Redefining Regional Business Growth With Zachary Kushel

Zachary Kushel is the Founder and Managing Partner of Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures (MSIV), a venture capital fund focused on local startups within the North Bay region. With a diverse professional background, including experience at the White House, Wall Street, and Silicon Valley, Zachary has been instrumental in building a thriving local business community. Before founding MSIV in 2020, he served as Head of People and Corporate Operations at SmithRx and held key roles at Glassdoor and Cisco.

Zachary’s notable achievements include working on Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign and holding a master’s in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School. He has received numerous accolades, including the Leaders of the North Bay award for Innovative and Entrepreneurial Spirit in 2023.

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Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:

  • [2:48] Zachary Kushel’s nontraditional start in entrepreneurship and his father’s influence
  • [5:28] How did the White House experience impact Zachary?
  • [9:07] Zachary describes his experience working on John McCain’s presidential campaign 
  • [15:02] How to handle uncomfortable moments during your first fundraising experience
  • [17:39] Strategic, high-level conversations to advance goals and transactions
  • [23:09] What inspired Zachary to create a venture fund and build a community?
  • [28:20] The importance of local startup communities and the funding strategies behind them
  • [33:34] How has the pandemic impacted local job creation strategies?

In this episode…

Building a thriving local business community can be challenging, especially in areas traditionally overlooked by major startups and investors. Many regions have the potential for economic growth but lack the infrastructure, support, and capital necessary to nurture new businesses. So, how can local connections grow a business in nontraditional entrepreneurial regions?

Zachary Kushel addressed this issue by founding Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures (MSIV) in April 2020. Zachary focused on leveraging local talent and capital to foster economic development in the North Bay. By organizing community events, building a network of local founders, and securing investments from residents, he created a support system for startups. His approach involved barnstorming through neighborhoods to gather small groups, pitch his vision, and raise capital, demonstrating how grassroots efforts can lead to substantial economic growth.

Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Zachary Kushel, Founder and Managing Partner of MSIV, about fostering local economic growth through community-driven initiatives. Zachary shares his journey from working at the White House and Wall Street to founding MSIV and discusses how the pandemic accelerated the relevance of hyper-local job creation.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Special Mentions

Related episode(s):

Quotable Moments:

  • “Our government is run by human beings, and you realize that they have families too.”
  • “Being in politics as a political organizer is some of the most incredible training you could possibly have.”
  • “Things take time, and there are no shortcuts in life and business.”
  • “Building a community-based initiative gets easier when you can actually convene the community.”
  • “Every single community out there should have a local startup community and should have a local fund.”

Action Steps:

  1. Read “Startup Communities” by Brad Feld: This practical guide to building vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems has proven to be the cornerstone of many successful community-building initiatives, as exemplified by Zachary’s own work.
  2. Engage with your community: Starting conversations and understanding the unique needs and desires of your local community are key to fostering a startup environment that resonates and thrives at a grassroots level.
  3. Embrace the advantages of remote work for local growth: The rise of remote work has created the opportunity to redefine and strengthen local entrepreneurial ecosystems, as demonstrated by the shifting focus during the pandemic.
  4. Organize local events to bring entrepreneurs together: Bringing members of the startup community together can generate opportunities for networking, collaboration, and uncovering local investment potential.
  5. Be persistent and patient in your fundraising efforts: Zachary’s experience with a 9.4% pull-through rate on fundraising underscores the need for determination and a long-term mindset when seeking investors.

Sponsor: Rise25

At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 100 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution. 

We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses build strong relationships with referral partners, clients, and audiences without doing the hard work.

What do you need to start a podcast?

When you use our proven system, all you need is an idea and a voice. We handle the strategy, production, and distribution – you just need to show up and talk.

The Rise25 podcasting solution is designed to help you build a profitable podcast. This requires a specific strategy, and we’ve got that down pat. We focus on making sure you have a direct path to ROI, which is the most important component. Plus, our podcast production company takes any heavy lifting of production and distribution off your plate.

