Luke’s Record
Companies built. Systems changed. Capital raised. People employed. A few things that didn’t work, too.
Start with the outcomes.
- 50,000+
- Veterans servedVetClaims.ai, company reported
- 400+
- People ledAt peak scale
- $100M+
- Benefits unlockedVetClaims.ai, company reported
- $4M+
- Venture capital raisedClusiv
- 85%
- Blind or low-vision workforceClusiv, at its reported peak
- 185
- Investor no’s before the first yes
Three problems. Three attempts to build something better.
These aren’t success stories polished after the fact. One became the foundation for Luke’s first company. One became a venture-backed business that ultimately failed. One became an organization employing hundreds.
Case study 01The Accessibility Problem That Changed Luke’s Career
A company facing an ADA lawsuit, and a problem that was personal: Luke’s stepfather was blind.
Read it
Case study 02Clusiv
An e-learning platform built specifically for blind and visually impaired people, and a company built with the people it was built for.
Read it
Case study 03VetClaims.ai
A problem Luke had lived became a company employing hundreds of veterans and serving tens of thousands.
Read itSelected Honors & Distinctions
The companies did most of the talking. Other people noticed.
- White House Civic Honors Medal
May 2017 · roughly 150 hours of community service in one semester
Panhandle Post- Texas Business Hall of Fame
Brett Wiggs Innovative Leader Award · 2023
Texas Business Hall of Fame, past recipients- Techstars
Workforce Development Accelerator · 2021
GlobeNewswire- Bob Evans Farms Heroes to CEOs
National grand prize winner · 2021 · $50,000 award
PR Newswire- Austin Fast Start
Social Impact Pitch winner · 2021
Austin Young Chamber, Fast StartAustin Young Chamber, finalists- Global Inclusion Online Forum
First place, Accessibility Award · 2021 · then operating as RavensEye
- Built In Austin
Future 5 · 2021
Built In AustinWNCC Western Magazine- Warrior Rising
Veteran Pitch Battle winner
WNCC Western MagazineAuthority Magazine- Bunker Labs
Veterans in Residence · Austin · 2021
Syracuse IVMF- Austin Chamber A-LIST
Finalist
- 10×
Startup pitch competition wins reported while building Clusiv
Authority Magazine
The veteran founder ecosystem gave Luke a seat. He started giving it back.
Luke entered the veteran entrepreneurship community as a founder looking for the same things most early founders need: capital, advice, connections and people who understood where he was coming from.
Bunker Labs selected him for its 2021 Veterans in Residence cohort in Austin. Warrior Rising gave him another place to compete and build momentum while Clusiv was still early.
Luke’s relationship with both organizations eventually changed.
Bunker Labs
After participating in Veterans in Residence, Luke went on to serve in leadership and mentorship roles reported as City Leader and Veterans in Residence Principal. He also participated in the Bunker Labs CEO Circle with JPMorgan Chase, supporting other veteran entrepreneurs.
Syracuse IVMFWarrior Rising
Luke went from winning the organization’s Veteran Pitch Battle while building Clusiv to mentoring other veteran founders. His current biography identifies him as a Warrior Rising board member.
WNCC Western MagazineThe progression is more important than the titles: Luke entered these communities needing help building a company, then came back in a position to help the founders behind him.
Different problems. Same instinct.
The accessibility problem started with putting a blind user inside the engineering process.
Clusiv turned that idea into a company whose workforce included the population it was built to serve.
VetClaims.ai repeated the pattern at much greater scale with veterans.
The industries changed. The instinct didn’t: get close to the people living the problem, question the system built around them, and give the people closest to the work enough authority to change it.
That’s where the method came from.