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BAILOR Named Founding “Mission Accelerator” Partner of Freedom Fighter’s Great Loop Record-Breaking Attempt

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Huntsville growth strategy firm backs Veterans Against Suicide’s 6,000-mile awareness mission on an incredibly short timeline, and calls on other businesses and individuals to join the challenge

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., July 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Veterans Against Suicide Inc. and BAILOR today announced that the Huntsville-based growth strategy firm has been named the founding “Mission Accelerator” sponsor of the Freedom Fighter mission, a 6,000-mile endurance record attempt around America’s Great Loop designed to bring national attention to veteran suicide. The mission’s urgency and compressed launch timeline aligned with what BAILOR does best: making impossible missions reality.

On July 24, a three-man crew will depart from Ditto Landing in Huntsville, AL, aboard Freedom Fighter, a former U.S. Coast Guard SAFE Boat Defender vessel restored and outfitted for the mission. The crew will attempt to break the fastest publicly documented Great Loop completion record of 12 days, 18 hours, and 10 minutes, using every mile of the journey to remind veterans they are not alone and that help is available.

As the Mission Accelerator sponsor, BAILOR holds the flagship partnership in the campaign. The firm helped shape the mission’s launch strategy, opened doors to community and business partners, and provided the momentum that turned an ambitious idea into a national awareness campaign in a matter of weeks.

“A century ago, an explorer named Shakelton put out a call for a nearly impossible expedition – hardship, danger, uncertain return – and thousands of people showed up, because humans are pulled toward missions that matter. When I met Dave, and the crew, I saw three men willing to risk something extraordinary for a cause that reaches into families in every state across the US,” said Sonya Bailor, Founder & CEO of BAILOR. ” I saw a mission that deserved to have national exposure, but didn’t know how to get there. At BAILOR, we spend every day helping leaders turn seemingly impossible goals into missions they can execute and scale – at speed if desired – just like the Freedom Fighter Great Loop record break attempt by Veterans Against Suicide.  We knew we could accelerate the whole mission towards success.  That’s why we’re more than proud to be the flagship Mission Accelerator partner, and why we literally put our ‘pirate flag’ on the boat!”

Veterans Against Suicide leaders say the partnership set the pace for the entire campaign.

“Twenty-two veterans die by suicide every day, and too many of them die believing no one is coming. We took the oath to never leave a fallen comrade. This mission is that creed put into action,” said David Skrzecz, founder of Veterans Against Suicide, Inc. and mission leader, Freedom Fighter. “BAILOR understood the moment they heard it and became more than a sponsor… they have become our trusted partner for this entire mission. While the boat was still being outfitted and the timeline looked impossible, they brought the strategy, the connections, and the immense urgency of a true force multiplier, and they got us to the starting line. Now we’re asking every other business and every American to follow their lead. Every sponsor, every dollar, and every conversation helps carry this message another mile. And out here, one more mile can be the difference between a veteran who feels forgotten, and one who knows we never stopped and will never stop coming.”

A Mission Bigger Than the Record

The organization’s mission was inspired by the national “22 a day” awareness movement, which brought unprecedented attention to veteran suicide. Today, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs publishes updated annual data of veterans reported in their system, with its most recent report documenting 6,398 Veteran suicides in 2023.

Every one of those losses represents a family, a community, and a life that mattered. Through the Freedom Fighter mission, Veterans Against Suicide seeks to spark conversations, encourage veterans to seek help when needed, and remind communities that connection and support save lives.

Throughout the approximately 12-day voyage, supporters will be able to follow the crew with live GPS tracking, daily mission updates, video reports from the water, and social media coverage.

How Businesses and Individuals Can Join the Mission

With BAILOR’s flagship sponsorship in place, Veterans Against Suicide is inviting other businesses and community members to help fund and fuel the mission before the July 24 launch. Opportunities include:

Corporate sponsorships — A limited number of corporate sponsorship opportunities remain, with benefits including logo placement on the vessel and crew gear, national press inclusion, website inclusion, and dedicated social media features.Mission sponsorships — Businesses and families can fuel and dedicate a leg of the journey, sponsor a crew member, or support live mission tracking.Individual giving — Donations begin at $22, honoring the long-cited estimate of veterans lost to suicide each day, and every donor becomes part of the mission’s Wall of Honor.

