Mike Zaro Built Rockland Connected to Close the Gap

Mike Zaro describes himself as an athlete, an artist, and an entrepreneur who finds it hard to draw inside the lines. That combination turns out to be the foundation of Rockland Connected LLC, the community platform he co-founded at RocklandConnected.com.

The idea started smaller. "This started as wanting to bring local entrepreneurs together to network and talk business ideas," Zaro explains. It grew from there into something broader: connecting locals, supporting personal and community development, adding a promotional layer, and building a full Rockland County directory that organizes town information in one place.

What pushed him to go all in was the feedback. He kept hearing the same things from people across different age groups: "We need more of this. I want to know what's going on but don't know how to see it or where to go." Hearing that consistently, across generations, made the need hard to ignore. "I decided this was the right path after hearing the feedback," he says, "and we decided to go all in and make it happen."

The platform is structured around three sections: athletes, creatives, and entrepreneurs. The athlete section gives a clear picture of how the whole thing is meant to work. Someone can come to the platform, search for games, meet new people, compete, and log their stats. From there they can move to the player hub to track practices, nutrition, and workouts. They can check the gym rats leaderboard to see who they are chasing, then head to highlights to watch the community's top plays or share one of their own.

The goal of that loop, as Zaro frames it, is a specific feeling when someone logs off: "I was seen, I saw, and I got better." He intends to build equivalent experiences into the creatives and entrepreneurs sections as well.

Zaro credits all three sides of himself for making the project possible, but singles out the entrepreneurial mindset for keeping the product focused. His experience as an athlete and a creative, he says, helps him understand what is actually missing in the area for people who identify with those worlds. "Being a part of each persona type allows me to connect and experience Rockland from different perspectives."