Essential Membership is $12 / month, and Executive membership is $500 / annual.

Having potential members complete a sign up form is our mechanism for reviewing applicant’s professional information, and verifying military service.

We review all applicants on a rolling basis and usually respond within 24 hours. Once accepted, you will receive an activation email to select membership level and finish building out your profile.

No. Upon completing the sign up form, those who qualify will receive an email with activation instructions. Prior to entering the platform for the first time, you will be required to select a paid membership level. Transitioning active duty service member and their spouses, and recently transitioned veterans, are encouraged to apply for a complimentary one year membership.

Open-enrollment networking communities lack filtering for relevance and quality of membership. Curated memberships like Meritorious ensure interactions are qualified, and a productive use of one’s time investment.

Meritorious is the only national network supporting military veterans and military spouses in senior level positions, with private member portal, networking events and professional development. The member portal connects members with each other, entrepreneurs with advisors and investors, and supports mentorship between members and transitioning service members. Meritorious events range from networking huddles and partner convenings, to educational presentations and larger, inspirational TEDx style talks. Members committed to growing personally and professionally can join Meritorious Masterminds, facilitated by trusted executive coaches. We offer Masterminds tailored to business owners, professionals looking to advance their careers or change careers, transitioning service members or recently transitioned veterans.

Unique to Meritorious, members can request to host events as a resource to their fellow Veterans, while growing their brands. They can also join Meritorious Working Committees (MWC) to collaborate and move the needle on issues affecting military transition, employment, mental health, homelessness, wounded warriors and women Veterans.

Meritorious is the brainchild of co-founders Katherine Kostreva, current national Director of Development and Marketing for PsychArmor Institute, and Ryan Loya, a US Marine Corps Veteran, and fractional CEO for startups at Columbia Technology Ventures. During Ryan’s transition from the military, the duo lobbied to reform the Department of Defense Transition Assistance Program (TAP), with key mandates now law in NDAA 2019, including the requirement that TAP be completed 365 days prior to End of Active Service, and program impact be measured, consolidated and delivered to Congress annually. Over the past few years Katherine and Ryan struggled to find groups specific to military connected individuals for peer-to-peer support and professional growth. They set out to build such a platform that would create connectivity and access to resources during a time of social distancing, with capacity to scale both virtually and physically post pandemic.