Press Release / Automotive / New Veteran Online Community Built by Veterans; TakingPoint.com, Creates Unique New Vet Experience!

New Veteran Online Community Built by Veterans; TakingPoint.com, Creates Unique New Vet Experience!

The United States of America has a complicated history with her veterans. Those who serve deserve praise and support for their decision to serve, but that often does not help individual veterans when they leave the military and begin the challenging transition to civilian life. TakingPoint offers the promise of improving veterans’ lives by consolidating our fragmented community and unlocking the sea of goodwill from the American people.

A New Type of Community
Up to the Vietnam War, there were official veterans organizations with local chapters that met regularly to tell war stories and enjoy the company of other veterans. The all-volunteer military of the last forty years rarely takes advantage of such groups, and our dwindling numbers make it difficult to connect with others who understand the struggles unique to the veteran community. Fortunately, advances in social media technology have unlocked other options for American men and women who served our country. TakingPoint grasped this opportunity to connect veterans to each other and the surrounding community that was impossible only a few years ago.

Humble Beginnings
David Johnson, TakingPoints CEO, was honorably discharged from the Army after three tours in Iraq with 10th Special Forces Group. He returned home to Phoenix, where his isolation in college prompted the founding of ArmedZilla in 2010 with ambitious goals: providing veteran-to-veteran support; improved access to benefits; and bringing together the fragmented world of veteran and military supporters. David has spent the last few years building up his team of veterans from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps, recruiting top-tier engineering talent from Silicon Valley, and talking to every veteran he could find about ways to improve their lives in the civilian world.

Leading from the Front
As the company grew and matured, David realized the need to refocus on the core population, American veterans. As part of Operation Veteran Force, ArmedZilla changed its name to TakingPoint, promoted a veterans-only focus, and instituted stronger privacy controls. TakingPoint is expanding rapidly, and a set of new features will be released over the next few months that are based on extensive user feedback and research across the veteran community. The social media capabilities will be complemented with greater access to peer networks, veteran support organizations, and tailored information for the recognition and collection of benefits. These improvements, coupled with a growing coalition of partners across the country, are what make TakingPoint the model for the 21st century veteran community.

About TakingPoint
TakingPoint, an evolution of ArmedZilla is the online community for America’s current and former military personnel. It’s a network of veterans, by veterans, for veterans. TakingPoint takes advantage of improvements in social media technology to build a platform with global reach but local feel.

We are about more than just "liking" some post that someone put up - it’s not a regular social media company. This is a place where everyone identifies with each other at the basic level of common military service. No one judges others because everyone has all been there. It is here where TakingPoint differentiates itself from your typical social network; through focused military stories and community responses. It amplifies Perspective Taking, Perceiving physical, social, or emotional situations from a point of view other than one’s own.

Across the generations, military service doesn’t change. It is frustrating, rewarding, boring, dangerous, exciting, hilarious, and stupid. This is the military bond we all share. TakingPoint was designed to foster these similarities and build on them, recollecting together this band of brothers and sisters.

For more info please visit: http://www.takingpoint.com