Thousands of people run for local office every election cycle. Many of them have never worked on a campaign and don't have access to high-quality political consulting resources. The barrier to entry in a democracy is too high. S&S Strategies was a bipartisan political advisory firm that helped first-time candidates for local office win elections. We professionalized the campaigns of new office seekers through a full suite of communications services. Henry Schulz and Abbas Seltzer started S&S Strategies during a once-in-a-century pandemic and the most consequential election of their lifetimes. The firm's founding context informs their belief that the difficulties of campaigning should never prevent someone from running for public office.