Sponsorship details, donation options, and live mission tracking are available at www.VeteransAgainstSuicide.org.

Veterans in crisis, or anyone concerned about a veteran, can contact the Veterans Crisis Line by calling 988 and pressing 1, or by texting 838255.

About BAILOR

BAILOR is a growth strategy consulting and coaching firm based in Huntsville, Alabama. Through the BAILOR Method™, the Build to Scale™ program, and executive coaching, the firm partners with leadership teams to identify and overcome growth obstacles and build scalable, resilient businesses. Learn more at www.bailor.group.

About Veterans Against Suicide

Veterans Against Suicide Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing awareness, promoting education, and advocating for solutions that reduce veteran suicide. Through outreach, partnerships, and innovative awareness campaigns, the organization works to ensure veterans know they are never alone.

Media Opportunities

Media interviews are available prior to launch with Sonya Bailor, Founder and CEO of BAILOR; David Skrzecz, Mission Leader and Founder of Veterans Against Suicide; and members of the Freedom Fighter crew. B-roll, photography, mission graphics, crew biographies, and media kits are available upon request.

Veterans Against Suicide Inc.
Media Contact: Sonia Robinson, media@bailor.group, 256.509.5916
Website: https://www.veteransagainstsuicide.org/
Mission Information: https://www.veteransagainstsuicide.org/freedom-fighter

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SOURCE Bailor Group

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PRAVAAH Launches to Bring Together South Asian Business Leaders Across North America Through Sports

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New platform will create unique and creative sports events to connect business leaders, brands, technology innovators, and community leaders from multicultural communities together, building strategic partnerships, business development opportunities and cultural engagement.

NEW YORK, July 10, 2026 /CNW/ — PRAVAAH today announced its official launch, introducing a new platform dedicated to accelerating business growth and community engagement across the global South Asian diaspora and South Asian audiences throughout North America.

Derived from the Sanskrit word for “flow,” PRAVAAH is built on the belief that sports has the power to create meaningful connections across cultures: businesses, brands, investors, technology leaders, cultures, fans, and media. The organization will work with sports rightsholders, properties, and investors to create meaningful business relationships with South Asian audiences through creative experiential programming, strategic advisory, and partnerships.

PRAVAAH aims to serve as a trusted bridge between the sports industry and the South Asian audience, one of North America’s fastest-growing multicultural communities.

PRAVAAH is a joint venture between Ocgrow Ventures and Tulsea Sports Marketing, giving the organization the ability to leverage their extensive networks of relationships across professional sports, business, government, community organizations, celebrities and influencers, and ethnic media.

“PRAVAAH is far more than a sports platform. It’s a global movement built on the belief that sport has the power to unite people, ideas, cultures, and opportunity. Across North America and around the world, South Asian entrepreneurs, executives, investors, and innovators are helping shape the future of the global economy.

Our vision is to build the world’s leading network where sports, business, technology, investment, and culture converge. By creating meaningful connections and authentic partnerships, PRAVAAH will unlock new opportunities for business leaders, brands, and sports organizations while inspiring the next generation of global leaders. This is only the beginning.” , quoted Harish Consul, Co-Founder of PRAVAAH & Founder/CEO of Ocgrow Ventures.

The company’s initial areas of focus will be on connecting sports rightsholders with business leaders and founders from multicultural communities through creative experiential programming, using sports as a platform to support and amplify the South Asian business community.

During its first year, PRAVAAH anticipates launching initiatives in several key South Asian population hubs in North America, including Calgary, Toronto, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, D.C., Vancouver, and New York, with additional markets expected to be announced throughout the year, together with our global expansion in 2027 ahead.

