Build the function before the next fight finds you.
I built the public affairs operation at Amazon that defeated AICOA, the antitrust bill out of the 2020 Big Tech hearings. Now I build the same integrated function, government relations, communications, legal, and AI governance running as one system, for companies that cannot afford to retrofit policy after the crisis has already hit.
I have been in the rooms where these decisions get made.
From Capitol Hill to a Fortune 5 boardroom, I have sat inside the negotiations behind some of the biggest policy fights of the last decade. The defeat of AICOA is documented. The operating model behind it is the work, and it is the same model I build for you.
Credentials Former Senior Fellow for Fiscal Policy at the National Taxpayers Union, twice a witness before the House Ways and Means Committee, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Law and Policy.
Seen on CNBC, CNN, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, Fox News, Cheddar News, Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg TV, and HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher.
Two ways to put policy on offense.
Most companies run policy, comms, legal, and coalition work against the same regulatory environment with no shared strategy and no one at the intersection. I fix that two ways, depending on how much needs building.
The Audit
A fixed-fee diagnostic that maps where your public affairs function is leaking, and the roadmap to wire it together before the next fight finds you. The front door to the build.
Apply for the AuditThe Policy Continuity Framework
The productized version of the system, built for a GR or policy leader to run their own function through a senior vacancy without the work stalling or a panic hire.
See the FrameworkScore your exposure in five minutes.
When no one owns the whole fight, the cost never shows up as a line item. It shows up as five specific fires. Score each one and you walk away with an exposure number, a count of how many are burning, and a short paragraph you can send straight to your GC or CEO.
Take the Five Fires assessmentI make the fight legible before it lands.
The work and the analysis run on the same muscle. I read the same data the policymakers are weighing, and I say what it means for markets, for voters, and for your strategy, in plain words and on a clock.
The Tradeoff
My twice-weekly podcast. The data behind the headline, what decision-makers are weighing out of public view, and what it means next. Five to ten minutes, wherever you listen.
Listen to The Tradeoff
On air, on stage
A regular voice on CNBC, Fox Business, MSNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, and HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. Bring that clarity to your audience or your next event.
Book MattieHi, I'm Mattie.
I fell backwards into this work and never left. I am a fiscal policy expert and the founder of Forward Strategies, and I have spent the last decade where finance, politics, and everyday life actually collide. My job is to make that collision make sense, and to make sure it never catches you flat-footed.
More about me
Let's move FORWARD together.
The next fight will not wait for your function to get organized. The risk is predictable, which is the first reason it is reducible. Start with the Audit.