This is the Tom Hartman Program. This is the Tom Hartman Program.

I'm Jefferson Smith.

Honored to sit in for Tom today and be with you.

A little bit of change of gear.

As we think about much of how we spend our political time,

which is critiquing the current occupant of the White House.

Let us not avoid both broader and deeper as well as very specific conversations about change that can be made.

And I want to talk to somebody right now who is addressing something very specific that impacts something very, very broad and deep.

As Mara Sepeda, is CEO and co-founder Switch Board Incorporated and she joins us now to talk about

how could we think about a different way for companies to exit. The topic we're going to be using,

the example rather we're going to be using is the example of meetup, but I think it is emblematic or indicative or maybe a sign of a just a different way of understanding

our economy and how we should be thinking about pathways for companies including tech companies

Mara thank you so much for joining us from Massachusetts.

Thank you, thanks for having me.

Give people the background on meet-up to kind of lay the groundwork.

Sure, you know, meet-up was founded in the days after September 11th.

The founder, Scott Hefferman, really saw that communities were coming together in a very special

way to support one another. They were turning towards each other and it was that premise that

he saw after September 11th that really catalyzed and inspired him to start the

platform. So the platform is incredibly special. It has millions of users all over the world and

they are actively connecting around civic issues to strengthen

civil society, voting, democracy, crafts, arts, social justice, any type of

...