“Sports has a unique ability to unite people across generations, cultures, and industries,” said Sreesha Vaman, Co-Founder of PRAVAAH and Partner/Co-Founder of Tulsea Sports Marketing. “PRAVAAH harnesses that power to bring together South Asian business leaders with the communities they serve, creating authentic connections that strengthen relationships and unlock new opportunities.”

With multicultural populations representing one of the fastest growing segments of sports fans and consumers across North America, PRAVAAH is positioned to help organizations move beyond one-time campaigns toward sustained, authentic engagement.

For more information, visit pravaahsports.com.

About PRAVAAH

PRAVAAH is a multicultural sports business platform that connects sports, business, and culture through experiential programming, strategic partnerships, and community engagement. Working with sports rightsholders, brands, investors, technology leaders, and community organizations, PRAVAAH helps organizations unlock growth opportunities by building meaningful relationships with fast-growing South Asian audiences across North America.

www.pravaahsports.com

About Ocgrow Ventures

Ocgrow Ventures is a leading global venture capital fund based in Canada. Founded by Harish Consul (www.harishconsul.com), Ocgrow Ventures (www.ocgrowgroup.com) is focused on investments with exceptional global founders to help build exponential growth companies, with AI First focus in multiple verticals globally. Ocgrow Ventures has been an early investor in Amazon, Shopify, Garuda Aerospace, Bloom Energy, Fizz Social and many more.

About Tulsea Sports Marketing

Tulsea Sports Marketing advises sports rightsholders on their multicultural marketing efforts, with a unique focus on South Asians. TSM brings a unique, holistic approach to our clients, including trusted strategic advisory, deep connectivity to the global community, world-class expertise in messaging and communications, and extensive experience in implementation. TSM’s mission is to amplify the global commercial presence of South Asians in the sports industry. TSM has offices in New York and Los Angeles.

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/3005470/Pravaah_Logo.jpg

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SOURCE PRAVAAH

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Havoc Named to Newsweek’s America’s Greatest Startup Workplaces 2026

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Recognition highlights Havoc’s mission-driven culture and rapid growth as the company builds the future of all-domain collaborative autonomy

PROVIDENCE, R.I., July 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Havoc, the all-domain collaborative autonomy company, today announced it has been named to Newsweek’s America’s Greatest Startup Workplaces 2026, presented in partnership with Plant-A Insights Group. The recognition honors startups that demonstrate excellence in workplace culture while achieving sustainable growth and long-term business success.

Newsweek and Plant-A Insights Group evaluated startups using publicly available data and multiple third-party platforms to assess employee experience, organizational health, and company growth since inception.

“This recognition belongs to every member of the Havoc team whose commitment, ingenuity, and relentless execution have made our culture what it is today,” said Paul Lwin, co-founder and CEO of Havoc. “At Havoc, our mission is to build collaborative autonomy that strengthens America’s and our allies’ defensive capabilities while advancing the commercial industries that keep our world moving. That mission attracts people who want to solve hard problems, move with urgency, and deliver capabilities that matter. Thank you to Newsweek and Plant-A Insights Group for this recognition.”

Since its founding in 2024, Havoc has rapidly expanded its team and operations while delivering autonomous capabilities across maritime, aerial, and ground domains. The company has grown to more than 200 employees across multiple U.S. locations and continues to attract engineers, operators, veterans, and technologists committed to advancing the future of defense and commercial technologies.

“At a startup, your people aren’t just building the product—they’re building the company, and great leaders inspire them to become the best versions of themselves along the way. The businesses named to Newsweek’s America’s Greatest Startup Workplaces 2026 have created cultures of trust and ownership, where employees are coached, heard, and empowered to do the most meaningful work of their careers. For job seekers, this list points to where they can grow with an organization on the rise.” Ryan Kinney, Senior Vice President, Newsweek.

