a veteran entrepreneur, but he's the one that resurfaced the idea of moving forward with the straps. And that was through Annapolis. So even though it was a grinder and I graduated low in the class, it still got me to where I am today.

SPEAKER_01:

Heck yeah. Well, Stefan, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today and share your story. Again, especially around this exam week period where people may kind of be feeling the stress and struggle of things not going great. So I appreciate you doing that. We'll we'll put links for anyone who's interested and maybe like, hey, this is actually related to my world, and I may know someone who may be interested in these straps or investing in these straps, etc. We'll put a link in the show notes to all of Stefan's stuff and resources so you can take a look at that as well. You also feel free to shoot me a message at any time and I'll get you in touch with him.

SPEAKER_00:

Open door policy, please feel free to reach out. Anyone can reach out, parent, midshipman, you know, anyone might I have an open door policy. I I will always have an ear and time for mids and parents and naval academy graduates in general.

SPEAKER_01:

Heck yeah. Well, thank you, man. I really appreciate your time today. Thank you so much. And for everyone listening, again, feel free to reach out if you ever have any questions. Otherwise, I appreciate you listening and I hope you have a good day. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Academy Insider Podcast. I really hope you liked it, enjoyed it, and learned something during this time. If you did, please feel free to like and subscribe or leave a comment about the episode. We really appreciate to hear your feedback about everything and continue to make Academy Insider an amazing service that guides, serves, and supports midshipmen, future midshipmen, and their families. Thank you.

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Grant Vermeer

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