CivStart's Next Startup Program

TGIF everyone, and welcome to another episode of Government Technologies In Case You Missed It, our weekly roundup of the people, the companies, the trends, and the stories impacting the GovTech market. Don't touch that dial. Do computers even have dials these days? I know what you're thinking, that's not Joe, and despite the fancy virtual background, that's not Dustin either. But not to worry, you have come to the right place. My name is Mark Androvich. I am Chief of Staff here at eRepublic to both Dustin Haisler and Joe Morris. They are unavailable, unfortunately, this week, so I've been given the distinct pleasure, the opportunity to step up and chat with our guest this week. So if you're a Star Trek fan, this is kind of like one of those episodes where the captain and the first officer beam down to another planet and they leave some lower-ranking officer in charge of the ship. Well, that's me. I have the con now. My only goal is to not crash the ship while Dustin and Joe are away, so fingers crossed. Without further ado, I'd like to bring on this week's guest. It's Anthony Jameson, who is the co-founder and CEO of CivStart, a nonprofit innovation hub with a mission to build an honest and inclusive ecosystem of solutions to help local government leaders better serve their communities. So Anthony, welcome.

Hey Mark, and I think I would have rather you been a Star Wars fan than a Trekkie, but you know, I forgive you.

Well, you know, yesterday was May the 4th. It would have been great if we had that episode this episode. Definitely would have dressed up, but I got both, so it's all right. Now, I've had the privilege of working with you for the past year, obviously, but for those of our audience who might not know who you are, can you please give them a little bit of your background and kind of talk about the journey that led you to form SysStar?

Yeah, that's a good question. And I mean, if I had more than 30 minutes, I can give you the full background, but I'll give a, you know, abbreviated version of, you know, why we created CivStart, and that plays into my background. So after years of working within the local government innovation space, you know, I worked for the National Association of Counties for about a decade. My co-founders have worked in different, you know, places within local government. One thing that we noticed and we saw is that we were working with all these young companies and we were working with these local government technologists, and we saw how they interacted with one another. And we saw how these startups would approach an opportunity and how they would go into a local government. And we wanted to— what we wanted to do was build something that would help this new wave of what we call civic tech, gov tech, you know, pick either one, help them avoid some of the trappings and pitfalls that we noticed that a lot of these other companies were running into. We wanted to provide them with as much support and expertise and guidance as possible, but also, you know, make sure that they were, being seen as more of the partners, not vendors to governments. And so that's when we decided we were going to form CivStart. And when we formed CivStart in the beginning, we formed it as an accelerator. We were focused on the startups and how do we, you know, how do we engage these early-stage startups to provide them with that, with those resources to, you know, bring a better product and solution to the market. And then what we did while the pandemic was happening, we were working with governments not formally at the time, but we pivoted. We realized that we needed to work more directly with the governments as well. And so, you know, and we decided that we need to serve the entire ecosystem, not just the startups. but bring all the different stakeholders together. And so that's when we decided to move more into an innovation hub. And so what we look at is that startups are, you know, startups are one customer, governments are our— but governments are our main customers, right? So we come in and everything we do for government leaders and communities is we don't charge governments for any of the work that we do. We come in, if they're asking us to help them with certain challenges or opportunities that they're gonna be having, or— Or if they would like for us to, you know, help educate them on ways how to be better buyers of innovative startup technologies. Sometimes they'll come to us and ask us to help host events around certain topics and issue areas for them, like we're, like we're planning a couple roundtables later this year with a couple governments. So what we've been doing is expanding that ecosystem by bringing in Again, not just the startups, not just the governments, but now we're also bringing in all the investors, bringing all the other bigger companies to the table, the lobbyists, the— what's the other? I'm forgetting the other one, but regardless, we're bringing all the different players to the table.

There's a lot more than I think some people realize, right?

Yes, yes. Yeah, there's a lot of people.

A lot of people giving legal advice and—

And I've been consultants, but—

Exactly. I think that's where you're going with that, but I wasn't— I didn't want to jump in and fill that. Thank you for that background. I appreciate that. So specifically today, we're going to talk about your government accelerator program and the benefits that it can provide to the GovTech startups, knowing that you serve both governments and the tech startups. So could you specifically address that program and tell us a little bit about what it is and benefits that it provides?

