>G'Mornin' Anons… Another Day at the Office.
>Morning, frenz
GMF
>Mornin' Ralph… Please pass the Covfefe to get us over the hump today.
>Tell them it's time to clock back in—because they work for us:
One in eight Americans will struggle to put food on the table if the Trump shutdown extends through next week.
Yet Republicans in Congress are nowhere to be found.
Tell them it's time to clock back in—because they work for us:
https://indivisible.org/campaign/stop-
Paid for in part byIndivisible Action.Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
MARTINAZZI, PETER
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131 MobilizaAmerica, Inc 09/21/2020 $100,000
> https://www.opensecrets.org/political-action-committees-pacs/indivisible-action/C00678839/donors/2020
>MARTINAZZI, PETER
>SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94131 MobilizaAmerica, Inc 09/21/2020 $100,000
Business
Apr 22, 2020 7:00 AM
He Helped Build Facebook Messenger. Now He’s Building an Army of Voters
Mobilize was the leading events platform for Democrats before the pandemic. Now its organizing is entirely virtual—and it’s getting creative.
Democratic supporters at a rally
Before the pandemic, only 25 percent of activity on Mobilize was virtual. That has since shifted to 100 percent.Photograph: Tom Brenner/Getty Images
Peter Martinazzijoined Facebook in May 2009, when the company was just five years old but well on its path to world domination. Over the next eight years, he rose to become a director of project management, helping to oversee improvements to Facebook Messenger. Martinazzi loved working at Facebook and speaks earnestly about having designed tools to help people be more connected. (Actually, he speaks earnestly about everything.) But by early 2017, like many young liberals in the aftermath of the 2016 election, he was ready for a change. Martinazzi left his job and embarked on a period of travel and aimless self-exploration.
He started listening to a lot of nonfiction audiobooks about inequality, devouring a veritable syllabus of influential progressive texts:The New Jim Crow, Evicted, Give Us the Ballot, Saving Capitalism, and so on. He became fixated on how unfair modern American life was—how few people had access to the kind of privilege, for example, that allowed someone like him to take time off from work without having to worry about money.
“I listened to these books, and I was trying to figure out how I could best impact either structural racism, or economic inequality, or democracy not being very democratic,” he told me a few weeks ago, speaking via Zoom from his Brooklyn apartment, his laptop perched on top of a dresser. Behind him, a stack of boxes served as a makeshift desk. Eventually, he explained, he landed on political campaigns and organizing technology, where “the demands and goals are similar to Messenger: How do I bring my friends onto this?” Last fall he joined Mobilize America, the leading events platform for Democratic and progressive campaigns. Now instead of trying to maximize how much time users spend on Facebook, his job is to make it easier for volunteers to help Democrats win elections on the digital side—which, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, is going to be the only side that matters for a while.
Like many Democratic campaign tech companies, Mobilize didn’t even exist in November 2016. Launched in early 2017 with seed money from the progressive incubator Higher Ground Labs, Mobilize was designed to turn the wave of enthusiasm behind mass events like the Women’s March into something that would pay results on Election Day.
“One thing that was apparent from the beginning was that energy could manifest quickly on platforms like Facebook, but was very hard to maintain; it was hard to move people from the online space into the offline space,” says Alfred Johnson, Mobilize’s cofounder and CEO. “Platforms like Facebook are built to get you to engage on Facebook; they're not built to get you into the offline world, doing things for a particular organization.”
That’s the problem Mobilize is meant to help solve. It’s an event platform designed to help campaigns reach supporters and help volunteers find ways to take action. For candidates and advocacy groups, it automates many of the key steps in organizing —tracking signups, sending reminder emails, getting feedback from volunteers—and integrates with other tech tools, like texting apps and voter file databases, that campaigns rely on. For volunteers, it streamlines the process of finding and registering for the right events: canvassing, debate watch parties, phone and text banking, and the like. In just over two years, Mobilize has become nearly ubiquitous among Democratic campaigns and left-leaning advocacy organizations. Almost all the Democratic presidential primary campaigns used it, as do independent groups like Swing Left, Crooked Media, and the National Education Association. A centralized events platform might seem obvious, but no one was doing it until now. “It is wild to us that nothing like Mobilize existed prior to Mobilize existing,” says Mallory Long, the director of training at the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a liberal anti-gerrymandering nonprofit.
https://www.wired.com/story/former-facebook-engineer-mobilize-democrats-election-2020/
>https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/
>Like many Democratic campaign tech companies, Mobilize didn’t even exist in November 2016. Launched in early 2017 withseed money from the progressive incubator Higher Ground Labs, Mobilize was designed to turn the wave of enthusiasm behind mass events like the Women’s March into something that would pay results on Election Day.
