FiscalNote

FiscalNote, Inc.
Private
Industry Software as a Service, Information Services, Technology
Founded June 2013 [1] in Sunnyvale, California
Founder Timothy Hwang, Gerald Yao, Jonathan Chen
Headquarters 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC
Number of locations
 6 Washington DC, Seoul, Baton Rouge, New York, India, Brussels (2018) [2]
Number of employees
 300+[3][4]
Website www.fiscalnote.com

FiscalNote is a privately held software, data, and media company headquartered in Washington DC. The company was founded by Timothy Hwang in 2013, with the help of Gerald Yao and Jonathan Chen.[5]. FiscalNote provides software tools and platforms, data services, and news to companies and organizations through the FiscalNote Government Relationship Management (GRM) service, its core revenue-generating product[6][3][7][8].

According to Entrepreneur Magazine, the GRM "aggregates legislation, regulations and government filings from thousands of federal, state and local agencies, uses artificial intelligence to structure it and normalize it, and delivers personalized data feeds to companies to show how government may be impacting their businesses." It is primarily used by Congressional offices, law firms, trade associations, lobbyists, corporations, embassies, federal contractors, and public affairs professionals. [9]. It now covers over 40 countries around the world and hopes to reach all 200 by 2019.[2]

FiscalNote is also the owner of media companies Congressional Quarterly and Roll Call, which it acquired from The Economist Group in 2018[10][11].

History

FiscalNote was founded in 2013 in Sunnyvale, California by Timothy Hwang, Gerald Yao, and Jonathan Chen who were friends from Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville.[12][13] Hwang, having finished his junior year at Princeton brought Chen and Yao together to Silicon Valley to start the company. The company was founded in a Motel 6[14], where early employees worked to build the product.[15][16][17][18]

FiscalNote was the protagonist of a Columbia Business School case study in Fall 2015.[19]

In May 2017, FiscalNote announced its expansion into Australia and New Zealand.[20]

In June 2017, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a major job training program alongside FiscalNote, named as one of the largest software employers in the District of Columbia.[21] The Mayor announced a $750,000 economic development package for FiscalNote as it moved its headquarters to 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue.[22][23][24]

In July 2017, FiscalNote announced its expansion into Argentina, Canada, Chile, India, and the United Kingdom.[25]

Funding and Acquisitions

In late 2013, FiscalNote received early seed money from Mark Cuban after a cold email from Timothy Hwang.[26][27] This was soon followed by an investment from New Enterprise Associates, Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang, and First Round Capital leading to a total $1.3 million round.[28][29]

In fall 2014, FiscalNote received $7 million in its first institutional (and second total) financing round. Investors included AOL Founder Steve Case, Visionnaire Ventures (a joint fund between Taizo Son and Temasek, with participation from Jerry Yang, Mark Cuban, New Enterprise Associates, Winklevoss Capital Management, Enspire Capital, Green Visor Capital (led by former Visa Chief Executive Joseph Saunders, and Middleland Capital.[30][31] Steve Case invested as part of his Rise of the Rest Fund, which includes investors such as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz, Tory Burch, Ray Dalio, former Facebook president Sean Parker among others. [32]

In February 2015, FiscalNote announced that it had raised $10 million in a third round of financing. Investors included Chinese social network Renren.[33] The move was a part of a larger move by Renren to diversify beyond its core area of online games and e-commerce in China.

In February 2016, FiscalNote raised another $10 million in a fourth round of financing. The round was led by Green Visor and Visionnaire. [34][35] FiscalNote later added $5 million to this round with a strategic investment from South Korean conglomerate MoneyToday Media alongside a strategic partnership with its newspaper and television divisions (MTN).[36] This came after FiscalNote's acquisition of MyCandidate in Korea.[37][38][39]

In August 2017, FiscalNote acquired 16-year old Baton Rouge company VoterVoice, bringing 1,100 new customers and expanding into the advocacy space.[40][41][42] FiscalNote CEO Hwang announced that the acquisition would be the first in "hundreds of millions".[43]

In January 2018, FiscalNote announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos that it had acquired a Brussels-based counterpart called Shungham, giving the company a foothold in the European Union as it seeks to expand globally.[44][45][46][47]

In July 2018, FiscalNote announced that it would acquire Congressional Quarterly and Roll Call from The Economist Group[48].