Yeah, so like I said, our goal is to build partners, not vendors. We do not want you to be seen as just another vendor that's coming to pitch to governments, right? So we are preparing you to be those partners with those local communities. What does that mean? That means more than just having a good product, but understanding how local governments work, how do— what these leaders and these communities, like, what are those opportunities and constraints they're running into? This, to us, that's how you build long-term relationships between the governments and startups. And so the way we actually go about selecting startups for our program is our applicants are reviewed by local government experts. Our accelerator program is designed to meet the top challenges of local governments, which is why we have the— on our selection committee is made up of local government experts, which include current and former officials. So everyone that applies, they're going to be seen by some— they're going to go past some government eyes before they actually— if they're going to be accepted into our program. So when it comes to what we're like, you know, every— We believe regardless of where you are within your life cycle that All these different GovTech companies have a lot to learn within this space, right? And so that's— if that's like understanding the RFP process or how best to price your product when you're working with governments or the best personas to go after in government, you don't understand how many times we run into some companies that don't even know like their target individuals or people within governments. They're just trying to boil the ocean, right?

Totally.

And so, Understanding like those things are some of the things that we help with. But also, just again, I come back to like our ecosystem. It's the— a lot of startups come to want to apply to our program not only for the education, not only for the mentorships. We have a very extensive mentor network that we, you know, if you're— if you need help with sales, if you need help with PR and marketing, if you need You know, legal, you name it. We have all these different mentors that are— they can be current and former government, they can be sales leaders at bigger organizations, they can be consultants, they can be lobbyists, they can be investors, you name it. They're in our network and they're willing to help you. They're willing to help you with whatever issues you may be having or challenges or opportunities you want to explore. But we want to make sure that you're tied into our larger network where we have all of these different, again, stakeholders where you can connect with them. You can build those long-term relationships and, you know, get some wins, get some contracts, raise some capital. Um, um, uh, you know, if you're— it all depends on what you're trying to do, um, currently in that stage. So we have startups that are early stage that might be pre-seed.

Mm-hmm.

And we have— we usually go, I would say, up to like Series A, but we will have startups that are outliers. We have some startups that are much bigger. We've, you know, that we— our biggest startup from our first cohort, like, they were— they closed their Series D, right? That's an extreme outlier.

Right, right, right.

But then we might have some startups that might be even earlier, right? If that's something that the governments have identified that they need in the market, that they would like to see supported and nurtured and help scale nationally, then that is what we would bring into the program.

Thanks for kind of delving into that, because I think maybe some of the people watching this or thinking about the program might think that the whole goal of it might be getting acquired or obtaining funding, but it sounds like there's a lot of other measurements for success there, and there's other things that you're offering to the participants.

Yeah, I mean, the measurements of success, I would say, all depend on where you are as a company. Now, I would say there's like some— there's like 3 core measurements we look at. But there is, if you're looking at, you know, M&A opportunities, if you're looking at— you need to— you're raising capital, right? We have a long list of investors that we can tap into for our cohort participants. But then it also is like, how are you doing in terms of interacting with governments? If that's doing pilots, if that's closing contracts, if that's, you know, some startups are not ready to even close contracts. Maybe they're more like, hey, we want to come in and we're trying to, you know, put together— we'll have some that are like, hey, we're trying to put together a group of governments that will be advocates or sign on to be those case studies, those pilots down the road, but we're not ready to sell to them, right? Having— we can create those interactions because of the nature of our community and how governments in our community want to interact with these early-stage startups.

You mentioned like a Series D as the outlier. Are there other— are some examples of maybe some prior cohort companies and some of the work they are doing or have done?

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I can jump in.

You don't want to—

Yeah, I mean, like, I'll use— I'll just— keep me out of trouble. So I'm not playing favorites. I'll just use a couple examples from like our most recent cohort. Um, you know, um, we have a company called Beam, which, you know, I, I'm excited for all the companies we have in our program. Um, and I'm excited about this company Beam. You know, they started off more in, uh, higher ed, um, um, vertical.

Mm-hmm.

And then they, during COVID they saw an opportunity for what their technology did for working with universities and, and, and, and communities like that. What they do is they take the complexity of like cash-based programs. Let's think about like TANF or SNAP, or like during the pandemic there was the rental assistance money that all went out, right?

Right.

And so they take that and they simplify that process and make it more transparent on both sides, on, you know, the end user side and on the people who need— who are applying for those programs, so they know where it's going. And they allow And they also allow for that money to get to those people who need the aid or assistance, get to them in a timely manner. So that, I mean, their program, I mean, their solution is very timely and much needed. And then we have, you know, solutions like Kaizen Labs, which are, you know, providing governments with the ability to create these beautiful digital experiences that their residents, you know, are accustomed to in their day-to-day lives, right? Like, people want that Amazon effect, right? Or they want, they want things that they deal with on their phones. And when they're just doing things, that's just like, normally, but when they interact with government, they have that bad experience. You know, Kaizen is allowing people to come in and say like, hey, if you're trying to secure permits for You know, you're hosting a party in a park or you're an event at a park or you want— you're submitting maintenance requests or incident reports. Like, they simplify that experience and make it easy for all people. So it's equitable as well. Make it easy for everyone to access this and navigate through it without having to, like, jump through a bunch of different Web pages and jargon and you name it. So those are 2 examples, but we have many more companies that I can get into, of course.

