Hillsdale alumni Kyle Forti ’12 and Lee Hopper ’14 said they always enjoyed politics, but they never imagined they would be making a difference in the form of their consulting company D/CO before turning 30 years old.
Located in the mountains of Denver the political consulting company D/CO launched in December 2015 as a product of CEO Kyle Forti’s vision and the campaign experience of Chief Operating Officer Lee Hooper.
On April 5, D/CO absorbed 140 new clients from their public relations competitor, the Avinova Media Group, making its six-person consulting company the largest political public relations firm in Colorado.
In a Web post on the day of the acquisition, Avinova said its clients would be in good hands. “D/CO works intimately with clients large and small. They work with local county commissioners, churches, and faith-based nonprofits, as well as Fortune 100 companies, U.S. senators, and international public relations firms, assisting each individually to leverage influence and direct public conversations.”
Forti said he sought to bring a new experience to traditional campaign consulting and fill a void in the field.
“We thought, ‘How can we make something out of politics?’” Forti said. “We wanted to emphasize the business side of politics, highlighting specifically a level of creativity and professionalism for our client, something not seen in the political world.”
Forti graduated with a degree in politics and Christian studies. After entering the realm of political journalism for one year, Forti said he found himself restless and unsatisfied with political culture.
“There was a weird level of unprofessionalism, and I found that I really couldn’t work for anyone,” Forti said. “I wanted to do my own thing.”
As a result, Forti started his first company, Peak Political Solutions, in June 2013. He found himself working 18 to 20-hour days six to seven times a week, providing media and outreach services for activists and politicians alike.
That is when Hopper stepped in.
Throughout his entire senior year at Hillsdale, Hopper started doing contract work online for Forti in addition to completing coursework for his economics major.
When he graduated, Hopper went to work for the Colorado Republican Party on local and Senate campaigns, before coming to work full time for Peak Political Solutions in January 2015.
Hopper said the political connections and experience he made in his year of working on campaigns was a key element in D/CO’s recent success.
“I learned the tried and true methods of campaigning,” Hopper said. “Since joining D/CO, we have worked with more than two dozen local and national campaigns. We’ve also reached out to activism causes, such as Turning Point USA, and we even did all the media for the Conservative Political Action Conference this past March.”
Due to the amount of notoriety Peak Political Solutions had received in the political realm, Red Alert Politics named Forti one of its “30 under 30” in 2014.
Caleb Bonham, the former editor-in-chief of Campus Reform, was also on Red Alert’s list that year. In 2015, Bonham left his career in journalism and joined Forti and Hopper to transform Peak Political Solutions into D/CO, which Bonam now serves as the co-founder.
“With Caleb, we set our sights on taking the tried and true methods of old communication and how we could bridge the gap with new media,” Forti said. “We wanted to make our clients outreach interactive, integrated with social media, and filled with creativity.”
The Hillsdale alumni said they look upon their time at Hillsdale fondly and attribute it to part of their early success. Both Forti and Hopper were brothers in the Sigma Chi fraternity at Hillsdale and said they saw the benefits of Greek life in the professional world.
“In Greek life, you learn to work with a variety of people,” Hopper said. “Being a Sigma Chi taught me how to manage other people’s views, how to unite those all in one vision, and how to go after that vision — like we’ve done at D/CO.”
Forti said just having Hillsdale on his resume made a huge difference, and the lessons he learned from surviving the academic rigor of the college taught him how to manage his consulting company.
“Hillsdale gave me a ton of credibility,” Forti said. “Coming into the political realm with little experience, it was my only card to play. And it worked. Managing the work for several very rigorous classes a semester prepared me for managing many different clients.”
Hopper said he advises young people interested in entering the political realm always to be aware of the connections they make.
“Never, ever burn a bridge,” Hopper said. “Someday, someone who is working for an opponent’s campaign may end up right next to you on another one. If you respect others, it pays dividends in ways you’d never expect.”
Forti said it comes down to something simple. No matter the business, the client, or the issue, politics can’t rise above the people.
“Always be willing to put people before policy,” Forti said. “After all, they’re the whole point of the policy in the first place.”