Bradley Tusk, '99: "Silicon Valley's Political Savior"

In 2011, Uber was a tiny transportation startup that, according to its blog, was "#superpumped" to have "officially gone multi-city." And, though he didn’t know it yet, Bradley Tusk was about to become one very lucky political consultant.

The manager of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s successful 2009 reelection bid, Tusk had just left the administration and started his own firm. As a favor to a friend, he agreed to meet with an unknown transportation startup that had just received a cease-and-desist from the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC). "The founder comes in, it’s Travis [Kalanick]," Tusk remembers. "I’d never heard of him or Uber."

Tusk has an unbridled, matter-of-fact style of speaking, and when he recounts a story, even as its sole narrator, it often unfolds like a ping-pong match. "We have this conversation. He says, ‘Can I hire you?’ I say, ‘Sure, our minimum would be $25,000 per month.’ He comes back, ‘You know what? I can’t do $25,000 per month. Can we do some equity?’" Tusk said yes—which turned out to be the deal of a lifetime. His stake in Uber is now rumored to be worth around $100 million.

After helping the company win the TLC's blessing in New York City, Tusk moved on to cities including Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, Denver, and Washington, D.C. It was his first brush with the startup world.

Meanwhile, a bevy of well-funded, future-thinking startups began to encounter regulatory hurdles. Last week, Airbnb lost a campaign in New York to fight a law that makes listing entire homes on the site illegal. The daily fantasy sports site Fanduel has hired lobbyists in more than 30 states with hopes of protecting its business from charges that it constitutes illegal gambling. A burst of startups that aimed to sell homemade food had been shut down by health departments. And startups that want to "revolutionize" everything from garbage disposal to parking meters are trying to sell their products to municipalities.

Tusk saw an opportunity to position himself as Silicon Valley's political maneuvering expert.

Last year, he founded Tusk Ventures, a political consultancy aimed at getting local governments and technology startups to play nice—and, failing that, going to the mattresses instead. He's been dubbed the "Uber lobbyist," "Silicon Valley's favorite political fixer" and "Tech Startups' political mastermind."

Continue reading: https://www.fastcompany.com/3064417/behind-the-brand/the-rise-of-bradle…