Martin O'Malley Campaign Announces Contestant Companies For Civic Tech Competition in San Francisco

Martin O'Malley Campaign Announces Contestant Companies For Civic Tech Competition in San Francisco

BALTIMORE, MD - Tonight at 8 pm, Governor Martin O'Malley will be the first presidential candidate to host a start-up pitch contest in San Francisco, featuring eight dynamic start-ups working to harness technology to benefit society. Selected from a diverse and talented pool of applicants from across the country, the start-ups will compete for mentoring sessions from the competition's judges -- a group of leading tech entrepreneurs -- and the opportunity to join Governor O'Malley's Civic Tech Panel the following day at Brigade.

The winning company of the competition will join Governor O'Malley on a panel of innovative civic tech executives tomorrow morning at Brigade for a discussion on how entrepreneurs can harness technology to transform public service and empower under-served communities.

Here is the final list of contestants, each of whom were chosen from a large pool of entrepreneurs who applied through our website:

• Saru Jayaraman is the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC-United), a group of 13,000 restaurant workers and 100 high-road employers, and Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley. The mission of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United is to improve wages and working conditions for the nation’s restaurant workforce.
• Paul Duan is the Co-Founder and President of Bayes Impact, a Y Combinator-backed non-profit organization that uses data science and software engineering to modernize non-profit and government social services. Bayes Impact works with governments and NGOs around the world to leverage algorithms for the common good.
• Dr. Anna Schneider is the Co-Founder and CTO of WattTime, a Berkeley-based tech nonprofit that connects clean electricity to smart devices. WattTime's "environmental demand response" technology improves the carbon footprint of the power grid, and gives users a new level of control over their energy sources.
• John Guydon is the CEO of Lassy Project, a company that allows parents and guardians to press a button to have hundreds of people looking for a missing loved one in seconds. Since completing Techstars in 2014 Lassy Project has partnered with law enforcement and cities across the United States to equip them with a powerful tool that can save lives.
• Tamara Manik-Perlman is the CEO of NextRequest, a team of technologists, researchers, and designers who are passionate about bringing great technology and user centered design to governments.
• Lawrence Grodeska and Chris Palmatier are Co-Founders of CivicMakers, which empowers civic practitioners to share, discover, and collaborate on solutions to make better decisions together in our communities, workplaces and institution.
• Debra Cleaver is the Founder and Executive Director of Long Distance Voter, which builds and leverages technology to reduce barriers and radically increase voter turnout.  Long Distance Voter recently won the Knight News Challenge and was granted $325,000 to build a web-application that lets voters sign, print and mail their absentee ballot applications directly from their smartphones.
• Travis Moore is the founder of Tech Congress, a technology fellowship for talented tech professionals, recruited through graduate-level computer science programs, who complete a one-year residency on Capitol Hill working directly for a Member or a Committee on emerging technology-related issues like NSA surveillance reform, patents, driverless cars, cybersecurity or network neutrality.

The winner will join Governor O'Malley on a panel of innovative civic tech executives tomorrow morning at Brigade, a nonpartisan tech startup that builds tools to allow people to express their civic identity, learn more about their friends and neighbors, and work toward common goals together. The

Other panelists will include leaders in civic tech, including Sid Espinosa, Director of Civic Engagement at Microsoft; Sam Lessin, former VP of Product at Facebook; Marci Harris, CEO of POPVOX; and Kimberly Bryant, Founder of Black Girls Code.

Aug 19: Civic Tech Competition: From 8:00-10 PM at The Hall, 1029 Market Street, San Francisco, CA

Aug 20: Panel at Brigade: From 9:00-11:00 AM at Brigade HQ, 548 4th Street, 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA