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August 20, 2025 22 mins

Ari Ackerman, founder of the groundbreaking app BunkOne and minority owner of the Miami Marlins, opens up about his unique journey from tech innovator to MLB executive. He reflects on his Jewish identity, activism, and the urgent challenges facing the Jewish community today. Ackerman highlights the importance of fostering Jewish pride in future generations, shares insights on Israel’s global perception, and offers inspiring advice to young people about following their passions and embracing life’s challenges. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Wednesday & Friday.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, and welcome back to Carol Marco Woods Show on iHeartRadio.
My guest today is Ari Ackerman. Ari is a successful
serial entrepreneur, one of my favorite apps, Bunk one 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

(00:24):
have you on, Ari.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thank you, Carol. Pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
So I have to start with Bunk one because Bunk
one 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

(00:48):
did it come to be?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Now, it was my idea, started it from scratch. One
of those great entrepreneurial stories. I was a ground a
business school at Northwestern and I literally wrote a business
plan for a private equity class. 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,

(01:10):
they were going to make sure. They told me how
brilliant I was and everything was gonna be great, right.
They told me it was the worst idea ever had
ever heard in their entire live true story, and I'd
be doing I remember this line, I'd be doing a
disservice to myself and my school if I started Bunk one.
So I got really drunk that day and I went
to the Cubs game and sat in the bleachers and

(01:32):
Wrigley Field. If you ever done that, it's a great experience,
and realized that this was something I wanted to do.
And literally a week later, we had graduated from Northwestern
from calagg and I was in my car driving around
the country, visiting camps and just pitching the idea, which
was essentially making my first introductions into the world, making
my first friends, and they became my first clients. And

(01:53):
literally a year and a half later, I was live
on CNN my idea to the you know, because it
already had blown up because parents, as you know very well,
when their kids are away at camp, they live for
those pictures. And that's where Bunk one introduced into the world.
We introduced this idea of staying connected in a one
way window to your child when they're away at camp

(02:15):
for the first time, and then sending those bunknes the
emails in printed out for the kids, and it became
a great company that I ran for about eighteen years.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
It's brilliant and it's so obvious. But you didn't have
kids when you started this, did you?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Definitely not? As a young guy, How did.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
You, like, where do you come up with that? Like
I understand if you're a parent, you're like, oh, I
wish there was something for me to communicate with my
kids to sleep away camp. But if you're not even
a parent, where did this come from?

Speaker 2 (02:41):
I was raised by Jewish mom. This is the most
obvious idea of all time for Jewish kids like that,
as you know, we would do anything for our children.
Now that I do have children, and I kind of
knew that, and I loved summer camp, so I always
wanted to be an entrepreneur. And then when I was
in graduate school, I'm like, wait, there's no technology yet
in summer camps. I can be that guy that brings

(03:02):
technology into the camp business. Because they didn't want to
do it on their own, they couldn't afford to do
it on their own. Incidentally, as well. It was a
mom and pop type of industry. So here I was
this guy driving around the country as I described, pitching
this idea of bringing technology into camps, and it was,
you know, almost immediately well received. Once they realized who
I was. They made that personal connection. And that first

(03:23):
summer when we had about fifty camps using the online
photo gallery, Missus Cohen told mister Shapiro the pictures of
beautiful David and you know, Rachel and all the people,
and then we blew up almost the second year like
so smart camps right away.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Yeah, it's really brilliant. So why the Marlins? How did
that happen?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
So yeah, So I ran bunk one for about seventeen
years and I ended up selling the company in twenty seventeen.
And very soon after I got a call actually from
a guy I went to business school with in Chicago
Northwestern said, Ari, I had this I have this business
I think you'd be interested in. I got a lot
of press on the sale. There was money there, and

(04:07):
he said, this is something I think you don't want
to do. He knew I love baseball. I was a
Yankee fan as well. I know, Carol, you were well.
I call myself kind of a former Yankee fan, you know,
but okay, okay, and you know, and the guy who
was putting our group together was a gentleman named Derek Jeter. Yes,
that's very you know, it's something it's interesting as well,

