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June 17, 2025 31 mins

Show Summary

On today’s episode, we welcome back a previous guest, Marine Corps veteran Waco Hoover, an entrepreneur and investor with over 20 years of experience in venture capital, M&A, entertainment, media and live events. We talk about MCON, an annual event that celebrates military culture and includes MCON Health conducted in partnership with PsychArmor. 

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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.

Links Mentioned During the Episode

MCON Web Site

MCON Health

PsychArmor Resource of the Week

This week’s resource of the week is the previous podcast episode featuring Waco, episode 156 where we talk about the American Legion’s Be The One Campaign an initiative whose goal it is to eliminate the stigma related to mental health treatment, and in turn, lower the number of veterans who die by suicide every day.  

 

You can find the resource here: 

 

https://psycharmor.org/podcast/waco-hoover

 

Episode Partner:

 

Are you an organization that engages with or supports the military affiliated community? Would you like to partner with an engaged and dynamic audience of like-minded professionals? Reach out to Inquire about Partnership Opportunities

 

Contact Us and Join Us on Social Media 

Email PsychArmor

PsychArmor on Twitter

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PsychArmor on YouTube

PsychArmor on LinkedIn

PsychArmor on Instagram

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.

Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran

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