TAMPA, Fla. — A new Florida law appointed the nonprofit Veterans Florida to help veterans start businesses and train for jobs once they leave the military.  

Veterans Florida Executive Director Joe Marino said with the passing of the law, they'll be able to help around 5,000 veterans and their spouses a year.  

"The signing of HB 1329 allows us to better align veteran training and educational resources towards the state's workforce strategy of making sure Floridians have industry certifications and licenses that are marketable and transferable that they can take anywhere within their career," he said. 

One business Veterans Florida has helped is accel-EQ. The Tampa-based company’s co-founder, Omar Fuentes, said the transition out of military life was not an easy one.

Without Veterans Florida, he said his company wouldn't be where it is today. 

"They started putting me in touch with quite a few resources to do that and even giving me access to mentors," he said. "In a community to other veterans that said, ‘Hey, we want to do something as well.’" 

Now, three years into the business, Fuentes said his company has evolved from the idea of helping doctors write notes to machine learning. 

With House Bill 1329 now signed into law and allowing Veterans Florida to assist more veterans and their spouses, Fuentes is hopeful more people like him will get the direction they need. 

“I struggled for 12 years regaining my purpose again because when you’re in the military, you’re serving something that’s much greater than yourself,” he said. “Then when you get out, you want to continue to fulfill that purpose. I think Veterans Florida and their programs that they have and seeing this law into place now is going to be a humongous benefit to us.” 

Veterans Florida estimates around 200,000 people leave the military every year.