ShaperTalk with White House Presidential Innovation Fellows

SF Global Shapers hosted several White House Presidential Innovation Fellows at a ShaperTalk on Sunday, 3/3, and we wanted to share key takeaways from the event:

• The White House Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) program gives high-performing professionals with an entrepreneurial background an opportunity work in a senior position on technology-related issues in the executive branch of the government.
• Agencies with tough problems submit requests for the kinds of experts they need to solve a problem, and the program tries to match its applicants with those projects.
• Although they’re all working on different projects, the fellows meet together regularly and become close over the course of their time in the program.
• The fellows urged people to work with federal government in their own work if it’d be helpful because they often have information that’s extremely valuable. For example, one panelist founded a meteorology startup and ran it for 15 years before selling it to The Weather Channel, but he never once worked with the National Weather Service. While working in the government as a fellow, he realized they have incredibly useful information available for free.
• Often, government employees are afraid to push for more efficient processes when they see things aren’t being done as well as they could be. Because the fellows are only there for a short period of time, they can make sure the important conversations happen.

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