How Entrepreneurs Can Make Their Voices Heard on Capitol Hill

There has long been a mutual fascination between entrepreneurs in the startup community and policymakers in Washington, D.C. Policymakers are awestruck by the innovation in Silicon Valley, and entrepreneurs are enamored with the backroom wheeling-dealing of politicos. But despite this distant love affair, these two audiences tend to speak right past each other.

Having spent much of my early career working on the Hill, here are a few things I tell entrepreneurs to help them better communicate their stories in Washington:

• “All politics is local.” Despite living in a more globally connected world, this famous quote from former House Speaker Tip O’Neill is even more true today. Less than 20% of the country votes in primaries. That is an astoundingly small number of people, which makes primary voters even more powerful. Normally, I would not suggest wasting your time and money trying to get the support of people who don’t vote. However, as political fixer Bradley Tusk has pointed out, if you can expand the primary electorate by even a few thousand voters, you can drastically alter elections. If you don’t believe me, look at how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated 10-term Congressman Joe Crowley in 2018. Thanks to shifting demographics in New York’s 14th Congressional District, Ocasio-Cortez was able to unseat one of the safest members in the House by focusing on underrepresented voices in the district who felt they weren’t being heard, and giving them a voice.
• Get a hired gun. Lobbyists have a terrible reputation — even worse than used car salesmen — but they have one of the few professions that are actually protected by the Constitution. Not even teachers can say that. The fact is, lobbyists play an incredibly important role in the policymaking process. That’s because the process involves an inherent knowledge imbalance. While most members of Congress are not experts on every issue, good lobbyists are experts in their particular field. The exchange of information between lobbyists and politicians is vital to getting your point across in D.C. Lobbyists can be an effective medium for your message.
• If you can’t give a politician your vote or your money, you are worthless to them. If you can’t vote them out of office or donate money to their campaign, elected officials don’t care about you. I’m sure you are a wonderful person, but that doesn’t mean your opinion matters to the average politician. This is why grassroots activism is so important. If you can get a few hundred very committed constituents in a handful of districts to be vocal and write letters, you can get a bill killed or passed out of a committee. Startups should find customers in every congressional district (and employees, if your footprint is large enough) to advocate for your causes. Make it easy for them by drafting a few template letters that they can tailor and send to their local members of Congress. A congressman in Tennessee doesn’t care about your business in San Francisco; however, he does care about your 1,000 customers in his district who could kick him out of office at the polls. The money side is self-explanatory. Members of Congress easily spend half of their day “dialing for dollars” or attending fundraisers. I’m not saying there’s a direct quid pro quo between donors and politicians, but members are far more likely to listen to you and agree to face time if you are a donor. This is just the unfortunate truth.
• Create an echo chamber. People are not original. They don’t watch the news to inform their thinking; they watch it so they know what to think. People repeat what they hear. There is a reason nothing novel is ever said on cable news. Those programs are typically filled with the same revolving door of political operatives — the ones who have not been “in the know” since they left their government job. In D.C., you need to think holistically. Use institutions such as think tanks, media, associations, and academics to your advantage. Spin the flywheel, and get key players to repeat the same message over and over until it becomes common knowledge. Make groupthink work for you.
• Make things look bigger than they are. In campaigns, your major constraints are time and money. That said, it doesn’t take a huge budget to be successful. You can easily use targeted ads in congressional districts and around Capitol Hill to amplify your voice and make it look like a particular issue is far more important to their constituents than it really is. You can spend only a few thousand dollars on targeted Twitter and Facebook ads and make politicians think your message is reaching far more people. After all, when it comes to D.C. dealings, it’s all about perception.
• The federal government is not a startup. Speed, efficiency, innovation, and entrepreneurship are foreign concepts to most in government, and it’s not entirely their fault. At the end of the day, it’s a good thing that Congress is a deliberative body, and that agencies are required to run convoluted contracting processes to protect taxpayer dollars. But that thoroughness doesn’t always mesh with the fast-paced world of startups. Entrepreneurs need to play the long game when dealing with policymakers and regulators by applying slow, consistent pressure to make their voices heard. Entrepreneurs need to stop thinking about quarterly KPIs in D.C., and start focusing on the right moments to score victories between the two-year election cycles. When it comes to government backing, you’re playing on their turf. Learn the rules and play the game.
• This isn’t the movies. When it comes to startups and politicians, each side’s perceptions are largely driven by what they see on TV. It’s a matter of The Social Network meets House of Cards. But those on-screen caricatures are rarely based in reality, and they often result in miscommunication and missed opportunities. While entrepreneurs and legislators ogle each other from a distance, they could actually benefit from engaging once in a while.
• D.C. is more important than you think. Just ask anyone who has been called to testify at a committee hearing. If the first time you pay attention to the policy discussions in D.C. is when you are being subpoenaed, it is too late. The Biden administration’s upcoming tax overhaul — which could put carried interest and employee stock options in its crosshairs — might be the first time that the venture capital and startup community will begin to pay attention to what is happening in D.C. and how it affects them. Don’t be late to the game. Get informed now.

Although politicians may never have the vision needed to build their own product or launch their own business, startup leaders are fully capable of entering — and even thriving in — the world of government. The strategies outlined above don’t guarantee the passage of legislation; however, they will get you heard.

Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.

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