Higher Ground Labs is a venture fund ecosystem that builds technology and invests in technology to support left-of-center political activism and political candidates.1 Higher Ground Labs also connects technology developers with nonprofit fiscal sponsors 2 and political leaders, 3 and hosts a recurring summit for political and technology professionals to strengthen the left-of-center technology ecosystem. 4
Since its founding in 2017, Higher Ground Labs has invested over $50 million in more than 60 startups, 10 entrepreneur fellows, and over 10,000 campaigns across the left-of-center political technology ecosystem. 3 The group has also raised more than $60 million in post-accelerator support for its partners. 5 3
Higher Ground Labs supports the far-left Black Lives Matter movement 6 and the critical race theory-influenced concept of racial equity. 7
History and Leadership
Higher Ground Labs was founded in 2017 byBetsy Hoover and Shomik Dutta. 8
Prior to founding Higher Ground Labs, Hoover was a founding partner of left-of-center political consulting firm 270 Strategies. She also worked as the national digital organizing director of Obama for America (OFA) from 2011 until 2012, as a regional director for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2009 until 2011, and as a deputy field director for OFA from 2007 until 2008. 9 Dutta was on the board of directors of Democratic Party-aligned political action committee Mobilize and worked on both the2012 presidential campaign of Barack Obama and the 2008 Obama presidential campaigns. 10
Activities and Funding
>Higher Ground Labs is a venture fund ecosystem
Higher Ground Labs is a venture fund ecosystem that builds technology to support left-of-center political activism and political candidates. 1 Higher Ground Labs also invests in technology to support left-of-center political causes. Each year, the company releases an investment thesis to highlight areas of technological need in the left-of-center political ecosystem. 11 The group connects technology developers with nonprofit fiscal sponsors 2 and political leaders, 3 provides fellowships, hosts a recurring summit for political and technology professionals, and hosts ad hoc events that strengthen the left-of-center technology ecosystem. 4
Higher Ground Labs supports the far-left Black Lives Matter movement 12 and the critical race theory-influenced concept of racial equity. 7 Higher Ground Labs called the protests following the death of George Floyd “righteous reaction to years of racism, violence and systemic oppression faced by Black Americans in the U.S. every day” and matched donations bade by its staff to groups “fighting on the ground” during the protests. 12 In 2020, Higher Ground Labs organized millennials to oppose the re-election campaign of then-President Donald Trump. 13
Accelerator
Since its founding, Higher Ground Labs has invested over $50 million in support of more than 60 startups, 10 entrepreneur fellows, and more than 10,000 campaigns across the left-of-center political technology ecosystem. It has also raised $60 million in post-accelerator investments through its technology accelerator program. 5 3
Higher Ground Labs’ accelerator program helps companies get their product to market, match campaigns with potential funders, and helps absorb these startups into the broader political technology ecosystem. 14
In 2022, Higher Ground Labs’ priorities included supporting left-of-center content creators, improving direct-to-voter messaging, and using financial technology innovations to support the broader left-of-center political ecosystem. 11
Higher Ground Labs’ accelerator only invests in for-profit vehicles that have a business model and includes services such as programming and sales, marketing, and fundraising training. Initial investments from Higher Ground Labs average $100,000, and additional follow-on investments in post-accelerators average approximately $1 million. 15
As of February 2023, the program has supported 41 companies, 250 mentorship sessions, 1,000 strategic introductions, and raised $60 million post-accelerator. 14
In 2021, Higher Ground Labs raised a $20 million fund dedicated to left-of-center voter and volunteer engagement, supporting left-of-center content creators, improving direct-to-voter messaging, turning electoral activist energy into left-of-center legislative advocacy, and building fintech innovation for the left-of-center ecosystem. 16 During the 2020 election cycle, Higher Ground Labs reached 7,500 campaigns and 70 million potential voters. 3
Funding
Higher Ground Labs has received funding from technology investors and venture capitalists including left-of-center political activist and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffmanand Conway Family Trust trustee Ron Conway. 17 1