We make distribution easy

We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. We’ll also create a copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.

Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90xAtariEinstein BagelsMattelRx BarsYPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk,  and many more.  

The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.

Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.

Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win? 

Contact us now at [email protected] or book a call at rise25.com/bookcall.

Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.

Episode Transcript

John Corcoran 0:00

Oh, today we are talking about how to build a community in your local community and use that to grow your business. My guest today is Zachary Kushel. I’ll tell you more about him in a second. So stay tuned.

Intro 0:13

Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders and thought leaders, and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now, let’s get started with the show. All right.

John Corcoran 0:30

Welcome everyone. John Corcoran here, I am the host of this show. You know, if you listen, and hopefully you have before, every week, I get to talk to interesting and smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs of all kinds of companies we’ve had Netflix and Kinko’s, GrubHub, Redfin, gusto, YPO, EO activation, Blizzard, lots of great episodes in the archives, so go check those out. And of course, this episode is brought to you by Rise25 and podcast co-pilot our companies, where we help B2B businesses to get clients, referrals and strategic partnerships with podcasts and content marketing. And you can learn all about us by going to rise25.com or emailing us at [email protected], and my guest here today actually first was introduced to me by Anthony Vidergauz, former CEO and founder of California Closets, now an advisor primarily for franchise businesses and a friend who lives locally, another local connection, And he was a guest on my show. So check out that episode. 

And Zach, you know, how do I describe you? He’s the founder and Managing Partner of Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures, aka MSIV, but he has an amazing, diverse, professional back background. I think, kind of like me, I couldn’t just sit still in one industry. So similar to me, I have worked in the White House, Wall Street. I haven’t worked in Wall Street Silicon Valley. Have worked in Silicon Valley, and now have come to the north San Francisco Bay, which is where I live. And he established, beginning in April 2020, the Marine Sonoma Impact Ventures, which is a fund investing in this region of the country. But we’re gonna get all unpacked. How he did it, raised money for it, and built a community. I attended their event about a month ago. Was just an amazing, you know, show of a community of people that are gathering together. So I think there’s a lot of lessons that you can bring to your business as well. He also worked at SmithRX, Glassdoor, Cisco, and also worked in the White House. 

He and I have a shared background that we both were interns in the White House. He also worked on John, Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, and has a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. And Zach so cool to have you here today. And first, let’s start with I love to know how people were as a kid. So you were not a, you’re not a lemonade stand kind of kid. You weren’t doing that sort of thing, even though your father was a bit entrepreneurial.

Zachary Kushel 2:48

Yeah, thanks John for having me on. I’m excited to spend time with you and talk more about everything we’re up to. But yeah, I mean, look, I’m one of three boys, so a classic middle child that probably didn’t get as much attention as I wanted as a kid, and, you know, spent a lot of time, you know, doing what, what kids do. But no, I wasn’t that like a 12-year-old kid who started a toothbrush sales business, and that’s where my entrepreneurial start came from. You know, in high school, I was a scorekeeper for the rec department at local games. That was the job that I had. And but my dad was entrepreneurial, so he was a business school professor for 42 years, first at NYU and then at Fordham University in New York City. And I watched him build a pretty massive, you know, consulting, education, training business on the side of his professorship. 

And got to see that from a very young age and understand what it’s like to have a business and grow a business. And that was certainly my first foray into, you know, what it meant to have a business and be an entrepreneur was, was through my dad, who I, you know, idolize a strong, a strong word, but certainly a mentor to me, and someone who I, you know, look up to, to this very day, that was, that was the beginning for me. And part of that journey was, you know, ended up in me, you know, going to Wall Street, because that’s kind of where he taught. So that was kind of my, my first career out of college, but kind of caught the political bug, similar to you.

John Corcoran 4:06

Yeah, you ended up at the White House. It looks like you worked in the Office of Public Liaison in an internship? 

