I grew up hearing that where you start doesn't have to be where you finish — but Owen McCarthy is proof of it in a way that genuinely stopped me in my tracks. This guy grew up in Patten, Maine — a town of about a thousand people — in a trailer, son of a third-generation logger and a lunch lady. He was the first in his family to go to college, went on to get his MBA from Harvard Business School, and then co-founded MedRhythms, a company using sensors, music, and software to help stroke, MS, and Parkinson's patients walk again. They raised over $60 million in venture capital and got FDA approval. Now? He's walking away from all of that to run for Governor of Maine in 2026 as a total political outsider.

This conversation gets into all of it — where he came from, what it was like being a kid from rural Maine sitting in a Harvard classroom, how he built a company from scratch, and why he made the wild decision to throw his hat into a gubernatorial race. We also talk about what he thinks Maine actually needs: reining in government spending, housing affordability, real relief for working families, and bringing opportunity back to rural communities like the one he grew up in.

This is exactly the kind of story I started this podcast to tell. If you're new here, hit subscribe — you won't regret it.

#MainePolitics #Governor2026 #PoliticalOutsider #RuralAmerica #Entrepreneur #HarvardMBA #MaineGovernor #StartupFounder #KnowledgeIsPower #AmericanDream

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