Readiness begins with service members and their families.

Poncho was born of a friendship forged at Marine Officer Candidate School decades ago. Co-founders John P Brown and Jim Shelton served went through OCS and TBS together, before John went on to serve 4 years before leaving the Corps for graduate school and a career building enterprise software in supply chain, human capital, and cybersecurity. Jim remained in the Marines as a financial management and logistics officer, commanding units and serving in senior staff roles, eventually retiring as a colonel after 32 years in uniform.

Both of them would lose several Marines and close Veteran friends to suicide, almost all of whom were struggling with financial stress when they took their lives.

While Poncho holds out organizational benefits like the promise of enhanced readiness, job performance, and retention, we recognize that any institutional improvement will come only by first replacing financial stress and anxiety of our service members and their families with financial capability, confidence, and the peace that comes from understanding.