Zachary Kushel 4:13

Yeah. So in 2005 I went to Cornell University as an undergraduate, and they have an incredible program called Cornell in Washington, DC, where you spend a semester living in DC, and everyone has to get an internship. And I said, Well, shoot, if I’m going to get an internship, you know, I need to go get one at the White House. The only problem was, you know, I wasn’t the son or daughter of a White House donor, or a presidential donor, which is usually where those jobs come from. You know, my family is pretty apolitical. We talked about, you know, sports at the dinner table rather than, you know, political discussions. But my aunt was a fundraiser and had done this event, and knew someone that worked at the White House through that event, so she said, What if I forward your resume along? And I said, Oh, that’s probably not going to lead to anything. And sure enough, do. You know, they hired me, so I somehow got my resume pulled out of the pile there. And as a 20 year old, yeah, was a White House intern. And, you know, it was a pretty amazing place at the start of one’s career. 

John Corcoran 5:12

It is for sure, you know, I think back now, and some of the people that I worked with, you know, became CEOs of publicly traded companies, or now are in Congress, or they are judges somewhere. What were a few of the memories from that experience? What did you take away from it? What were the lessons?

Zachary Kushel 5:28

I think my biggest lesson was that our government is run by human beings, which might sound kind of obvious, but you know, when you’re young and you just think that, you know, there are these overlords above and this, the government is this monolithic thing and and, no, I mean, having the experience where you’re able to read about something in the newspaper and then, you know, interact with some of the people you’re reading about, getting to know them as you know people with families. I mean, the running joke we had was like, you know that person you know goes to the men’s room too, right in the bathroom. 

Like, you just never think about these things as someone who doesn’t have access to famous people or people running the government. So, you know, the humanization of it was huge for me. You know, I left there fairly inspired that the folks working in our government were all genuine people, you know, all wanting to improve the country and do good in the world. And I still feel that way, that the bulk of people working in around politics, you know, even if the outcomes aren’t exactly what we necessarily want as a whole, you know, we’re getting them from a bunch of people who are very, you know, firm in their beliefs and genuine about what they’re doing. So, yeah, the problems are more related to our systems, I think, than the people in them. But that’s probably just a longer discussion.

John Corcoran 6:39

For sure we could do an hour many, many hours in that one. Now, every White House is slightly different, but I recall from my experience there in the Office of Public Liaison, you mentioned sports, there was a guy whose job was to be the liaison to all the different sports leagues. And every year the different sports leagues, the championship teams, would come to the White House, and that was their job, that person’s job. And I remember going to this guy’s office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and he had, like, ESPN on he had like, a basketball hoop on the wall. I mean, this is, you know, for a very stayed place that was completely out of the norm. Do you recall coming across someone like that? 

Zachary Kushel 7:16

Was not only that, but it was incredible. So I was in DC, and I was, at the time, dating a girl who was from New England, and that was 2005 so the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots were the champions. So over the course of my five month internship, I was able to get her and others, you know, to come to these events at the White House. So I was feeling like I was a pretty, you know, important person. 

John Corcoran 7:40

That’s pretty pimp. That’s pretty pimp.

Zachary Kushel 7:42

This incredible picture with Bill Belichick, and, you know, the former coach of the Patriots. And everyone knows Bill Belichick, he’s quite famous for always being in his sweatshirt, in a hoodie. So I have this incredible picture, and it was my Facebook picture from a few years back when I was younger, where, you know, I have my arm and I’m shaking Bill belichick’s hand, and he’s wearing a suit and tie. How on earth did you get a picture of Bill Belichick wearing a suit and tie ? It was super cool, super neat. 

But it actually all, almost all comes full circle to where I am today, because one of the women that worked at the White House Office of Public Liaison, a woman named Katie Hayes is actually the person that got me my job at Cisco, which is what brought me to California and ultimately, you know, to Marin County to launch a MSIV. So if it wasn’t for the sports events that happened and that I went to as a White House intern at 20 MSIV, I wouldn’t have been born. Which is, you know, funny, how, so funny.

