Today we’d like to introduce you to Kevin Linderman.
Hi Kevin, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started my Jiu Jitsu journey in 2016. In 2013, I lost a few important people in my life. My mom was a survivor of breast cancer for 30 years, but it finally caught up to her in November of that year. Shortly thereafter my step dad passed away from a broken heart. And then tragically, one of my best friends was killed in a biking accident with a truck that didn’t see him at a 4 way intersection. These losses sent me into a bit of a downward spiral. My mode of therapy was extreme physical exertion. I put myself into Spartan races, triathlons, endurance 24 hour mountain bike races; all in an attempt to break myself down and rebuild. Eventually I found Jiu Jitsu in 2016 and after that I didn’t really need anything else. The mental and physical therapy I felt after starting my BJJ Journey was shocking. In one hour of training I felt a connection to a community, was physically exhausted and mentally clear. At that moment I knew I was on the right track and needed to bring this to others. I originally was going to start my own non-profit but did a google search and found the We Defy Foundation and it happened to be based in McKinney. The We Defy Foundation has a mission of providing therapeutic relief to disabled combat veterans through Jiu Jitsu. I went to their first gala in 2019 and introduced myself to the leadership at the time. Then I was approached in 2020 by the organization to join the board as Director of Development. When I started we were placing 3-5 veterans per month at a handful of gyms around the country with a budget of around $225,000. We have now grown to 35-40 veterans per month, around 450 veterans training at any given time around the country, 500 volunteers, over 1200 approved training facilities, and raised over $1.2M last year in donations. I took the position of Executive Director, our first full time paid staff position in April of 2025 and am chartered with shepherding the organization through this transitional period of growth.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I mentioned some of the personal struggles already. As far as the organization goes, it was started by Alan Shebaro and Joey Bozik in 2015. Alan had a gym in McKinney called Combat Base and Joey began taking his daughter to Alan’s gym to train Jiu Jitsu. Alan and Joey became friends and with a lot of encouragement, Alan convinced Joey to start training Jiu Jitsu despite being a triple amputee. Joey began his Jiu Jitsu journey and sure, he began to learn some techniques, but it was the unexpected benefits that were so impactful. His new found connection to community was the most evident. Suddenly he had friends from the gym that were reaching out, inviting him to events, holding him accountable, and treating him like just one of the guys. He started to lose weight and make better health choices. And his mental health really began to turn around. Similar to me, they both felt this was something they needed to share with others, so they started the We Defy Foundation. One seminar at time, Alan would raise money to fund a scholarship. Soon others found out about it and the demand became overwhelming. At one point we had over 1000 people on a waitlist with no hope to get funded really. But with some changes in leadership and focus on growth, the new board configuration that was put together with Travis Larson as President, Mike Anderson as Treasurer, TJ Kreutzer as VP of Operations, Steve Hargett as Secretary and myself as Director of Development, we were able to grow and expand the reach of the organization over the past 5 years…so much so now it cannot be run purely by part time volunteers. It has a critical mass requiring full-time staff. There’s always struggles…as we say we are building the plane while we are flying it. Nothing gets done unless we do it. Everything that is We Defy we have built it from scratch ourselves. But we provide a vehicle for veterans to transform themselves through Jiu Jitsu. Every struggle we face is worth solving to ensure we continue to provide as many Jiu Jitsu scholarships to disabled combat veterans as we can afford.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
The We Defy Foundation is a catalyst for veteran transformation. Through the process of training Jiu Jitsu, veterans are able to reconnect to a supportive community and rediscover a sense of purpose and confidence in themselves. When a soldier leaves active duty, they are faced with a theoretical trench of uncertainty in front of them. Some veterans can leap across that trench more easily than others and go on about their lives. Many fall into the trench, some unfortunately with catastrophic outcomes. The We Defy Foundation is there to provide a way for the veteran to pull themselves out of the trench. We provide a ladder in a sense, with each rung representing a round of Jiu Jitsu. Every round they climb higher and over a year of training they climb themselves out of the trench to discover at the top that they have reconnected with family, become a better spouse, finally applied for that job or more they are more willing to seek out the assistance they had been meaning to apply for, and on and on. The transformation is real and documented in countless anecdotes and testimonials. But now we are engaged in a study with UT Southwestern here in Dallas where they are looking at the science behind the testimonials to demonstrate the scientific impact of Jiu Jitsu on veterans coping with military connected disabilities. The We Defy Foundation is, at the end of the day, saving lives and reinvigorating spirits making for a healthier and more vibrant veteran population. We have funded almost 2000 scholarships since our inception. We are currently onboarding 35-40 veterans per month into approved and vetted training facilities around the country. But sadly, we are just scratching the surface. In a perfect world, we would be able to fund every qualified veteran into a Jiu Jitsu scholarship. But we are restricted by funding. Our goal is to double in our capacity over the next two years, so we are positioning ourselves for growth by investing in people, processes and technology to ensure we can meet our aggressive goals.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
For me personally, I would say its an ability to create something from nothing. I’m a long time musician and I associate this trait with those experiences. Everyone has ideas. But if you can’t formulate those ideas into a cohesive song and ultimately bring the song to completion for people to enjoy, then you’re just making noise and not delivering anything. In business its the same way. It’s one thing to have an idea, its another to operationalize an idea into something that’s value added. In the case of We Defy, its a focus on the mission statement and our strategic objectives of growth, sustainability and impact. Having a solid grounding in your mission and your goals helps to ween out ideas that will never come to fruition and that do not ultimately add value.
Pricing:
- Average cost to fund an athlete scholarship for one year is $2500
- We encourage donors to think in terms of scholarships funded.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wedefyfoundation.org
- Instagram: @wedefyfoundation
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WeDefyFoundation/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wedefyfoundation/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@wedefyfoundation