(04:29):
all right. Manager by the way at the time was
Don Mattingly, So there were a lot of Yankee connections
to the Marlins as well. But for me, I didn't
know this was even a possibility in my life. I
didn't know this was something that was going to take place.
Like you asked about the Yankees before, I couldn't afford
the Yankees. I'll tell you that, all.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Right, maybe you know, maybe we'll own both eventually. You
can't do that, actually, oh you can't.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Oh interesting, only on one team at a time, but
even as a minority player. But but yeah, So it
was just an incredible opportunity. Obviously it was a financial,
major financial investment. So it was like, Hi, I'm in
you know, right. It was a deal that I looked
at that I also believed in the numbers that I
thought it had a promise as a business in and

(05:09):
of itself. But then the attraction of baseball and even
the city of Miami, which I love so much, made
it even more attractive to be part of this group
to buy the Marlins.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
So I first learned of who you are because of
your Instagram videos, and you're very outspoken on a lot
of things, but especially on Israel or Jewish issues in America.
And you know, there are a lot of people who
came to that after October seventh. But as I was
researching you for this interview, your activism didn't start on

(05:40):
October seventh. You were pretty into it well before that.
Is that fair to say?

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, I've always been a very loud and proud Jew.
I did even though I was speaking before October seventh,
you know, in front of the Chancellor of Quni, who
let a graduation speaker go in you very antisemitic, and
we were out there yelling and not in it, you know,
very four and very controlled the way that this was

(06:09):
outrageous and unacceptable and this is Jewish hat trade and
stuff like that. What changed though for me October seventh
is you just described as my Instagram though I wasn't.
I didn't know what a reel was R E L
on Instagram before about sixteen months ago. Somebody said to me,
if you're doing all these speeches, you're reaching three four
hundred people, you should be doing reels on Instagram. I'm like,
what's real? And I mean, you know, I used to

(06:31):
post these pictures that you scroll through, and then I
started doing these reels and you know, you reach five
hundred people in the first second, you know, a thousand,
two thousand, ten thousand people in the first few minutes.
And so it was a way to reach a wider
audience with a message I wanted to communicate that I
think is a very very important message, especially in this
date age. And and my my reels became more and

(06:53):
more popular, and you know, the last month, I had
five million views on my Instagram, and you know, so
I'm very proud that the message is getting out there.
And I'm doing at least my part because I'll say this,
you know, and your very friendly thought podcast, but we're
in the fight for the survival of our of our
people right now. I don't even say that lightly. I

(07:15):
say that often and I really truly believe it. And
it gets worse every day all or not even just
in this country, but really all around the world.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
So what made you get into this kind of activism.
You could have taken a safe route and gotten into
like climate change, hunger, you know, just you could you
could have done something one of the philanthropist things that
some people do, where you're not going to be attacked,
You're not going to have hateful comments, You're you're going
to have an easy time of it. So what made

(07:44):
you choose this?

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Yeah? I mean, listen, there are a lot of important
issues in this world that you described a few, climate
change and you know, poverty, all the things that we
all should be fighting against. But for me, I have
in my heart and so a very strong connection to
Zionism and to my Jewishness. I was raised by my mom,

(08:07):
who I lost about twelve years ago, who just instilled
in me and my sister this incredible Jewish values of
standing up for our community and always being a strong Jew.
And my grandfather, who is really a legend amongst the
Jewish community, literally a founder of the State of Israel,
and really my mentor, who really showed us how to

(08:28):
give and give again and give even more and always
be a proud Zionist and a proud Jew. So it
was always in me to do this. It's always a
very very important piece of who I am. And now
that I have two young children, five and three, I
worry for their future. And so people say to me,
you don't have to do this. I hear that a lot,

(08:49):
but I do have to do this. I don't understand
why more people aren't doing this. We're fighting. We're fighting
for our future. If you have children, or you don't
have children, but if you do, you understand the connection
you have to them, and you want to make sure
they can live in a world that's safe for them.
And it's a very precarious situation for them as a
Jewish child right now, that's even going to be a

