Click here for Part II, Part III & Part IV

Safeguarding the American public through a proven, inventive approach to national security

Kevin Gooch is the CEO of BayFirst Solutions. Headquartered in Washington, DC, BayFirst is a management and strategic consulting firm that specializes in national security and defense programs. The company works with clients across the United States to foster public safety and amplify homeland security outcomes in an efficient, creatively-driven, and exhaustive manner. In recognition of its achievements and growth, BayFirst has been named the Fastest Growing Company (2016) by the Washington Business Journal, has received The Department of Homeland Security’s Small Business Achievement Award and Undersecretary Award for Superior Program Execution, and has earned a place on the Inc. 5000 (#18 among companies based in the DC metropolitan area).

For this interview, Kevin spoke with Offit Kurman Business Law and Transactions Practice Group Chair Michael N. Mercurio.

MIKE MERCURIO: I’m Mike Mercurio and I’m a principal with the law firm of Offit Kurman. Today, I have with me Kevin Gooch. Kevin, can you further introduce yourself?

KEVIN GOOCH: Certainly, I am Kevin Gooch, the CEO of BayFirst. We are a government consulting firm focusing primarily on homeland security and defense programs.

MIKE MERCURIO: I would like to take you back to your childhood. I find that learning about someone’s childhood gives a lot of insight as to where they are and who they are today. Tell us where you grew up and what you attribute to your entrepreneurial spirit.

KEVIN GOOCH: My father was in the military so I grew up moving around quite a bit. I think that made me very accustomed to change. I think being a change agent and adapting quickly to the changing environment, the changing government forces that we have around the world, has made me a better businessman and helped me focus on the strategy of our company.

MIKE MERCURIO: Most people don’t embrace change—you embrace change?

KEVIN GOOCH: I find change to be fun, actually. If things aren’t changing I think it is boring and it gets stale and then it ceases to be productive, in my opinion.

MIKE MERCURIO: Tell us a little about your early years in business, how you got into chemical engineering, your love for tech. I understand you have an interest in tech.

KEVIN GOOCH: In high school I really liked math and science, particularly chemistry, and then I went to apply to Vanderbilt got accepted and wanted to do engineering. Thought about bio medical, thought about environmental, I found out chemical was the hardest major at the time at Vanderbilt and I signed up for that. I don’t know, call me crazy, call me trying to prove something—I don’t know—but that’s the reason I did it. By the time I graduated I was ready to throw away my HP calculator and never work an equation again. I did not want to be climbing distillation towers, working calculations, so decided consulting probably made sense, which is why I started looking at consulting firms and got a job with one of the large government contractors in the DC area. They hired me into their counter-terrorism practice. That’s how I got into counterterrorism and chemical and biological defense.

MIKE MERCURIO: You started your career, and I know you had a longstanding career with this large management consulting firm—what did you find most rewarding? What did you find most challenging?

KEVIN GOOCH: I think most rewarding is the teamwork that comes with consulting. Most consulting projects, you work as a team on everything and I think the diversity of the background of the team brings better solutions to clients ultimately.

MIKE MERCURIO: I know you were there at this large consulting firm quite some time. In fact you worked your way up there chain of command to principal level. From any measure of success you were deemed very successful. You’re no longer with that consulting firm. Why the change?

KEVIN GOOCH: I was there for 17 years and it was a wonderful career. I loved it, learned a lot there. Things had changed. They became public and I think that change caused a little bit of culture shift, and our values didn’t align perfectly as they had before. And the time was right to move to a smaller firm. I knew both of the founders of BayFirst, and we had talked about “Could we work something out?” at various points in the past and the timing was right. The values weren’t quite aligning with the larger consulting firm, and I had lunch with one of the founding partners at BayFirst and the rest is history.

MIKE MERCURIO: Timing being important, and usually a major consideration—right place, right time—but moving from a large national consulting firm where you’re a principal to a smaller firm, BayFirst—big risk. Are you a risky guy? what would you attribute your risk-taking to?

KEVIN GOOCH: I do find it somewhat fun. It is a challenge. I needed a new challenge. Going to a smaller company you can have more impact and control the future and your destination a bit more, and that’s what I found intriguing. BayFirst was about 50 people when I joined, and three years later we’re at 200, so it has been a very fun and prosperous ride so far.

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ABOUT OFFIT KURMAN

Offit Kurman is one of the fastest-growing, full-service law firms in the Mid-Atlantic region. With over 120 attorneys offering a comprehensive range of services in virtually every legal category, the firm is well positioned to meet the needs of dynamic businesses and the people who own and operate them. Our eight offices serve individual and corporate clients in the Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Northern Virginia markets, as well as the Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City metropolitan areas. At Offit Kurman, we are our clients’ most trusted legal advisors, professionals who help maximize and protect business value and personal wealth. In every interaction, we consistently maintain our clients’ confidence by remaining focused on furthering their objectives and achieving their goals in an efficient manner. Trust, knowledge, confidence—in a partner, that’s perfect.

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