About Havoc
Havoc is a leader in all-domain collaborative autonomy. Its software-defined hardware approach powers military and commercial-grade autonomous systems across sea, air, and land to sense, decide, and act together in complex and contested environments. Havoc connects assets, enabling them to share information, adapt in real time, and continue operating even when communications are disrupted or denied. Havoc optimizes mission performance and minimizes human risk. Learn more at havocai.com.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/havoc-named-to-newsweeks-americas-greatest-startup-workplaces-2026-302822398.html

SOURCE Havoc AI

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Innovative Eyewear, Inc. Announces New Claude AI Integration for All Lucyd Smart Eyewear

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MIAMI, July 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Innovative Eyewear, Inc. (“Innovative Eyewear” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: LUCY; LUCYW), the developer & manufacturer of smart eyewear under the Lucyd®, Lucyd Armor®, Reebok®, Eddie Bauer®, and Nautica® brands, is pleased to announce that it has developed a new Claude AI integration for its smart eyewear products, launching next week for all models of Lucyd glasses.

The new integration provides fast, free access to the powerful Claude AI from Lucyd smart glasses via the Lucyd app. In the first version launching next week, the user activates the functionality by opening the Lucyd app, then chooses their preferred Claude model, and converses with it using the audio interface on Lucyd glasses.

Some key features of the update:

Multiple AI models in one place — chat with the best of OpenAI (ChatGPT) and Claude from a single screen.

Switch models mid-conversation — move from ChatGPT to Claude without losing context; the conversation continues seamlessly.

Understands your images and documents — upload a photo or a PDF and ask anything; the AI analyzes the content and responds.

AI image generation — create images from a simple prompt and save them straight to your photo library with a single tap.

Incognito Mode — private, ephemeral conversations that are never saved; when you leave, they’re automatically wiped from the server.

Conversation history — pick up any past chat right where you left off, organized by date.

Rich content rendering — displays code with syntax highlighting, math formulas, tables, and formatted text, all natively.

Answers with sources — when the AI pulls from the web, it shows its sources so you can verify the information.

Real-time streaming responses — text appears word by word as the AI responds, for a fluid, immediate experience.

In a future update, anticipated to launch in late Q3 2026, users will be able to query Claude with the phone locked and in their pocket. This is similar to the Company’s groundbreaking hands-free ChatGPT integration, which was the first hands-free voice interface for the world’s largest LLM.

Harrison Gross, CEO of Innovative Eyewear said, “This is an important step forward in our mission to make the most flexible and powerful AI glasses on the market. We have a pending patent on multi-AI access glasses, and we are bringing this incredible functionality to all our customers at no additional cost. We envision that in the future, the Lucyd user can access several of the world’s most powerful AI models with a simple voice command, through its designer, lightweight, smart eyewear. We believe that this is the most practical way to expand human abilities through wearables. We look forward to continuing to Upgrade Your Eyewear® with useful smart features that make you more aware, knowledgeable, and more easily connected to the people and systems you care about.”

About Innovative Eyewear, Inc.

Innovative Eyewear is a developer & manufacturer of cutting-edge AI-enabled smart eyewear, under the Lucyd®, Nautica®, Eddie Bauer®, and Reebok® brands. True to our mission to Upgrade Your Eyewear®, our Bluetooth audio glasses allow users to stay safely and ergonomically connected to their digital lives and are offered in hundreds of frame and lens combinations to meet the needs of the optical, sunglass, sporting goods, and safety eyewear markets. To learn more and explore our continuously evolving collection of smart eyewear, please visit www.lucyd.co.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including those relating to the new Claude AI integration. Forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current expectations and assumptions. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor for forward-looking statements. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking expressions, including, but not limited to, “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “estimate,” “expect,” “future,” “intend,” “may,” “outlook,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “will,” “would” and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are set forth in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K under the caption “Risk Factors.”

Investor Relations Contact:

Skyline Corporate Communications Group, LLC
Scott Powell, President
1177 Avenue of the Americas, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10036
Office: +1 (646) 893-5835
Email: ir@skylineccg.com

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SOURCE Innovative Eyewear, Inc.

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