Operations

FiscalNote is headquartered in Washington, DC with regional headquarters in Seoul, Korea covering Asia and Brussels covering the European Union and the Middle East. Other major offices are in New York City, Baton Rouge, Gurgaon, India.[2] FiscalNote operates in multiple languages and as of January 2018 had over 1,300 customers and over 21.9 million users.[49]

Corporate culture

The FiscalNote offices are flat. The office space places executives and employees shoulder to shoulder at identical desks. [50]

Advisors and Board

FiscalNote's Board includes General Stanley A. McChrystal, Glenn Hubbard, Alec Ross (author), former Obama White House Cabinet Secretary and former deputy Secretary of Labor Chris Lu, Congressman Mike Ferguson, Congressman Glenn Nye, and former Publisher of the Washington Post Katharine Weymouth.[51]

Events

FiscalNote regularly convenes proprietary events on topics ranging from central bank policy to trade and immigration. The company produces content and events for government affairs professionals in particular. Recent speakers include Governor Martin O'Malley, CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney, S&P Global CEO Douglas L. Peterson, Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, U.S. Ambassador for Special Political Affairs at the United Nations Stuart Holliday.[52][53]

Recognitions and Impact

In late 2017, FiscalNote researchers discovered that millions of comments submitted to the FCC during the net neutrality debate were forged using bots. Researchers used a variety of natural language processing techniques to uncover the anomalies.[54][55][56]

During the 2017 Special Presidential Election in South Korea after President Park Geun Hye was impeached, FiscalNote launched nudepresident.com, matching South Korean voters with their ideal choice for President using artificial intelligence, correctly predicting that President Moon Jae In would be elected. The mobile application received over 5 million users in several weeks.[57][58][59][60]

FiscalNote won the Technology Pioneer Award and Distinction at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in 2016. [61] FiscalNote was named to the CNN 10 [62] and Entrepreneur 25 Best Medium-Sized Companies to Work for in America[63].

FiscalNote regularly uses its data to publish rankings of lawmakers and their effectiveness.[64]

