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Former congressional aide Marci Harris was frustrated with the way informationand messages flooded into the office of Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., and got lost. In2010, she left to solve government's biggest problems.
"The way information is processed is breaking. There has to be a new way," saidHarris, who went on to found PopVox, a tech startup that works to improve thecommunication between Congress and its constituents.
Earlier this week, more than 600 entrepreneurs and government and technologyleaders came together at the Next Generation of Government Summit to hearspeakers, attend presentations and participate in workshops about how toimprove government. The workshops included "Tech Tips: 50 ways to be moreeffective," "Problem Solving: Improving Technology" and "How to Drive Big Changesin Government."
With technology advancing at a rapid pace and billions of people receivinginformation on the Internet and their mobile phones, entrepreneurs and developersare trying to bridge the gap between new technology and old government habits.These civically focused startups are building products that they hope will change theway things are done on Capitol Hill. But their odds for success are tough, as manyof them navigate uncharted waters and face competition from thousands of otherstartups for users and funds.
In 2011, Harris partnered with lobbyist Rachna Choudhly and programmer JoshuaTauberer to launch PopVox.com. On the website, users search for bills they'reinterested in supporting or opposing. PopVox delivers the message as well as thecount of people who support and oppose the message.
"It is public and transparent. We're an independent metric of what people are tellingCongress," said Harris. "There's never been an insight to what information Congressis receiving."
PopVox has five full-time employees, one part-timer and four interns who meetevery morning on Google Plus.
Many civic startups are staffed similarly, employing between two to 10 people,with some joining as college volunteers. They meet in coffee shops, living rooms onGoogle Plus and Skype. They have small budgets and big ideas.
In the last two years, Washington, D.C., has developed a vibrant startup community.Michael Mayernick, founder of the social startup website, Proudly Made in DC, saidthat tech meet-ups in the nation's capital have grown to rival those of New YorkCity. His website has grown to feature more than 300 startups in the area that cometogether to share ideas about how to re-vamp government services.
Among these young companies are GovLoop, an online community for governmentworkers to share insights and best practices, TechChange, a social enterprise thatoffers online courses in technology for social change and international development,and Votifi, an online polling company.
"What we're doing is solving the problem that polling industry is facing: decliningpenetration of land phones," said Aasil Ahmad, co-founder of Votifi. "We're buildingan engine that runs real-time polling and analytics."
Votifi sends political surveys to mobile and online platforms and allows users toengage with each other on political issues of the day. Their clients are organizationsinterested in public opinion, such as political campaigns, advocacy groups andmedia companies.
With the success of companies like Facebook, Twitter and Groupon, it's notsurprising that many entrepreneurs see the potential in conducting business andcommunication online. But this industry has its share of challenges.
"User acquisition is a challenge all startups face given the number of conceptscompeting for their attention," said Ahmad. These startups not only compete forattention. They also compete for funding. According to Ahmad, startups focusedon government and policy have trouble attracting investors because the there is aperceived small market for these products. Thus, the majority of these startups willfail.
Andrew Wright shut down his company Grasshop.com, a site for people to starttheir own grass root campaigns, after founding it in 2007.
"I fell into every pitfall you could fall into," Wright said.
Without any training in programming, Wright found that his biggest mistake was aninability to grasp the technical aspects of his product development. His challengesincluded competing for users with dominant online social spaces like Facebookand Twitter, introducing new technology to reluctant congressional offices andacquiring users.
"Any technology startup needs to innovate and stay ahead of the trend to berelevant and useful," said Wright. "That's where we fell down."
While failure is a common story, there are startups that have transformed intoestablished companies that now play an integral role in government.
FedBid is an online marketplace for government organizations to buy products andservices. After procuring its first client in 2001, its client list has grown to include the Departments of Defense, State, Labor, Homeland Security and Health and HumanServices. FedBid employs 243 people and serves 15,000 buyers and 53,000 sellers.
Startup founders all said they oscillate between success and failure on a weeklybasis.
"It's like manic depression. You have elated highs and points of despair. You havethis mindset that everything is riding on this and that can leave you vulnerable,"Wright said.
Lou Aronson, founder of Votifi, echoes the sentiment.
"I was talking to one of the guys at Start-up America and he asked me, 'Is today aweek you feel like the king of the world or a week that you wish you were in anoffice pushing paper around?'" said Aronson, who left his law practice behind in2011 to pursue his startup full-time.
While all these startups deal with the ups and downs of venturing into a newfrontier, they're all enthusiastic about their product. With Americans getting rid of700,000 landlines a month, Aronson has confidence that a mobile platform is thebest way to engage people about the important issues of the day.
Votifi has engaged 100,000 people in its surveys, resulting in 1.6 million answeredquestions, and GovLoop hosts 59,000 government workers. TechChange has built 50to 60 online courses, with 30 to 70 students enrolled in each one. And PopVox hasgained 130,000 users since its launch in 2011.
While Harris can't say whether PopVox is going to be the next Facebook forCongress, she has full confidence in its concept.
"Whether we're doing it in the way that's going to be 'the way' or be 'the team,' wehave to prove every day. But we never doubted our product will exist," said Harris.
