BTM156 – Waco Hoover – The American Legion’s Be The One Initiative
About Today’s Guest
Waco Hoover is an entrepreneur and investor with over 20 years of experience in venture capital, M&A, entertainment, media and live events.
He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1997-2001 as an infantry Marine, combat water survival instructor and infantry scout. He served several deployments across Southeast Asia.
After separation from the military, Hoover graduated from New York University, cum laude and completed Harvard Business School executive education programs. He then became an entrepreneur and investor who now has over 18 years of experience in venture capital, M&A, entertainment, media and live events.
He is currently Chair of the Be The One initiative for the American Legion. He is also a co-owner of Veteran Entertainment Television, advisor to Founders Factory, a London based venture capital firm, Managing Partner at Xperiential Group, and serves on the board of Irreverent Warriors, a non-profit preventing veteran suicide. He has advised global brands including MGM Resorts, Informa, Vivendi, and Las Vegas Sands Corp. He was a co-founder and investor in businesses sold to Informa, Emerald, Endeavor Business Media and Onstream Media.
Hoover speaks at industry events including VenuesNow, PTTOW!, CEMA, The American Legion, Military Influencer Conference, SXSW, Pollstar, TSE 100, Society for Independent Show Organizers, National Sports Forum and XLIVE.
He lives in Southern California with his wife, son and two yellow labs, Tucker and Winnie. In his spare time, he enjoys surfing, diving, and mountaineering as often as possible. He is a member of The American Legion and recently hosted the Be the One Symposium at the 104th American Legion National Convention in Charlotte.
PsychArmor Resource of the Week
This week’s PsychArmor resource of the week is the PsychArmor course I’d like to share the PsychArmor course Suicide In Military Members & Veterans. In this course, Dr. Craig Bryan, whom Waco mentioned in the episode, provides an overview of military suicide statistics and explains unique factors that may be related to increased rates in military suicide. You can see find the course here: https://learn.psycharmor.org/courses/suicide-in-military-members-and-veterans.
Theme Music
Our theme music Don’t Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.
This Episode Sponsored By:
This episode is sponsored by PsychArmor, the premier education and learning ecosystem specializing in military culture content. PsychArmor offers an online e-learning laboratory with custom training options for organizations.
Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran, and clinical mental health counselor for service members, veterans, and their families. You can find more about the work that he is doing at www.veteranmentalhealth.com
