While founders typically must address many facets of their company, from the operations and technology to the talent and the infrastructure, one area they routinely overlook: politics.
Such an oversight makes sense. Technology and politics occupy two opposite ends of the spectrum in the public imagination. Startups are viewed as agile and innovative (i.e. as in Facebook’s former mantra to “move fast and break things”), while politics is viewed as glacially slow, stuck far too often to whatever the status quo happens to be.
Though they may represent different worlds, both have much to learn from one another, far more than is currently accomplished in the present. Some more prominent startups have government relations officers and similar positions, but these are few and far between. These roles also generally focus on the regulatory environment.
In truth, there is so much that the technology ecosystem can learn from politics, far beyond how to adhere to compliance and vice versa. This idea applies to individual startups, the broader tech ecosystem, and the political sphere.
High-profile intersections between startups and politics
Fortunately, several high-profile intersections between startups and politics over the last few years show us how this can be successfully done.
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The first is client acquisition. Many b2b technology companies focus on acquiring enterprise clients, forgetting that government agencies are also enterprises, some even considerably larger (and with greater budget) than the private companies they primarily associate with the term.
Take, for example, the case of Multisys in the Philippines. Multisys had frequently served the government as a web and application developer, such as when they created StaySafe.ph, a contact tracing app for COVID-19.
Apart from the revenue such deals bring, this work also brings in an infusion of knowledge and experience: Creating enterprise-grade solutions for the government often demands the most stringent technical requirements, as it is the public good being served.
In line with this thinking, founders should more frequently view their local government agencies as potential customers for long-term projects and ad-hoc engagements. They are often stable clients, given that such budgets are set well before actual execution. They add to your expertise, credibility, and portfolio, which can apply to clients in the private sector.
Finding common ground between uncommon spheres
Startups and politics can have a deeper relationship than just vendor-supplier. One such example comes from Coexstar, a licenced cryptocurrency exchange in the Philippines, which recently inked a deal with First Shoshin Holdings Corporation, a venture capital firm in the country.
What’s notable about First Shoshin is that it’s led by Jack Ponce-Enrile and Sally Ponce-Enrile, who have a combined six terms as lawmakers.
Their background gives them the social capital and political know-how to navigate better the regulatory climate through which all high technology startups must tread. This skill is particularly necessary given that their joint venture targets the Web3 space.
Founders should similarly try to bring in more leaders into their organisation to navigate compliance environments better. This can be done at the individual level by hiring leaders with this background, whether as full- or part-time staff or even as a consultant.
Alternatively, this, like the Coexstar and First Shoshin example, can be done at the institutional level. Founders can strike deals in the form of joint ventures, subsidiaries, partnerships, and the like, where the collaboration brings in the requisite political capital.
Besides clients and collaborations, government agencies can more broadly help startups through business-friendly policies. Such arguably occurred when Gojek CEO Nadiem Makarim as Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology by President Joko Widodo in 2021.
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Though this mandate was broad, Makarim has been able to help the innovation community in the country, such as in his advocacy of ed-tech initiatives that make online learning more accessible for Indonesians.
Appointing former tech entrepreneurs to tech or tech-adjacent positions in government may seem like a no-brainer, but that has not always been the case.
Many regional governments have appointed career politicians to these positions rather than recruit entrepreneurs with the requisite domain expertise from the private sector.
Such should be a greater priority now that more and more of our lives are shaped by an increasingly complex network of technologies, guiding the way we buy, commute, learn, live, and more.
Final thoughts
Ultimately, I think it would benefit the startup community to look at itself as a niche business ecosystem and as one woven into the fabric of society, whose ties we can bind even more deeply through politics.
As former founders in public service, we need entrepreneurs with the political capital to innovate government services, navigate and shape regulatory environments as leading-edge tech companies, and even shape innovation from the top-down.
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