(09:10):
world that's going to be here when they grow up.
You know, I want to make sure they can wear Yamica.
We're not religious, but they can wear Yamaica what they want.
They can wear a Jewish star around their neck, they
can celebrate Shabbat, they can be proud Jews. And that's
what I fight for every day.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
So there's always these polling numbers that show that Jewish
youth is even moving away from Israel, you know, not
in huge numbers, but the headlines are always very sensationalist.
How do you kind of maintain in your home, or
how are you teaching your kids to follow in your footsteps.
I know they're quite young, so maybe not quite yet.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, I'm worry about it all the time.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
I have a fifteen, twelve, and nine, and they're very
pro Israel, They're very into their Jewish identity. But look,
you know, it's it's definitely something that.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Concerns me, turns me every second of the day. But
I've also seen polls where ninety percent of Jews, even
ninety five percent are Zionists or at least lean Zionists.
And to me, that gives me hope that there is
a communication in the next generation, because there also is
polling of the next generation that isn't so great as well.

(10:19):
I'm sure you've seen it. And so for me, like
every day, I fight because like you and your children,
I want to make sure my children feel that strong
sense of pride. And you know, how do I how
do I do it? Well? My wife is right on
board with everything I do. She's credible in terms of
her stand upness in her own way for the state

(10:41):
of Israel and for being Jewish. But for me, like
I am leaving them with a legacy of Instagram reels,
right they are.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
You're all my thoughts.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
Yeah, you're all my thoughts, and like, you know, so
we all have a responsibility to do all we can
right now so that our next generation sees what we did,
as you just described, and leaving that legacy for them
and showing them like, during this period of very dangerous
Jewish hate and anti Semitism, their dad stood up loud
and proud and yeah, so it makes me emotional, but

(11:12):
like so I want to make sure they see that,
and hopefully that's how they get it gets instilled in
them that sense of Jewish pride. And we always you know,
in terms of the religion. We do shabot dinners at night,
and you know, we just are constantly instilling in them
Jewish values and the importance of being Jewish. My daughter
is five years old and I've already whispered in her

(11:32):
ear if she marries it non Jew, I'm not coming away.
It's things like that.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
You got to show them further on the roof to
really bring that point home.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah, but one of them married it on Jew.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
So that's the whole thing. When she married it on
jew and the dad was like, you're dead to me
and my daughter watching that as a little girl, I
was like, oh, I was like, you know, I.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
Don't even want to put it in her head, but at.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
Some point not even option.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yeah, but she's more into Shrek right now and we
so wicked great but but yeah, So what you're saying
right now is the most important thing I think a
Jewish parent can do is to what, in ever way
they feel is appropriate and relevant to the child, instill
in them that sense of Jewish pride, right, the sense
of you know, the state of Israel being the Jewish homeland,

(12:18):
take them to Israel, you know, whatever the case may be.
Instilled it in them as in any way they can.
And we all have a platform. By the way, no
matter how large you're small, it's important you use that platform. Again,
as I say, so the future generations see what you
did during this time, A real just terrible Jewish dad.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
We're going to take a quick break and be right
back on the Carol Marcowitch Show. So you came up
with bunk one because you saw a hole in the market.
Do you see a hole in the market in terms
of kind of the pr that Israel gets or the
organizations that support Israel in America. I find a lot

(12:57):
of them to be kind of on the weaker side.
Do you anything that could be improved?

Speaker 2 (13:02):
I mean, you know, first of all, two Jews, three opinions, right, sorry,
got their own take on what the situation is. But
so I was invited by the government of Israel. Don't
know if we saw this on my Instagram to come
at the end of January with about fifteen others they
described influencers, so that we would help them with the
pr of Israel. They took us all around. They took

(13:23):
us to the gods of border where the food was
going in. We literally videoed it and showed the world,
at least our world. And so there is a problem.
Even the Israel government identifies the problem to the point
where they took us there to try and help with
the PR I still think they can do a better
job of it. You know, I think the reaction time

