A new business based in Charlottesville aims to help military service members obtain benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
VetScore, a startup based in Charlottesville, was founded by four people – a mix of veterans and entrepreneurs – who all saw their Vietnam War veteran fathers struggle to access their full VA benefits.
NELSON ROULEAU: Over the last 10 years or so, we've watched each of our fathers suffer through this process, and it was pretty hopeless and helpless. We really couldn't do anything about it, and that's when we finally said, we're going to solve this once and for all.
Nelson Rouleau is the company's CEO and a 29-year veteran of the Air Force.
ROULEAU: Most service members start the VA claims preparation process too late, after their service treatment records, or medical records … they're already flawed, fragmented, or incomplete. And unfortunately, this leads to denials, delays, and underrated conditions. … We help service members prepare while they're still in uniform, years before separation or retirement. We use … our expert humans to go through this. We've also combined with AI where we can scan, scrape, flag, and help fix a service member's record early, so when it is time to file, everything is already in place.
These VA benefits include everything from disability compensation to vocational opportunities and home loans. The VetScore team launched a bare-bones version of the service about three months ago, and already have a waitlist of interested users while they refine the product.
ROULEAU: Our goal is to make this free for every single service man and woman. We just don't think that they should have to pay for this, and so right now, all of our funding is coming from grants and from philanthropic, generous people and organizations.
Those organizations include the PenFed Foundation and the Center for Military Transition at the university William & Mary, and they are looking for more.
