Wild Bill’s Craft Beverage Co. Franchise Creates Opportunities for Veterans

In its March 2026 issue, U.S. Veterans Magazine highlighted how Mike Quilty has built Wild Bill’s Craft Beverage Co. around a belief that military leadership should lead to real civilian opportunity.

Quilty, a former Navy officer who served aboard a submarine, has carried that perspective with him throughout his post-military career. At Wild Bill’s, it shows up not only in how he hires, but in how he thinks about growth, culture and ownership. “Serving on the USS Gato was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Quilty said. “The biggest lesson I took away from that experience is the power of building a great team.”

That lesson took on new urgency in 2017, when Quilty volunteered at Boulder Crest Retreat during a reunion for a Marine company that had recently returned from Afghanistan. What he found was a group of highly capable veterans whose experience was not being fully recognized.

“Many of them were unemployed or underemployed,” Quilty said. “These Marines had serious leadership abilities that were not understood or appreciated by civilian employers.”

He hired several of them, and that decision helped shape Wild Bill’s into a company that looks at veteran talent differently. Quilty said the disconnect was not about ability. It was about recognition. “What was most revealing was that civilian employers had no idea who they were and what they had accomplished,” Quilty said. “That’s the gap we’re filling at Wild Bill’s. We know who veterans are, what they bring to the table and we make sure their potential is valued.”

That approach now extends beyond employment. Wild Bill’s launched a Veteran Franchise Program that offers a 50% discount on franchise fees and financing options to qualified veterans, creating a path to business ownership for former service members. Quilty also made clear that support for veterans should not stop at praise or good intentions.

“Take the leap and hire one veteran,” Quilty said. “If the environment is right, that one veteran will attract others, and before you know it, you’ll have a team making a real impact. But you have to start — and it just takes one.”