(13:45):
is very, very slow in terms of Israel responding to
whatever takes place in terms of the news and listen,
I understand partially why it's slow because they're verifying actual
facts and they're not releasing information that isn't true. But
with the new cycle is what it is right now,
it's instantaneous. You almost have to adapt to the times

(14:08):
a little bit and at least get something out there
that the world sees, unlike the other side, which is
just releasing lying propaganda that gets picked up immediately, immediately
and just spread all over the world. So there's definitely
a pr problem, which makes me nuts too, because there's
so many amazing pr agencies run by Jews here in

(14:28):
the United States. I don't know why we just don't
hire one or two of them time. You just have
them through Jewish pr like twenty four to seven, and
that's it. That's all they do.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
What do you worry about?

Speaker 2 (14:39):
It's really my children, It's the future of the Jewish people.
It's you know, the way I see hate on the streets,
the way I see Jewish hate being normalized right now.
You know, there's not even press coverage when a Jew
gets beaten up at this point, you know, or it
gets even killed, there really wasn't much press coverage on it.

(15:01):
So like, is that the way the world is heading
right now? It's very very scary. A lot of it
reminds me of what I read and what I see
from nineteen late twenties or even thirties nineteen Germany, you know,
as we describe, and it worries me. It literally keeps
me up at night to the point where you see
what I do online, you see what I do on Instagram.
I'm constantly posting about these things, so the world at

(15:23):
least sees maybe some of the truth that's not being
portrayed by a lot of the mainstream media channels. So yeah,
what I worry about is is that our.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Future existential right, Existential concerns more than anything else right now.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
I mean, yeah, listen, I want my back to feel better,
you know, I worry about that.

Speaker 3 (15:42):
Pin Yeah, it'd be nice if we want a few games,
although we're having a good season this year, which is awesome,
you know, But the real real issues to me are
my children, my family, which is the most important thing
in the world, and Jewish continuity, which is the second
most important.

Speaker 2 (15:57):
Thing in the world to me. And those are the
things I really worry about on a daily basis.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
You know, when I leave kind of the major cities
in America, when you go out into America, you see
such a difference in support for Israel but also just
pro Jewish behavior. I talk about it a lot on
the show. Actually, like I did an internship, not an internship.
I did a fellowship at Hillsdale in rural Michigan, and

(16:24):
you drive by churches and they say pray for Israel.
I just I want people to know that there is
more than the New York Times. There's more than just
you know, kind of the ever moving leftist media and
enclaves in this country who do support not only Israel
but Jews across the world.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
It's I mean, that's why we're still around. I mean, like,
thank God for like the evangelicals. You know, I think
that's what you're describing. Oh for sure, you know, like
they they're more pro Israel than a lot of Jews.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
Oh I know.

Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, I can't believe that's the sentence, but it's true.
And you know, and I have so many friends. I
was with Patricia Heaton the other time.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
I know, my friend, the Hallo Queen was at that
event with you.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
She's amazing. Yeah, Patricia, like and I know each other
basically through social media, but this was the first time
we actually hugged in person. And she's like, all right,
I love your videos. It's so wonderful you love my videos.
But You're our hero because you you say, I don't
have to do this. She doesn't have to do this,
she does not have to support us, but she is
all in. She believes it in her heart and soul.

(17:29):
I did a quick interview with her. I'll post soon.
And it's just so meaningful to I know, to you
and to me and to all of us that are
such strong Jews to have this support all around the country.
And yeah, you know, it's so great to see it
from states that, like you can't imagine that these are
the states that are really the ones that are keeping.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
I feel like I could imagine, just because I'm a
lifelong conservative, you know, I always felt very supportive, supported
by the conservative community, and I love seeing kind of
that support on all kinds of levels with Israel now.
It means a lot to me.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Yeah, I mean I grew up as in an orthodox
Jewish environment, so for me it was it was a
very conservative environment. It was a very pro Israel environment. Yeah,
and you know, you saw who your friends were even
back then.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
Totally absolutely What advice would you give your sixteen year
old self having to do this all all over again,
How do you protect your back?

