In 2018, a few governments were successfully implementing new technologies supported by forward thinking leaders, well-resourced IT departments, industry partnerships, and more than a few local volunteer civic hackers. At the same time, far more local governments were experiencing technology stagnation, hampered by lack of access to appropriately scaled and priced technology, a dearth of vendors for local-scale digital transformation, cybersecurity, the internet of things, and other citizen centric innovation. These divergent realities inspired us to join together as co-founders for CivStart, bridging the gap between these two experiences. CivStart was born and our first program launched in 2019.

 

We saw that leaders across the govtech ecosystem wanted to share and support these innovations. We expanded our value proposition to provide a forum for leaders to share their work while supporting the growth of civic-minded entrepreneurs into the technology partners local governments needed. CivStart is how we put local government leaders in charge of charting the course of innovation: through selecting the startups that participate in the CivStart Accelerator program, mentoring entrepreneurs, and serving on our Task Force for Inclusive Innovation. As CivStart's community matured, we saw a need for more direct support for public sector leaders and launched a nine-month long Government Innovation Program, began hosting best-practice webinars, and launched our premiere annual event, The State of GovTech.

 

Today, CivStart is the premiere hub for govtech innovation made up of incredible, forward-thinking, civic-minded leaders from across the whole ecosystem. The entrepreneur in our Accelerator, the City Manager seeking advice on new technology, the CIO joining one of our Innovation Programs, the nonprofit expert sharing their knowledge on a webinar, or the industry leader mentoring our entrepreneurs — all of these partners come together and find a home as part of CivStart's Innovation Hub. 

 

The work we are able to do is the product of the expertise and generosity of hundreds of people. Here we are, five years from when we began. Thank you to everyone who keeps CivStart going, relevant, and growing.

 

We are doubling down on our commitment to impact over the next five years by expanding our efforts on all fronts: rolling out new programs, hosting more inspiring events and webinars than ever before, growing the next generation of public sector technology, and helping local government leaders go from idea to on-the-ground implementation with the support they need along the way. We are thrilled and honored to continue creating the future of CivStart.

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Sarah, Nick, and Anthony