Dan
Kogan.
I work at the seams between politics, entertainment, and software: usually wherever the interesting people and the unsolved problems happen to overlap. Currently in national political advocacy, always building on the side.
Born in Haifa, raised in Chicago, Northwestern-educated, now in Venice Beach. A decade learning how power, capital, and attention actually move.
Professionally, I drive donor engagement for a national advocacy organization: managing a portfolio of donors and the outreach systems that keep them engaged. Before that I was in music, first as an agency assistant at CAA then as an agent trainee at UTA, learning the negotiating posture you only get from a town where everyone is selling something.
Outside of work I build software: an AI cosmetic surgery visualization platform, a campaign finance intelligence suite, and the usual graveyard of half-finished ideas. Fluent in the language of the operator and the language of the builder, which has turned out to be a more useful combination than either alone. Most interested in how organizations actually get built: the people you put in which seats, the systems that connect them, and the tools that make either work better.
Anthropic AI Fluency certified. Have shipped multiple production AI tools, including FundTrace, live at fundtrace.ai.
Former ski instructor in Aspen, motorcyclist on California's back roads, lifter five days a week, and a regular at Venice Run Club. A student of geography, a committed journaler, and reliably present at Coachella.
Now
2024
2017
2022
Always interested in conversations about politics, software, and the work between them.