Yeah, without getting you in trouble there, but those are good examples. Obviously, as you know, people's expectations have changed because of the pandemic largely. They expect a lot more of their government. They like it to be the similar experience that they have, you know, dealing with the private sector, like you said. So let's get down to the nuts and bolts of it. What is the actual application process like for becoming a cohort member if somebody is interested?

Yeah, so the application process, the application's open now. It's the— you would be able to— you have to go to civstart.org/accelerator. Thank you, I see that right there. So that's the site you want to— the page you want to go to. It's open until May 31st.

Okay.

So what I would say to startups that apply, this is not— you do not have to be a GovTech company per se to apply to our program. We've had one of— and you guys know this well— one of the most successful companies that applied to our program in our first cohort was not selling to government. They were selling to retail stores and arenas, and there was, you know, Y Line, right? They were not selling to government. And now they're being implemented in airports all across the world, right?

I see Clear. I see them.

Yeah. And so if you think that your application— if you think that your solution or service is something that can be utilized or something that is needed in this space, I would encourage you to apply. You know, we're looking for, you know, we're looking to provide you know, you all with mentors, access to our network intel, and help you hopefully gain some wins over this, the, the, the, the, your, uh, your, um, participation within a program. And one thing I forgot to say is that our program is a 2-year program. So, um, um, it's not, it's not crazy intensive, so I don't want to scare people off, but it is a pro— we, we do, we do believe in that we have to provide resources and services to you, at least for that long, so that you can— you'll understand, like, the sales cycle within government is not a short sales cycle. And I'm just going to be honest, it's not a short sales cycle.

Right.

It doesn't take 2 years long, but that can be an extreme, right? It can— there could be cases where it might take that long. But our goal is to make sure that you have as much support as possible to focus on delivering that service to your government customers. And then what I would say for governments, we're looking for governments, for investors, for anyone else that's within this space, right? We're looking for anyone that wants to be a coach or a mentor or want to be a part of our larger network in general. If you're interested, let us know. You can come to our website, and governments in particular, I would say go to the siftstart.org/governments. gov, and you'll find all the— some of the programming that we do for you all. We have a couple of unique initiatives that we're a part of that we would love to have you. If you're interested, just let us know. But yeah.

So that's great. It sounds good. One of the last questions I have for you, what other opportunities do you have— does CivStart have for GovTech startups and the other members of the ecosystem that you can Kind of mentioned earlier when we started.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, besides, like, you know, we host— we have webinars, we have— we do a lot of education for startups and for governments. Our webinar series is called Hot Topics, and more than happy to, you know, share that with anyone that's interested. But we do have plenty of events, and we have, you know, our biggest event of the year that we are are so happy to be partnering with eRepublic with is the State of GovTech, the State of GovTech 2023. That will be in November of this year, November 14th, in the Bay Area. And correct me if I'm wrong, it will be in Foster City.

Exactly.

There we go.

My neck of the woods, sort of, sort of, at least within driving distance. Yes, Foster City. So we're excited to be out. I'm at least excited to be on this coast this year. Nothing against the other coast, just saying. I'm a California boy, don't like the weather back there. But hey, it's all right.

I'm happy to get off the East Coast as well.

I know. Let's, let's shoot for Hawaii next time, shall we? Let's keep moving.

Let's do it. Let's keep moving further west.

Well, Anthony, I really appreciate the time you're coming on to talk to us about everything you guys are doing. I wish you great luck with that. And seeing as how this is my first hosting of In Case You Missed It, you're here to be part of that. I think I'm going to come up with a— I need a catchphrase. I need a slogan. Joe knows, Dustin knows everything. I don't have one yet. So here's mine. I'm gonna try it for you first time ever. Keep your feet on-prem and keep reaching for the cloud.

Oh my God.

I know. Okay, sorry.

Next time, throw that into ChatGPT next time.

Oh, they'll come up with something much better, I'm sure. Well, thank you for your time. I appreciate it. And thank you everyone for joining us. I probably won't be back again Uh, Joe and Dustin will be back on the next episode, In Case You Missed It. But, uh, have a great Friday and have a great weekend. And thank you again, Anthony, for coming on the show. Thank you.

Take care, everybody.

Bye.