Companies help govtech startups navigate the challenging public sector marketplace — CivStart, a non-profit accelerator helping local and state govtech startups, and Govlaunch, a wiki for local government innovation, today announced a partnership to help innovative startups connect with local governments. While the government technology marketplace continues to grow, startups entering the space often lack the necessary support needed to succeed…

Disruptive startups need our help to survive and thrive in the face of daunting challenges. — While the government technology marketplace continues to grow and blossom, it isn’t all sunshine and roses for startups entering the space. In fact, founders continue to face a particularly inhospitable environment when they bring their solutions to market. Here are some of the barriers they face: Procurement challenges— Securing government…

For anyone interested in government innovation, this is an exhilarating time to be alive. The internet is abuzz with “smart cities-this” or “govtech-that” — the excitement is palpable and long overdue. So why am I worried? Because this newfound interest in local government is attracting a lot of new actors…

Let’s start sharing local government failures so we can learn from them. — For the last year, we’ve been on a mission to catalogue local government innovation wherever it’s happening — and we’ve learned a lot along the way. Perhaps most surprising is how rarely local governments share information related to failed projects or initiatives. No one wants to talk about failure. But…

The Govlaunch community is cataloging ransomware attacks on local governments to better understand them. — For many local governments, the landmark ransomware attack on Atlanta, GA in March 2018 was a wakeup call. But in spite of increased awareness, local governments throughout the country continue to fall victim to cyber extortion. Cities and counties are among the fastest growing categories of ransomware targets. According to…

A community platform that connects local government innovators and empowers them to share their stories. — Cities and counties of all shapes and sizes are doing some amazing things right now to improve services, reduce costs and make their communities better. Yet these successes are not being shared across governments largely because there isn’t a good way to organize and disseminate this type of information. …