John Corcoran 8:41

How is that? Yeah, that’s for sure. Those little things that you can, you can connect them all along the way. So you end up, you’re working on Wall Street, and you end up going after that and working on John McCain’s presidential campaign. What was that like working on the presidential campaign? It looks like you did it for about a year and a half, and I’ve no I’ve never worked on a presidential campaign, although I worked in politics, so I know how grueling they can be.

Available_Black copy
Available_Black copy
partner-share-lg
partner-share-lg
Available_Black copy
partner-share-lg

Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:

  • [2:48] Zachary Kushel’s nontraditional start in entrepreneurship and his father’s influence
  • [5:28] How did the White House experience impact Zachary?
  • [9:07] Zachary describes his experience working on John McCain’s presidential campaign 
  • [15:02] How to handle uncomfortable moments during your first fundraising experience
  • [17:39] Strategic, high-level conversations to advance goals and transactions
  • [23:09] What inspired Zachary to create a venture fund and build a community?
  • [28:20] The importance of local startup communities and the funding strategies behind them
  • [33:34] How has the pandemic impacted local job creation strategies?

In this episode…

Building a thriving local business community can be challenging, especially in areas traditionally overlooked by major startups and investors. Many regions have the potential for economic growth but lack the infrastructure, support, and capital necessary to nurture new businesses. So, how can local connections grow a business in nontraditional entrepreneurial regions?

Zachary Kushel addressed this issue by founding Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures (MSIV) in April 2020. Zachary focused on leveraging local talent and capital to foster economic development in the North Bay. By organizing community events, building a network of local founders, and securing investments from residents, he created a support system for startups. His approach involved barnstorming through neighborhoods to gather small groups, pitch his vision, and raise capital, demonstrating how grassroots efforts can lead to substantial economic growth.

Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Zachary Kushel, Founder and Managing Partner of MSIV, about fostering local economic growth through community-driven initiatives. Zachary shares his journey from working at the White House and Wall Street to founding MSIV and discusses how the pandemic accelerated the relevance of hyper-local job creation.

Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Special Mentions

Related episode(s):

Quotable Moments:

  • “Our government is run by human beings, and you realize that they have families too.”
  • “Being in politics as a political organizer is some of the most incredible training you could possibly have.”
  • “Things take time, and there are no shortcuts in life and business.”
  • “Building a community-based initiative gets easier when you can actually convene the community.”
  • “Every single community out there should have a local startup community and should have a local fund.”

Action Steps:

  1. Read “Startup Communities” by Brad Feld: This practical guide to building vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems has proven to be the cornerstone of many successful community-building initiatives, as exemplified by Zachary’s own work.
  2. Engage with your community: Starting conversations and understanding the unique needs and desires of your local community are key to fostering a startup environment that resonates and thrives at a grassroots level.
  3. Embrace the advantages of remote work for local growth: The rise of remote work has created the opportunity to redefine and strengthen local entrepreneurial ecosystems, as demonstrated by the shifting focus during the pandemic.
  4. Organize local events to bring entrepreneurs together: Bringing members of the startup community together can generate opportunities for networking, collaboration, and uncovering local investment potential.
  5. Be persistent and patient in your fundraising efforts: Zachary’s experience with a 9.4% pull-through rate on fundraising underscores the need for determination and a long-term mindset when seeking investors.

Sponsor: Rise25

At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 100 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution. 

We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses build strong relationships with referral partners, clients, and audiences without doing the hard work.

What do you need to start a podcast?

When you use our proven system, all you need is an idea and a voice. We handle the strategy, production, and distribution – you just need to show up and talk.

The Rise25 podcasting solution is designed to help you build a profitable podcast. This requires a specific strategy, and we’ve got that down pat. We focus on making sure you have a direct path to ROI, which is the most important component. Plus, our podcast production company takes any heavy lifting of production and distribution off your plate.

We make distribution easy

We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. We’ll also create a copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.

Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90xAtariEinstein BagelsMattelRx BarsYPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk,  and many more.  

The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.

Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.

Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win? 

Contact us now at [email protected] or book a call at rise25.com/bookcall.

Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.

