policy-advocacy
(26)
SAPIE makes the right introduction.
Slovakia has the talent. SAPIE works on the connections - linking companies, researchers and policymakers so good ideas have somewhere to go.
PULSE Foundation makes room for the second act
Belgium’s entrepreneurship foundation backs the climb and the comeback. Its revealing wager: a founder who closes a business still has something worth investing in.
ASEP: The business advantage you cannot build alone
A S/50 evening in Miraflores offers a useful clue to ASEP’s purpose: put entrepreneurs within talking distance of the people they need. The Peruvian nonprofit pairs that simple idea with training, market access and a collective voice.
Family Equality turned a barbecue into a family movement
A vacation gathering in Provincetown became a national ritual. Behind the beach days is a nonprofit working on the harder question: who gets to be recognised as a family?
BGR Group Made a Product Out of Political Whiplash
Washington changes hands every few years. BGR turned that instability into a service - pairing access with policy depth, communications, and a network built to outlast any one administration.
The Lobbying Firm That Had to Learn Washington Twice
Van Scoyoc Associates built a formidable business around one path through Congress. When that path closed, the firm discovered that influence is less a doorway than a map.
The Company That Sells the Last Mile of Permission
A market can be open on paper and closed in practice. Asia Group Advisors built a business in that gap - finding the official, argument, permit or coalition that turns permission into progress.
The Lobbying Firm That Decided Lobbying Wasn’t Enough
Monument began with one policy hand in an Arlington house. Twenty years later, its wager is that modern influence requires lobbyists, communicators, coalition builders and digital strategists working the same problem at once.
The Career That Didn’t Happen Built a Lobbying Firm
Ezra Friedlander expected to work at City Hall. When that future disappeared, he built a firm around the slower craft of making an argument travel - from a client’s mission to the people with the power to act on it.
Waxman Strategies Put a Velvet Rope Around Influence
In Washington, access is usually sold to whoever can pay. Michael Waxman built a firm around a narrower proposition: policy, advocacy and communications for work it can defend in public.
The Small Firm That Knows When Washington Is Still Wet Cement
Smith Garson sells no miracle and owns no factory. It sells timing - the patient work of getting a public project, a grant request or even a definition into the room before Washington's choices harden.
The North Carolina Lobby Shop That Became a $22 Million Washington Player
Founded in Winston-Salem in 2023, Checkmate turned a statehouse network into a federal business that reported $22.2 million in 2025 lobbying revenue - then began exporting the model overseas.
The Small Firm With 135 Ways Into the Room
Corcoran Partners sells something that cannot be boxed: a coordinated route through government. Its trick is turning one founder's relationships into a team sport - and making a 13-person shop behave like infrastructure.
The Kids Who Learned to Move City Hall
CivCom began with teenagers calling out tobacco marketing. Now it helps public-health coalitions turn local voices, research and stubborn follow-through into policies that stick.
The Door Was Never the Product
Miller Strategies built a Washington business around access. Its more interesting trick was proving that access only becomes durable when it is packaged as information, timing and relentless follow-through.
Berkeley Media Studies Group asks who is missing from the story
A Berkeley research group counts the voices and ideas that health coverage leaves out. Then it helps advocates put them back into the public debate.
Lighthouse Public Affairs and the business of getting to yes
A flower market, a driverless car, and a city contract have something in common: somebody else gets a vote. Lighthouse Public Affairs makes a business of understanding who, and what it will take to move forward.
Calkin Public Affairs knows who needs convincing
A dairy farm, a gas stove, a nuclear plant: Calkin Public Affairs treats California’s policy fights as campaigns with a specific audience and a decision to win.
KP Public Affairs knows who needs convincing
A newspaper carrier, a cannabis shopper and a state legislator have more in common than you might think. For this Sacramento firm, the work begins with figuring out what each needs to hear - and who they will believe.
Platinum Advisors and the price of knowing whom to call
A governor’s recall exposed the fragility of political access. Two decades later, Platinum Advisors sells a broader proposition: knowing how a public decision actually gets made.
National ACE Turned a Chamber Network Into an $8.1 Million Small-Business Lifeline
A Washington nonprofit found its leverage in the gap between Main Street and the institutions that can help it. Its formula is unusually concrete: listen locally, negotiate nationally, then turn access into grants, coaching and a louder voice for AAPI entrepreneurs.
ASSEK backs the people behind Kenya’s startups
Kenya has incubators, accelerators and business coaches. ASSEK’s bet is that helping them work better together can reach further than another startup programme.
FinTech Australia: The startup that gave startups a voice
FinTech Australia launched with less than two months of cash. A decade later, its 400-plus members have a shared voice in Canberra - and a fresh test of whether better rules can produce better finance.
Ghana’s young entrepreneurs built themselves a seat at the table
From a circle of 15 founders to a national business network, GCYE has put training, shared workspace and a revolving fund behind its advocacy. A change of chief executive now tests how well that institution travels beyond its founder.
AfriLabs bets on the people behind the startups
A network of more than 500 innovation hubs is trying to make African entrepreneurship less lonely - and better financed. Its experience shows why the people running the support system need support of their own.
Shehryar Hydri
Serial founder, investor, and ecosystem builder serving as Managing Director of Endeavor Pakistan and Founding Partner of Deosai Ventures. With two decades of experience spanning Adobe-backed exits to national tech policy reform, he is a central architect of Pakistan's modern startup infrastructure.