Terry Gerton We touched base with NobleReach back in the summer. How is the program going and what are you learning from your first placements?

Arun Gupta It’s a great question, Terry. We’ve now had two cohorts, one that’s gone through and completed the program and one, second one that we’ve launched. We just had the second one back for their first quarterly session  after being placed. And so let me give a little bit of context. the first one was entirely federal. So they were all in federal agencies across eight federal agencies, including Space Force, Navy, Commerce, CISA, HUD, FDA. And then the ones in our second cohort, as I talk about them, we’ve expanded into state and local as well. So they’re across 10 states. In the first one we had about 20, in the second one we have about 30. So in that context, with the ones that have gone through it, the first ones and have completed the program, I will say one can have a theory on the case about how it can change people’s lives, how it could change their perspective. It’s another thing to see it in action. You know, what we learned was the following. Look, this first cohort was there during a transition between administrations. So they started in the previous administration and obviously ended in this one. And what they found is that they were welcomed by both. They actually visited the White House with both administrations, and that’s a subtle but powerful thing to see, feel, and hear. That the idea of tech talent coming into government is not a political thing, it’s something that … is what’s good for the country. Second, I think what they all saw as well is that the kind of work and the types of problems that they were getting to work on were far more interesting and stimulating than when they looked at many of their peers at some of the more traditional kind of coming out of school jobs. So much so that when we talked to them after the cohort about how many of you want to stay in public service, over 80% of them were like, you know, they would to continue in public service in some capacity. So what we saw with this group is, you know, point one is that both administrations really welcomed them in the work that they were doing. Second, what they saw was the types of problems that they’re getting to work on were far more interesting than what they would see with their peers that are in the more traditional jobs, so much so that 80% of them continue wanting to stay in public service in the near term. Third, what we really saw with them as well was a sense of community. The importance of not just, you know, I think if each one had gone into their own agency on their own, it would have been a[n] okay experience. What made it really transformative was being part of a larger community as well, so that they can compare notes as to like, well, what’s Space Force doing versus Navy? And take those learnings back into the office. And I think that’s an important piece of it. Fourth, the mentorship that they got was greatly appreciated. And they talked about that and they talked about it in the context of not only mentors that were in public service, but a lot of the mentors that we assigned them or aligned them with had careers in both public and private. And I think that was really important, Terry, because I think they really noticed and saw that they’re not making a decision for life, but these are experiences that they are having and how they can benefit them over the course of their journey. Again, a very subtle but important aspect of like how we change the perception of coming into public services, not being something that you’re having to commit to for 30 years, but something that can be part of the fabric of your career journey.

Terry Gerton So you’ve talked to us a little bit about how the participants felt and what they learned. What kind of feedback did you get from the agencies? And can you talk a little more about some of the specific projects that your first and second cohorts are working on?

Arun Gupta Yeah, you know, look, I can give you the high-level kind of  work that they did. You know, we actually do a net promoter score. And so we take it seriously to see like, how are the agencies looking at what we’re doing? And in that context, you now, they were off the charts and all the agencies came back very strong with what they really appreciated was being done with the work that was being. But more importantly, not only with their capability but with their attitude. And, you know, there’s an interesting anecdote … with a couple of people in Space Force. The problem their team was trying to address had been addressed at Navy. And the team at Space Force didn’t have contacts at the Navy, believe it or not. But our scholar, you know, knew one of our scholars is at the Navy and reached out to him. And they then connected and then, you know, weeks later you had those two groups collaborating on a somewhat meaningful project. And I say that because, you know, with that, you can create a level of collaboration that is an unintended benefit to what happens. And that’s what we saw. Justin Fannelli, who’s over at the Navy and the CTO there — he and I just did a panel with them at NDIA to their board. And we had one of our scholars there that worked with them and, you know, the work that he was getting to do and the fact that, you know, Justin now takes the scholar to all his AI meetings, right? You know, sitting down with three star generals and talking to them about what they’re doing to the point where, you know, other groups and agencies go like, how do I get one of them? Right. And when I say one of them, it’s not only, again, someone that’s versant and capable in technology and AI, but it’s also someone that has this sense of mission and purpose, and is looking to marry that with that capability and curiosity, right. And so they can ask some of the more obvious questions and that could be curious around like … Why do we do things this way? You know, which can be very simple and very basic, but at the same time can be profound when you can say like, oh, if we used AI, we don’t need, we could do it this way, right? And so it’s beyond even just the projects. It’s inculcating a different way of thinking.