Episode Transcript

John Corcoran 0:00

Oh, today we are talking about how to build a community in your local community and use that to grow your business. My guest today is Zachary Kushel. I’ll tell you more about him in a second. So stay tuned.

Intro 0:13

Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders and thought leaders, and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now, let’s get started with the show. All right.

John Corcoran 0:30

Welcome everyone. John Corcoran here, I am the host of this show. You know, if you listen, and hopefully you have before, every week, I get to talk to interesting and smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs of all kinds of companies we’ve had Netflix and Kinko’s, GrubHub, Redfin, gusto, YPO, EO activation, Blizzard, lots of great episodes in the archives, so go check those out. And of course, this episode is brought to you by Rise25 and podcast co-pilot our companies, where we help B2B businesses to get clients, referrals and strategic partnerships with podcasts and content marketing. And you can learn all about us by going to rise25.com or emailing us at [email protected], and my guest here today actually first was introduced to me by Anthony Vidergauz, former CEO and founder of California Closets, now an advisor primarily for franchise businesses and a friend who lives locally, another local connection, And he was a guest on my show. So check out that episode. 

And Zach, you know, how do I describe you? He’s the founder and Managing Partner of Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures, aka MSIV, but he has an amazing, diverse, professional back background. I think, kind of like me, I couldn’t just sit still in one industry. So similar to me, I have worked in the White House, Wall Street. I haven’t worked in Wall Street Silicon Valley. Have worked in Silicon Valley, and now have come to the north San Francisco Bay, which is where I live. And he established, beginning in April 2020, the Marine Sonoma Impact Ventures, which is a fund investing in this region of the country. But we’re gonna get all unpacked. How he did it, raised money for it, and built a community. I attended their event about a month ago. Was just an amazing, you know, show of a community of people that are gathering together. So I think there’s a lot of lessons that you can bring to your business as well. He also worked at SmithRX, Glassdoor, Cisco, and also worked in the White House. 

He and I have a shared background that we both were interns in the White House. He also worked on John, Senator John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, and has a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. And Zach so cool to have you here today. And first, let’s start with I love to know how people were as a kid. So you were not a, you’re not a lemonade stand kind of kid. You weren’t doing that sort of thing, even though your father was a bit entrepreneurial.

Zachary Kushel 2:48

Yeah, thanks John for having me on. I’m excited to spend time with you and talk more about everything we’re up to. But yeah, I mean, look, I’m one of three boys, so a classic middle child that probably didn’t get as much attention as I wanted as a kid, and, you know, spent a lot of time, you know, doing what, what kids do. But no, I wasn’t that like a 12-year-old kid who started a toothbrush sales business, and that’s where my entrepreneurial start came from. You know, in high school, I was a scorekeeper for the rec department at local games. That was the job that I had. And but my dad was entrepreneurial, so he was a business school professor for 42 years, first at NYU and then at Fordham University in New York City. And I watched him build a pretty massive, you know, consulting, education, training business on the side of his professorship. 

And got to see that from a very young age and understand what it’s like to have a business and grow a business. And that was certainly my first foray into, you know, what it meant to have a business and be an entrepreneur was, was through my dad, who I, you know, idolize a strong, a strong word, but certainly a mentor to me, and someone who I, you know, look up to, to this very day, that was, that was the beginning for me. And part of that journey was, you know, ended up in me, you know, going to Wall Street, because that’s kind of where he taught. So that was kind of my, my first career out of college, but kind of caught the political bug, similar to you.

John Corcoran 4:06

Yeah, you ended up at the White House. It looks like you worked in the Office of Public Liaison in an internship? 

