In this presentation, Caroline Bruiser introduces the concept of “venture government,” a term coined by Tim Draper, to frame government as a sector ripe for innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic activity. She highlights a McKinsey report estimating a $3 trillion market in open government data, underscoring the profit potential for businesses, nonprofits, and civic‑tech ventures. Bruiser then provides a concise overview of the U.S. federal system—50 states plus territories, three branches (executive, legislative, judicial) and the system of checks and balances—while noting the current partisan gridlock in Congress due to split control between the presidency and the legislature. She argues that this federal stagnation creates opportunities for impact at the state level, particularly in California, where entrepreneurs and civic innovators can engage more directly with policy and public services.
Chapters
Thank you so much for that warm introduction, and I am so excited to be in front of this energetic group from all over the globe. As was briefly introduced, I will be talking about government today, which I know that you just heard kind of an amazing history and overview of venture capital, which is pretty riveting. But I am excited to introduce you to something equally, if not more riveting, that we like to call venture government. So you heard it here first at Draper University. I can't say that I coined the term, Tim Draper did. But I'm hoping that it excites you and energizes your passions as you continue to learn and explore during your future Envision Week. So to take a step back, I know that there's folks from all over the globe here who may have different perspectives on what government is. But I'll just blanket— make a blanket statement and say that most people don't think of government as a particularly innovative industry. And I'm hopeful that over our quick overview and then our interaction today that you will begin to see the opportunity that lies within this really exciting vertical and industry of government. And just a quick— it's tough to read there in the subscript. But, you know, it's not just about improving government to improve better participation and better government services and outcomes. On the business side, there's actually profit and economic activity to be made. In a recent McKinsey report entitled Unlocking Open Data in the Government Sphere, they predicted that it's actually a $3 trillion industry. And you guys are learning all a lot about, you know, and will be learning from different verticals like healthcare, you know, maybe some industries that didn't even exist a couple years ago. And government is definitely not one of those. It's been around for a long time. But I think it's really exciting because there's a great opportunity both for businesses that want to drive change, for nonprofits, civic and govtech that want to engage with the public and bring in more representation into voices. And we'll talk a little bit more about one way that you guys will get to do that today. So I hope that this is exciting and that it shows you a different aspect of government than maybe you had walking in. So I was asked, and especially, let's just start out. Who here was not born in the US? Okay, cool. So I do see some hands weren't raised, so it looks like we have some U.S. experts in the room, which I'm excited about. So you can help me kind of with this really brief overview of our federal government. But I would say some main takeaways are obviously we have 50 states plus the district, our district capital, D.C., and a couple territories in addition. We have 3 main branches, and that is similar to the way our states our function here in Cali— here in the U.S., but that is our federal, so that's the President. He has the administrative power. He has a lot of agencies under him. I'm saying he right now because that's who's currently in office, not a long-term vision there. In addition to Congress, so that— those are representatives from all the 50 states, and then we have our judiciary, so that's our court system. And the way that the U.S. government is set up is that those 3 different groups all kind of help— it's called checks and balances— to make sure that one of them doesn't kind of run away and not do really the will of the people. If you read headlines pretty much from around the globe, you may have noticed that Congress is one place where they talk about gridlock a lot. That's because right now we have a different party in power right now than is the president, so, and they don't tend to, or haven't recently tended to agree on a lot of policies, which means that there isn't that much action. There's a lot of kind of contention and debate right now on our federal level. You know, and I think that that really means it's an exciting opportunity to have impact in— on the state level, and we're gonna kind of dive down into why California is so important in terms of our larger in terms of the U.S. and in terms of obviously where we all sit today, despite what color your beanbag chair is.
