A military spouse owned business has big news this week with an impressive $1.5 million raise. Instant Teams is a remote workforce supplier and management business. It was founded in 2017 by two military spouses, CEO Liza Rodewald and COO Erica McMannes. Rodewald was a software developer for multimillion-dollar government contracts, and McMannes is experienced in building small teams for businesses. Together, they combined their skills and passion to create Instant Teams.
They created the company for the sole purpose of creating more employment opportunities for the untapped and underemployed military spouse community. A 2018 report from the White House found that 40% of military spouses held a degree, compared to only 29.7% of the civilian population. That same report showed that military spouses that were able to work – were underpaid compared to their civilian counterparts.
McMannes shared that they just knew that the market for military spouse employment was something that needed strong advocates.
When asked what sparked the creation of Instant Teams, McMannes laughed. She said that she and Rodewald had originally met in 2014 when they were both stationed in Virginia, but she never dreamed they would develop and create a business together. They had an idea, and one day after talking about the concept, they were all in. An idea borne out of passion to help military spouses has now grown 125% in size each year.
The need for more employment options for military spouses has been proven and is a current hot topic in the news and current legislation. A 2018 Blue Star Families survey found that 70% of Millennial military families reported needing two incomes to support their families. Frequent moves put the military spouse at a great disadvantage for maintaining gainful employment to support their families. A 2017 Department of Defense report showed that nearly 25% of military spouses were unemployed — something Rodewald and McMannes sought to change.
On Feb. 11, Instant Teams put out a press release announcing a id=”listicle-2645127874″.5M investment partnership with Squadra Ventures.
“I always say, it takes a village and I am just lucky that my village is the military spouse community,” said McMannes. She continued, “We knew military spouses needed it. We wanted to develop this concrete and sound business model that allowed companies to see the value immediately and where spouses knew they could come directly for remote work. Now three years later, it’s happening, and it’s an amazing feeling. So much work and time has been put into it and that’s only going to amplify now with this investment.”
What it means, according to McMannes, is that there will be more opportunities for the spouse community, more growth for their internal team which then allows Instant Teams to be able to hire even more military spouses. McMannes shared that conversations with Squadra Ventures began over the summer and continued into the fall with the deal solidified in January.
Erica McMannes, Instant Teams founder and COO.
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McMannes said that she believes this is just the beginning. “There is a whole movement in advocacy in the federal, state, and international space on what the future of work looks like. Remote work is right on the leading edge of that,” she said.
When asked how it felt to get the news that it was a signed and done deal, she shared that it was even more meaningful because they were together when they got the word. McMannes is currently located in California, and Rodewald’s husband is stationed in Hawaii. As luck would have it, they happened to be together on the East Coast when the news came in – and they celebrated with cupcakes.
McMannes said that military spouses were the original “digital nomads,” meaning you could essentially travel the globe and bring your job with you. “Spouses were forced to be digital nomads, but the actual job component was always the struggle. To be a part of the future of work, we are really excited about,” said McMannes. She shared a story of a spouse that was recently able to keep her job because of Instant Teams through a PCS from North Carolina to Guam. McMannes said it’s stories like those that keep her and Rodewald fueled to continue working hard and committing to doing more. Thanks to the recent id=”listicle-2645127874″.5M investment of Squadra Ventures – they are well on their way.