Zachary Kushel 4:13

Yeah. So in 2005 I went to Cornell University as an undergraduate, and they have an incredible program called Cornell in Washington, DC, where you spend a semester living in DC, and everyone has to get an internship. And I said, Well, shoot, if I’m going to get an internship, you know, I need to go get one at the White House. The only problem was, you know, I wasn’t the son or daughter of a White House donor, or a presidential donor, which is usually where those jobs come from. You know, my family is pretty apolitical. We talked about, you know, sports at the dinner table rather than, you know, political discussions. But my aunt was a fundraiser and had done this event, and knew someone that worked at the White House through that event, so she said, What if I forward your resume along? And I said, Oh, that’s probably not going to lead to anything. And sure enough, do. You know, they hired me, so I somehow got my resume pulled out of the pile there. And as a 20 year old, yeah, was a White House intern. And, you know, it was a pretty amazing place at the start of one’s career. 

John Corcoran 5:12

It is for sure, you know, I think back now, and some of the people that I worked with, you know, became CEOs of publicly traded companies, or now are in Congress, or they are judges somewhere. What were a few of the memories from that experience? What did you take away from it? What were the lessons?

Zachary Kushel 5:28

I think my biggest lesson was that our government is run by human beings, which might sound kind of obvious, but you know, when you’re young and you just think that, you know, there are these overlords above and this, the government is this monolithic thing and and, no, I mean, having the experience where you’re able to read about something in the newspaper and then, you know, interact with some of the people you’re reading about, getting to know them as you know people with families. I mean, the running joke we had was like, you know that person you know goes to the men’s room too, right in the bathroom. 

Like, you just never think about these things as someone who doesn’t have access to famous people or people running the government. So, you know, the humanization of it was huge for me. You know, I left there fairly inspired that the folks working in our government were all genuine people, you know, all wanting to improve the country and do good in the world. And I still feel that way, that the bulk of people working in around politics, you know, even if the outcomes aren’t exactly what we necessarily want as a whole, you know, we’re getting them from a bunch of people who are very, you know, firm in their beliefs and genuine about what they’re doing. So, yeah, the problems are more related to our systems, I think, than the people in them. But that’s probably just a longer discussion.

John Corcoran 6:39

For sure we could do an hour many, many hours in that one. Now, every White House is slightly different, but I recall from my experience there in the Office of Public Liaison, you mentioned sports, there was a guy whose job was to be the liaison to all the different sports leagues. And every year the different sports leagues, the championship teams, would come to the White House, and that was their job, that person’s job. And I remember going to this guy’s office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and he had, like, ESPN on he had like, a basketball hoop on the wall. I mean, this is, you know, for a very stayed place that was completely out of the norm. Do you recall coming across someone like that? 

Zachary Kushel 7:16

Was not only that, but it was incredible. So I was in DC, and I was, at the time, dating a girl who was from New England, and that was 2005 so the Boston Red Sox and the New England Patriots were the champions. So over the course of my five month internship, I was able to get her and others, you know, to come to these events at the White House. So I was feeling like I was a pretty, you know, important person. 

John Corcoran 7:40

That’s pretty pimp. That’s pretty pimp.

Zachary Kushel 7:42

This incredible picture with Bill Belichick, and, you know, the former coach of the Patriots. And everyone knows Bill Belichick, he’s quite famous for always being in his sweatshirt, in a hoodie. So I have this incredible picture, and it was my Facebook picture from a few years back when I was younger, where, you know, I have my arm and I’m shaking Bill belichick’s hand, and he’s wearing a suit and tie. How on earth did you get a picture of Bill Belichick wearing a suit and tie ? It was super cool, super neat. 

But it actually all, almost all comes full circle to where I am today, because one of the women that worked at the White House Office of Public Liaison, a woman named Katie Hayes is actually the person that got me my job at Cisco, which is what brought me to California and ultimately, you know, to Marin County to launch a MSIV. So if it wasn’t for the sports events that happened and that I went to as a White House intern at 20 MSIV, I wouldn’t have been born. Which is, you know, funny, how, so funny.

John Corcoran 8:41

How is that? Yeah, that’s for sure. Those little things that you can, you can connect them all along the way. So you end up, you’re working on Wall Street, and you end up going after that and working on John McCain’s presidential campaign. What was that like working on the presidential campaign? It looks like you did it for about a year and a half, and I’ve no I’ve never worked on a presidential campaign, although I worked in politics, so I know how grueling they can be.