Most tech startup founders spend their days perfecting products and wooing a VC or two. Troop ID co-founder Blake Hall has been doing all that while also advocating for an Iraqi family's move to the US. When Blake was an Army Ranger in Iraq, his son "Roy" (above) was killed while helping his unit. After nearly two years of working with the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project through the bureaucratic process and writing opinion pieces in the Washington Post, Blake got the middle-of-the-night call that the family would be arriving in San Diego next week.
Blake, whose company digitally verifies military credentials, recently reached out to friends and tech colleagues for financial help and supplies for Roy's father, mother, 11-year-old sister, and 22-year-old brother. They're leaving behind nearly all their possessions and the monthly $200 per family member stipend they'll get from resettlement agencies won't be enough to start a US life. Blake, who plans to meet the family at the airport, says the move will give them a safer, more promising future: "I've fought so hard for this family to have justice. It's overwhelming."
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