Veteran Resource Locator
A nationwide directory of vetted veteran services, built in 12 weeks for a state VA office.
Next.js · Postgres · MapboxREAD AAR
OPERATIONS BRIEF · 26-04 / SOFTWARE FACTORYCLASSIFICATION: PUBLICEFFECTIVE 01 MAY 2026
MISSION
Forward Deployed Engineers, personally selected from VWC’s alumni network — 5+ years in industry. Ship production software. Engineers earn for the code they ship; project margin funds the program.
- UNIT
- VWC SOFTWARE FACTORY
- ESTABLISHED
- 2016 · FACTORY 2022
- CO
- JEROME HARDAWAY · USAF
- STATUS
- BOOKING Q3 2026
- POSTURE
- 2 SQUADS AVAILABLE
We ship
production
code.
A veteran-led engineering team for hire, embedded inside a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Hire us for the work; fund the mission as a side effect.
SECTION 02 / CAPABILITIES
What we deploy.
8 capability areas · led by staff engineers
01
Web App Development
Production-grade React, Next.js, TypeScript. Greenfield products through platform rebuilds.
02
API & Backend Systems
Node, Python, Go services. Postgres, queues, auth, billing — the unglamorous spine that holds up.
03
AI / ML Integration
RAG, agents, model orchestration. We separate what AI can ship today from the demo-ware.
04
UX / UI Design
Research, IA, design systems, pixel-precise interfaces. Design that respects the user's time.
05
DevOps & Cloud
AWS, GCP, Vercel. CI/CD, observability, IaC. We hand back ops you can actually run.
06
Discovery Sprints
Two-week scoping engagements. Walk away with a prototype, a roadmap, and a fixed-bid proposal.
07
Code Audits
Independent review of architecture, security, and team practices. Findings ranked by what to do Monday.
08
Embedded Engineer
One Forward Deployed Engineer. Agentic workflows. Team-scale output. T+30 to first PR.
SECTION 03 / OPERATIONS CADENCE
Recon · Plan · Build · Hand off.
We borrowed our cadence from the Military. Demo every Friday, async daily SITREP, code in your repo on day one. No surprises, no scope-creep theater, no two-month silence.
Phase 01
Recon
Discovery call, then a paid two-week sprint. We walk your problem space, talk to your users, produce a working prototype with a fixed-bid scope.
2 weeks · fixed bid
Phase 02
Plan
Architecture decisions, milestones, and the "definition of done" — written down before any code. You see the whole map; nothing is held back.
1 week · async
Phase 03
Build
Two-week sprints, demo every Friday, async daily SITREP in your Slack. Code lives in your repo from day one. Pull requests, not handovers.
sprints · 2 weeks each
Phase 04
Hand Off
Documentation, runbooks, and a 30-day warranty. We can stay on retainer or train your team to take it from here. Your call.
30 days · warranty
Deliverables
Per Engagement
SCOPE.md
Fixed-bid scope statement
ARCH.png
System architecture diagram
BACKLOG.csv
Sprint-ready backlog
RUNBOOK.md
Hand-off runbook
SECTION 04 / SELECTED ENGAGEMENTS
What we’ve shipped.
Live URLs and full case studies on request. Most of our work sits behind NDAs; public examples below give you the shape of what we ship.
Cohort Management Platform
Application, interview scheduling, and curriculum tracking for a workforce-development partner.
Remix · Prisma · AWSREAD AAR
AI-Assisted Resume Translator
Turns military OERs into civilian resumes. Open-sourced after launch — used by 11k vets.
Next.js · OpenAI · VercelREAD AAR
HashFlag VS Code Theme
Distributed via the official Marketplace. 40k+ installs across the developer community.
TypeScript · VS Code APIREAD AAR
SECTION 05 / WHO WE SHIP FOR
The clients we know how to serve.
We’ve found our fit. Three kinds of organizations, three kinds of problems we’ve solved before.
01
Veteran-Owned Startups
You vibe-coded your way to a demo and now you need an MVP that won't collapse under real users. We've taken founder-built prototypes and turned them into production software customers actually pay for — without throwing away the work that got you here.
02
Veteran-Owned Small Businesses
Something is broken and it's costing you money. A checkout that double-charges. A scheduling system that lost last Tuesday. A platform the original developer ghosted on. We've walked into catastrophic-error situations and shipped the fix — fast, documented, and with a runbook so it doesn't happen again.
03
Nonprofits
You don't need another deck about digital transformation. You need engineers who can train your team, ship the tool, and leave you running. We've done both — built the software and trained the staff at some of the largest nonprofits in America.
SECTION 06 / LEADERSHIP
The chain of command.
Every engagement is led by a full-time veteran staff engineer. No surprise resumes, no offshore subcontracting, no junior-only teams.
Founder · Executive Director
Jerome Hardaway
USAF · 2004–2009
Self-taught software engineer · Speaker · Writer
Self-taught software engineer · Speaker · Writer
Started Vets Who Code in 2014. 500+ veterans trained, $20M+ in combined economic impact. Built VWC as a fully remote, open-source accelerator focused on modern software engineering and AI-powered tools — and runs the Software Factory as its operational arm.
Technical Program Manager
Ayumi Fukuda Bennett
Vanderbilt · Founder, Startup Southerner · Nashville, TN
“Your wisdom is too important to evaporate with the rest of the noise.”
That belief shapes everything Ayumi brings to Vets Who Code. Born in Japan, raised in the southern Appalachians, and educated at Vanderbilt, she's built a career across business journalism, UX design, and visual storytelling — and founded Startup Southerner along the way. As VWC's Technical Program Manager since 2021, she translates the organization's mission into the words, visuals, and systems that move it forward. She runs sponsor relations, content strategy, and program operations from Nashville, where she lives with her family.
SECTION 07 / THE STANDARD
What every engagement ships with.
01
Senior Veteran Engineers Lead Every Engagement
Every project is led by a senior veteran engineer with production experience. Cohort engineers contribute under their direction. No surprise resumes, no offshore subcontracting, no junior-only teams.
02
Code in Your Repo, Day One
Pull requests, not handovers. You see the work as it's written. No two-month black-box phase ending in a zip file.
03
Fixed Scope, Written Down
Definition of done lives in SCOPE.md before any code is written. Change requests are change requests, not surprises on the invoice.
04
Documentation Is a Deliverable
RUNBOOK.md, ARCH.png, and a 30-day warranty ship with every engagement. Your team can run what we hand back, or we'll train them to.
Factory engagements since 2022
4
projects shipped
2
active clients
37,000
lines of production code in the wild
SECTION 08 / FROM THE FIELD
They shipped what three previous vendors couldn't. The veteran-led team brings an operations cadence we weren't getting anywhere else.
Funding the Software Factory was the highest-leverage line item in our annual giving. We got a working product and our donation paid the salaries of vets who built it.
SECTION 09 / CONTACT
30 minutes.
No deck. No pitch.
Tell us what you’re trying to build. We’ll listen, ask hard questions, and tell you whether we’re the right team — straight up. If we’re not, we’ll tell you who is.
- · Currently booking Q3 2026
- · 2 squads available
- · Average response time: 1 business day
- · Or email: factory@vetswhocode.io