Casey Kuhlman

CAREER

Kuhlman's background is anything but traditional for somebody in the open data sector. He has a rare collection of unrelated experiences: working with the government, developing software, and working with open data.

MILITARY

• Kuhlman was an infantry officer in the Marines.
• He was among the group of soldiers to pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein during the liberation of Iraq. 
  

LEGAL

• Kuhlman was the Founder of Watershed Legal Services, a full-service law firm in Hargeisa, Somaliland.
• His practice focused on advising foreign entities in compliance areas.
  
• He worked with the prosecutor’s office of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, where he worked on The Prosecutor v. Charles Taylor.
• He worked with the Public International Law & Policy Group as the Chief of Party for the Somaliland Project, which focused on developing the capacity of the Somaliland Parliament.
• He also provided expert international legal advice to the Parliament.

TECHNOLOGY

• Kuhlman is an avid software engineer and free and open-source advocate.
• He has worked on open-source projects at the intersection of legal practice and legislative development.
• In his free time, he works on systems of smart contracts with a particular focus on automating regulatory compliance in contractual instruments.

3 WAYS CASEY HAS APPLIED MILITARY TRAINING TO BUSINESS

Kuhlman credits much of his success in the entrepreneurial space to his time as a Marine. Here are three lessons he learned from his experience as a service member:

Lesson #1: Somebody always has to go first, and that shouldn’t scare you.

• “My Marine training put in my mind this idea that there is always a pathway. In an entrepreneurial context, you need your business to resonate in the market. This could mean opening a new market or building a new product.”
• He believes that those who serve have a lower fear threshold than the standard general populous. He credits this mindset and describes, “It has positioned me for success in a strong way.”
  

Lesson #2: Move forward, no matter how limited your resources may be.

• Casey found himself responsible for the cultivation of his initial resources.
• "The advantage my military training gave me as I moved and worked in my own small business, was laser-focus on accomplishing the mission, no matter how many or how few resources I may have.”
  

Lesson #3: Stay mission-focused.

• “As the founder of a tech startup, there are a number of decisions that have the potential to take my mental capacity away from focusing on my mission at hand. As a veteran with a vision, my military training helped establish a framework for focusing and filtering out the noise, which I’ve used time and time again."

MEDIA

Kuhlman has appeared as a guest on Real Vision.