FiscalNote - Startups In Dc

FiscalNote, Inc. is a technology company that helps businesses and organizations take control of their government strategy with the first dedicated government relationship management (GRM) system. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C. with offices in New York City. Clients include Aetna, Lyft, Southwest Airlines, Enerplus, and the University of Virginia.

FiscalNote leverages artificial intelligence to make government data more accessible and actionable across industries. FiscalNote is the first government strategy platform to offer a mobile application, allowing users to access and analyze every bill at every stage from all fifty states, D.C. and Congress on their phones. These offerings tie to the company’s objective â€" empowering organizations to take control of their government strategy.

FiscalNote recently started its international expansion with its acceptance into Google for Entrepreneurs’ Campus Seoul, a space for entrepreneurs to connect, learn, and go global.

FiscalNote was listed on the 2014 edition of the CNN 10: Startups. Entrepreneur named FiscalNote one of The 25 Best Medium-Sized Company Cultures in 2015, and the World Economic Forum recognized it as one of its 2016 Technology Pioneers. In 2016, FiscalNote CEO Timothy Hwang was named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Law & Policy and the Inc. (magazine) 30 Under 30.

The company was also featured on Meet the Press with Luke Russert, C-SPAN, and The Economist.

History

FiscalNote was founded by Timothy Hwang, Gerald Yao, and Jonathan C. Chen in 2013. The co-founders have known each other since middle school, attending both Robert Frost Middle School and Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School together.

FiscalNote started when the company was selected for the 10-week Plug and Play Startup Camp in Silicon Valley in the summer of 2013. Hwang, Yao and Chen relocated to Silicon Valley, along with engineers Dan Maglasang and Dev Shah, and began FiscalNote in a Motel 6 in Sunnyvale, Calif.

“We’re currently staying at a Motel 6, and might be staying there for an extended period of time. There’s not a lot of cheap housing in the area, but we’ve been told to check Craigslist for any openings. Our team will have 4 people in California though…it’s hard to get a cheap place for so many people! It’s a pretty good place to stay though, and we might have to stay there for the whole summer to save money.”

Acknowledging that customer interest was concentrated in Washington, D.C., they moved the company to an office in Bethesda, Md, in Aug. 2013. In 2014, FiscalNote started leasing the former D.C. Facebook offices in Metro Center. At this time, FiscalNote was listed among Inc. Magazine's 16 "Coolest College Startups" for 2014. Also in 2014, FiscalNote established a presence in New York City, based out of a WeWork space.

In Feb. 2016, to accommodate its rapid growth, FiscalNote moved their D.C. office to 1 Thomas Circle, leasing the entire 8th floor; likewise, their New York City office leased its own space at 291 Broadway. The company also began eyeing international opportunities when they were selected as an inaugural member of Google’s Campus Seoul in Seoul, Korea.

Financing

In September 2013 the company announced a $1.2 million seed funding round backed by Mark Cuban, New Enterprise Associates, First Round Capital's Dorm Room Fund, AME Cloud Ventures, Plug and Play Tech Center, and the University of Maryland.

In November 2014 FiscalNote announced a $7 million Series A round which included additional investors Visionnaire Ventures, Winklevoss Capital, Green Visor Capital, Enspire Capital, Middleland Capital, and Steve Case.

This was augmented in February 2015 with a $10 million Series B round led by Renren.

In February 2016, the company announced their $10 million Series C funding led by Visionnaire Ventures and Green Visor Capital. Participating investors included New Enterprise Associates, co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc. Jerry Yang, Mark Cuban, 645 Ventures, Renren, Plug and Play, SF Capital, Perle Ventures and Conversion Capital.

Advisors

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