Terry Gerton I’m speaking with Arun Gupta, he’s CEO of NobleReach. The problems that you’re talking about are things that the OPM director, Scott Cooper, has himself spoken about recently, hiring more tech talent, making it easier to move between private sector and public sector and back again. How is NobleReach in this scholar program working with OPM to really tackle some of the institutional barriers that make that mobility hard?

Arun Gupta That was a great question. And look, we’ve … been collaborating with Scott and his team and think highly of the way that they’re thinking about, you know, the talent issue and how we can support that. And, you know, what we’ve seen is that there’s an alignment around a vision that we have to change the narrative that people need to think about coming into government for, you know, 30 years, but they can come in for two to three, much like we have Teach for America and have a profound impact not only on them but then on the organization as well. And so you know ways that we’re collaborating and talking about things is just sharing the learnings that we’ve seen, you know, because we’ve had the benefit now of two years of being out there with programs seeing what works for the students. You know, like what it meant, the types of mentors, even not even just having mentors but which ones work, which ones resonate, right? What do you need to see in the agencies? You need a city that makes an experience a really meaningful one for the students. You know, we call it the scaffolding. But what is the scaffold? It’s not only connecting them to the job, but it’s supporting them while they’re there. And how do we build that community? A big lever for us here is that it’s not about a transactional recruiting connection to a young professional to a job. But it’s building a broader community of what we call dual citizens, public-private sector citizens. Right, people that have had experience in both the public and the private sector, that can speak the language of both, that have, you know, understand the culture of both. But then over time have networks in both. And thereby we rebuild trust because they’re trusted in both areas. And so I think, you now, those are various ways that we’re collaborating with Scott. You know, being able to identify which agencies can benefit from tech talent today, the kinds of projects that we can leverage and I think the interesting thing is, and he’s been a great partner here is, people assume that the bottleneck is getting young professionals to come in and it’s not what we’ve seen in our numbers as we’ve been recruiting is that young professionals want to serve, they want to be doing something meaningful right now. I think there’s a lot of change taking place in society, geopolitical, technological, environmental. And this is a group that’s lived through COVID. And I think when you have that kind of change and the ground feels unsettled, you don’t focus as much on yourself, but you reach out to others for stability. And I that’s what’s happening. And so in that context, I think where Scott and his team can also be helpful is helping us identify the agencies. Because right now we’re doing that relationship by relationship, but being able to more broadly go to agencies and saying, You know, look, we really think this is important.

Terry Gerton So what’s next for NobleReach? You’re talking about cohorts in the numbers around 20 or 30. Do you see a massive scaling up to classes of 100 or 150? New agencies, new exposure? What’s next?

Arun Gupta Yes and yes, Terry. You know, I think, look, our North Star has always been to scale. Our end game isn’t to have 20 or 30, which is nothing wrong with that. I just think if we want to have impact, which is what we’re trying to optimize on, scale’s important. So, you know, I think in this upcoming year, we’re looking at hundreds, a couple hundred, and that includes federal, state, and local, and we’re seeing a level of broader interest around that. You know, our goal is to continue to scale to multiple hundreds, you know, get to a thousand, and, you know, really build because I think that’s where you start to change the social narrative as well, Terry. Because there’s a broader objective here. And that is to start, you know, restoring a level of respect again, for going and serving in public service, as Wendy Kopp would say as well. Like, having students do that in the earlier part of their career has a force multiplier impact on the kinds of careers they have and the impact they have over the rest of their career. And I think we’re at that interesting inflection point where we have the potential to shift — you know, we use this term internally, like shift from why to wow. And what I mean by that is rather than people asking, when you go, say you’re going into government to do work in AI, going like, why would you do that when you can do all these other things? They go, wow, you got selected to do that, right? And it’s that initial reaction by your peers that I think starts to set a tone. And I think with the folks that we’re chatting with, partners that believe in the same thing, and we’re seeing that with governors, we’re seen that with agency heads, you see that with someone like Scott, leadership at OPM, Michael Kratios at OSTP, that there’s a real desire to kind of like get young folks energized about this, and so that’s what we’re looking to do, and I think that the potential’s there.

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