References

  1. ↑ "The FiscalNote Origin Story – FiscalNote Insights". 16 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Gregg, Aaron (25 January 2018). "A D.C. tech firm heads to Davos to outline its plans for building a global network" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  3. 1 2 "Can Washington Be Automated?".
  4. ↑ https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/news/tech/fastest-growing-companies-50647
  5. ↑ https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/print-edition/2013/08/16/fiscalnote-helps-business-keep-track.html
  6. ↑ Gaynor, Michael J. (1 February 2018). "Can big data predict which bills will pass Congress?" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  7. ↑ "Turning the tables". The Economist.
  8. ↑ "Fiscal Note: When Technology Meets Legislation".
  9. ↑ Schomer, Stephanie (30 August 2017). "This 25-Year-Old Entrepreneur Is Trying to Do the Impossible: Make Sense of the Government".
  10. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/dc-based-tech-startup-fiscalnote-to-buy-cq-roll-call/2018/07/25/37939b6e-8fd4-11e8-8322-b5482bf5e0f5_story.html
  11. ↑ https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/25/economist-cq-fiscal-note-740421
  12. ↑ "Is This the Next Bill Gates?".
  13. ↑ "Communicators Tim Hwang, Oct 2 2014 - Video - C-SPAN.org". C-SPAN.org.
  14. ↑ https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/blog/techflash/2015/03/fiscalnotes-early-path-stress-swiped-food-and-the.html
  15. ↑ "Starting Off: 6/19/2013". FiscalNote.
  16. ↑ "How FiscalNote Gets Ahead of Government (So You Don't Have to)".
  17. ↑ Quora (9 February 2016). "CEO of FiscalNote On The Challenges Of Starting The Company As A College Student".
  18. ↑ Quora. "What Was It Like To Start FiscalNote As A College Student?".
  19. ↑ School, Columbia Business. "FiscalNote: Taking on the Big Guys in Information Technology".
  20. ↑ "FiscalNote Accelerates Global Expansion Plans; Adds Australia, New Zealand To Industry's Only GRM Platform". 2 May 2017.
  21. ↑ "Mayor Bowser to Announce New Tech Job Training Opportunities - mayormb". mayor.dc.gov.
  22. ↑ "FiscalNote plans new DC headquarters, tech training - Technical.ly DC". 23 June 2017.
  23. ↑ https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2017/06/22/a-year-later-fiscalnote-on-the-move-again.html
  24. ↑ "FiscalNote Relocates DC Headquarters". www.cpexecutive.com.
  25. ↑ "FiscalNote Dramatically Expands International Data Sets: Argentina, Canada, Chile, India, United Kingdom Now Up". 11 July 2017.
  26. ↑ markcubancompanies.com. "Mark Cuban Companies - Entrepreneur - Dallas, TX". markcubancompanies.com.
  27. ↑ "FiscalNote Founder: This Is What Happened When I Cold Emailed Mark Cuban".
  28. ↑ Heath, Thomas (21 September 2014). "Potomac entrepreneur replaces crystal ball with artificial intelligence to predict what bills might pass" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  29. ↑ https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/09/11/mark-cuban-others-put-12m-in.html
  30. ↑ "FiscalNote Raises $7M Series A for Its Legislation Prediction AI". 20 November 2014.
  31. ↑ Heath, Thomas (19 November 2014). "FiscalNote snares $7 million in investments from Winklevoss, Singapore wealth fund" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  32. ↑ "From Bezos to Walton, Big Investors Back Fund for 'Flyover' Start-Ups". 4 December 2017 – via NYTimes.com.
  33. ↑ Purnell, Newley (3 February 2015). "China's Renren Invests in U.S. Startup FiscalNote".
  34. ↑ "Who Needs Lobbyists for Political Intelligence? This Tech Startup Has a Better Way".
  35. ↑ "FiscalNote's $10 million Series C includes some impressive investors - Technical.ly DC". 4 February 2016.
  36. ↑ Chernova, Yuliya (23 January 2017). "Global Uncertainty Plays to Startup FiscalNote's Hand" – via www.wsj.com.
  37. ↑ "FiscalNote makes its first acquisition - Technical.ly DC". 11 September 2015.
  38. ↑ "FiscalNote Acquires MyCandidate". 10 September 2015.
  39. ↑ "Renren-backed FiscalNote acquires South Korean startup MyCandidate".
  40. ↑ "FiscalNote Acquires Advocacy Platform VoterVoice". www.govtech.com.
  41. ↑ "FiscalNote's latest acquisition could be the first of many - Technical.ly DC". 13 September 2017.
  42. ↑ report, Advocate staff. "Washington, D.C. firm acquires Baton Rouge-based VoterVoice".
  43. ↑ https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2017/07/31/fiscalnotes-votervoice-purchase-the-first-in.html
  44. ↑ Gregg, Aaron (25 January 2018). "A D.C. tech firm heads to Davos to outline its plans for building a global network" – via www.washingtonpost.com.
  45. ↑ CNBC. "Press Releases". CNBC.
  46. ↑ "FiscalNote acquires maker of 'EU Issue Tracker' - Technical.ly DC". 25 January 2018.
  47. ↑ https://www.bizjournals.com/washington/news/2018/01/25/fiscalnote-expands-throughout-europe-with-its.html
  48. ↑ https://www.wsj.com/articles/economist-group-looks-to-sell-cq-roll-call-1532536312
  49. ↑ "FiscalNote Acquires EU Regulatory Intelligence Leader Shungham". 25 January 2018.
  50. ↑ "Episode 53: Scaling a GovTech Business".
  51. ↑ "Leadership".
  52. ↑ "Reinvent Influence Summit - Bizzabo". reinvent.fiscalnote.com.
  53. ↑ "Governor Martin O'Malley, General Stanley McChrystal Headline FiscalNote ReInvent Influence Summit". 14 November 2016.
  54. ↑ "How Bots Broke the FCC's Public Comment System".
  55. ↑ "Report: Bots infiltrated FCC's net neutrality public comment process - Technical.ly DC". 30 November 2017.
  56. ↑ https://www.americaninno.com/dc/newsletters/fiscalnote-uncovers-bots-in-fcc-net-neutrality-forums-d-c-is-1-for-women-in-tech-but-we-still-have-more-to-do/
  57. ↑ TechForKorea. "FiscalNote Korea's 'Nude President' Shows Your Matching Rate with Each Presidential Candidate - Korean Startups News". www.techforkorea.com.
  58. ↑ "Who's your ideal presidential candidate? AI services have an answer".
  59. ↑ Herald, The Korea (19 April 2017). "[Election 2017] Candidate research gets easier with AI, matching service".
  60. ↑ Ramirez, Elaine. "How This Entrepreneur Is Helping South Koreans Pick Their Next President".
  61. ↑ "Technology Pioneers 2016 - World Economic Forum". widgets.weforum.org.
  62. ↑ "The CNN 10: Startups".
  63. ↑ Staff, Entrepreneur (4 November 2015). "The 25 Best Medium-Sized Company Cultures in 2015".
  64. ↑ "Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell score poorly in ranking of most effective legislators". 27 April 2017.
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