civic-technology
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Thomas Sanchez Planted Corn, Learned Code and Built a Company Around People
The Social Driver founder still runs on lessons learned in northwest Missouri: take the risk, keep the books, share the work and trust that patient cultivation beats a flashy harvest.
Kamran Saddique Is Making Government Paperwork Behave Like Software
His route from Sun Microsystems and Gulf finance to public-sector software explains an unusual bet: the least glamorous government workflows may be where technology can do its most practical work.
Zac Bookman’s Long Bet on the Boring Work of Government
He went from studying corruption in Mexico and advising a military task force in Kabul to spending fourteen years modernizing municipal budgets, permits, and procurement. OpenGov’s $1.8 billion deal was the visible result; the more revealing story is how Bookman learned to make persistence operational.
Birju Kadakia Wants Software to Get Out of the Way - and Everyone Else Outside
The former Uber and Athletic product leader is building Rec around a practical inversion: useful civic technology should help people close the laptop, find a court and join the life of their city.
Tyler Technologies
Tyler Technologies built a $2.3 billion business in the least glamorous corner of software: the machinery of government. Its advantage is not a single killer app, but a web of systems that makes switching difficult and public work increasingly connected.
Kaizen
Kaizen (Kaizen Labs) is a New York-based civic technology company building modern, people-first software for America's essential public services. Its AI-native, highly configurable SaaS platform replaces aging legacy systems across permitting, parks and recreation, licensing, transit, payments, and resident engagement. Founded by Nikhil Reddy and KJ Shah, Kaizen partners with local, state, and federal agencies to give residents consumer-grade digital experiences - from reserving a campsite to renewing a license - while restoring public trust in government services.
Nikhil Reddy
Nikhil Reddy is the co-founder and CEO of Kaizen, a New York based civic technology company building modern, people-first software for America's public services. After stints engineering at Tesla, Anduril, and Archive Resale and a degree from UC Berkeley, he set out to replace the clunky legacy systems behind recreation sign-ups, permits, transit fares, DMVs, and licensing. Kaizen's platform now reaches more than 30 million residents across 17 states and 50-plus agencies, and has raised over $35 million from NEA, Accel, Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism practice, and others. Outside the company he runs a YouTube channel with 36,000+ subscribers about life, technology, and ideas.
Polimorphic
Polimorphic is a New York-based govtech company building AI-powered software for local and state governments. Its platform pairs a purpose-built Constituent Relationship Manager (CRM) with an AI chatbot, search, voice agents, and automated workflows so residents can get answers and start services 24/7 in 75+ languages - while understaffed agencies cut call volume, automate permitting and licensing, and recover thousands of staff hours. Founded by MIT alumni Parth Shah and Daniel Smith, the company raised an $18.6M Series A led by General Catalyst in 2025, bringing total funding to roughly $28M.
Troy LeCaire
Troy LeCaire is the co-founder and CEO of GovWell, a New York startup building an AI operating system for local government - the permits, licenses, and inspections that quietly run a town. Before writing a line of code, he and CTO Ben Cohen cold-called hundreds of municipalities and lined up five paying customers. By 2026 GovWell served 130+ municipalities across 34 states and raised a $25M Series A led by Insight Partners, with zero churn on live customers and processing times cut by up to 95%.
Parth Shah
Parth Shah is the co-founder and CEO of Polimorphic, the New York-based company building AI-powered constituent relationship management software for local governments. An MIT-trained electrical engineer and former NVIDIA deep learning engineer, Shah started out trying to build an 'ESPN for politics' and ended up rewiring how town halls answer phones, process permits, and serve residents in 75+ languages. In July 2025 Polimorphic raised an $18.6M Series A led by General Catalyst, bringing total funding to roughly $28M.
Authorium
Authorium is a San Francisco-based public benefit corporation building an AI-enabled, no-code platform that helps federal, state and local governments modernize procurement, contracts, grants, budgeting and legislative workflows. Formerly known as City Innovate, the company has more than $50 billion in public-sector projects running through its software and counts customers like the California Department of Technology and CalPERS.