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Well, I think that question, like, so sixteen now versus sixteen, then.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, it has to be sixteen. Then it has to
be you sixteen then you.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Know, so I would say, like, first of all, enjoy
being sixteen, my guy, go to every party. You can
do everything. Again, your body is only sixteen once. But
think about your time being the most valuable commodity that
you have. And I say that a lot. And you know,
make sure you're constantly trying things, legal things, legs and
doing things that are appropriate. But you're just trying things.

(18:57):
And you're out there and you're living your life, and
you're you know, learning about the world, and you're questioning things,
and you're just being you're staying you know, you're happy,
but you're also staying true to yourself about who you are,
about your family, about what's important to you. You know,

(19:19):
those are the things, Especially now that I'm doing this,
like online Instagram stuff, I get so much hate on
a daily basis that like I would say to my
sixteen year old self, like you be you, You're gonna
throughout your life. And this is the same with Bonk
one by way. They told me it was the worst
idea they ever heard, you know, like I was like, okay,
I'd be me. You know, like there's a lot of

(19:40):
heat going on right now. I'm going to still post
my Instagram reels to make sure that people see my
truth and the truth, you know what. I love that,
So you know, that's that's what i'd say. And it's
not easy because sixteen is not an easy time be anything.
And you know, you got peer pressures and for sure,
you know girls that are starting to like you or

(20:00):
not like you, which is even worse, boys or whatever
it is, you know, Yeah, and so it's not easy
to be true to yourself. But I would say, like,
really do your best that you can and be proud,
and you know, if something doesn't go your way, that's life,
it's going to happen, and you know things will turn around.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Go to the parties and be true to yourself. I
like that a lot.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
By the way, whoever knows me knows how true those
two statements, both of them, Like that is who I am.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
Did you grow up in New York I did.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
I grew up in the city.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
In the city. I grew up in Brooklyn, So yeah,
I went to all the parties.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
I mean, did you go to Yeshiva?

Speaker 1 (20:36):
He sure, I know, but I didn't go to Yeshiva
for the first eight years.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
Okay, yeah, cool.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
So well, I've loved this conversation. I think your voice
is really amazing, and I love following. You leave us
here with your best best tip for my listeners on
how they can improve their lives.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
How they can improve their lives. Well, first of all,
have passion in whatever you do. If you're not passionate
about something, you are completely wasting your time and you're
just not going to live a fulfilled, fun, meaningful life
and it's just not not as good. I also, I
also say, because I do this all the time, like
wake up with goals for the day, goals for the week,
goals for the month, and really try and hit those

(21:15):
goals because it keeps you focused on doing things and
it keeps you, you know, nicely aggressive about how you
live your life and what you want to accomplish. But also,
as kind of we've described in the last twenty one minutes,
like do the hard stuff. Don't just do the easy stuff,
do the hard stuff. You will feel better about yourself

(21:37):
if you are out there challenging yourself and you're out
there doing things that make you even a little bit
uncomfortable again, all legal, all good, being nice, but like.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
This is a show about doing legal things. Guess legal
things exactly.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
I don't know why I've said.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
That a few times, you just to reiterate, don't do
anything illegal.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
I'ven't ever done anything illegal in my life. So it's
like funny though, even say, but challenge yourself, do the
hard things you're you will be more proud of yourself,
Others will look up to you more. And it's just
it's just a better way to live. And it's like,
you know, you have all this like instant gratification in
this world, right sure if you do the hard stuff,
appreciate the delayed gratification, Appreciate the things that like you're

(22:19):
doing right now that will make your life better, your
children's life better in the future. And it's just, you know,
we don't have enough of that right now. I need
that instant two second yeah, whatever it is. And it's just,
you know, it's it's making us all nuts. Like do
things that are are more long term right now, like
fighting for the Jewish people, which I hope I do

(22:41):
in a good way right now.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
I love it. Do the hard thing, set goals, wake
up and do it. Thank you so much. He's Ari Ackerman.
Check out his Instagram. It's really excellent. Follow him there.
Thank you so much, Ari for coming on the show.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Thank you, Carol, this was awesome. Appreciate

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