#15: Civic Eagle CEO, Damola Ogundipe: Advice for start-up founders, insights on civics, pivoting a product, & maintaining a common mission

Today's policy research methods are outdated and inefficient – but they don't have to be. Civic Eagle equips policy professionals with the tools they need to research and track legislation more effectively. By using a SaaS platform that’s powered by artificial intelligence to make legislative research smarter, faster, and less expensive, Civic Eagle helps organizations spend less time in front of a computer and more time advocating for important progressive issues. Over $35 billion are spent each year lobbying and advocating for policies at the federal, state, and local levels of government. This work requires careful analysis and tracking of legislation – a process that is currently manual, fragmented, and expensive. Civic Eagle was among the first 100 start ups to receive investment from Arlan Hamilton’s Backstage Capital. Since early 2018, Civic Eagle has raised $600,000 and has gone from zero to $8,500 in monthly recurring revenue. It's also a part of Techstars' 2019 class, and in 2017, Damola was a Google Entrepreneur in Residence. On this episode Damola shares his advice for early-stage, pre-revenue start-ups, post-revenue start-ups, maintaining a mission, working as a team, how they selected their product advisory board, leveraging focus groups with existing users to better understand customer needs, and SO much more. Follow Civic Eagle: AngelList: https://angel.co/company/civic-eagle-1 Twitter: https://twitter.com/civic_eagle Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/civiceagle/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/civic_eagle/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/civic-eagle/ Follow Damola: Twitter: https://twitter.com/DamolaOgundipe LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dogundipe/ Want to support this podcast? Use promo code "LYNAE" to book your first Breather room, an app that allows you to book meeting spaces in different cities. Use LZLRZ to save on an in-home massage with SOOTHE, LCOOK61 to save on your first HotelTonight booking, or simply VenMo me some money to support my coffee habit: @lynae-cook Follow #BTSPodcast across social platforms: Twitter: https://twitter.com/btsthepodcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/btsthepodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/btsthepodcast/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/19055475/ Follow host Lynae Cook: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lynaecook/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lynaecook LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynaecook/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lynaecook --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/btspodcast/support