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Hi, and welcome back to the Carol Markowitz show on IHartRadio.

My guest today is Ari Ackerman.

Ari is a successful serial entrepreneur, one of my favorite apps,

Bunk 1, among them, a philanthropist, owner of the Miami Marlins,

and a powerful social media influencer, which is how I first got to see his work and

learn about him. So nice to have you on, Ari.

Thank you, Carol. Pleasure to be here.

So I have to start with Bunk 1 because Bunk 1 really revolutionized the way parents communicate with their kids

at sleepaway camp. And for those who don't know, it's really an essential app. I used it all summer

long while my kids were away. What's the story behind it? Was it your idea or were you an investor?

How did it come to be?

No, it was my idea.

Started it from scratch, one of those great entrepreneurial stories.

I was in graduate business school at Northwestern.

And I literally wrote a business plan for a private equity class I was taking.

And I'll make the story short, but we had a presentation to the Chicago-based venture capitalists back a long time ago.

And the idea was they were going to fund the company, right?

They were going to make sure they told me how brilliant I was and everything was going to be great.

Right.

They told me it was the worst idea they had ever heard in their entire life, true story.

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