Image credit: GrepBeat
Read feature story on Acta at GrepBeat
How do government leaders develop a more complete understanding of what citizens really want? One UNC student-founded startup is working to create a solution for government officials who want to figure out how constituents truly feel about issues that matter in their communities. Carolina senior Tai Huynh came up with the idea for Acta during a conversation with a friend as they were discussing how local government directly impacts lives.
Realizing that many local officials are faced with making critical decisions without a way to truly understand constituent sentiment, Huynh formed a team to build a mobile app platform designed to increase participation in local government. After incorporating in 2018, the company quickly focused its efforts on analyzing information received from residents and becoming the data analysis SaaS platform that Acta is today.
In its upcoming pilot version, Acta will help local governments analyze survey results about public initiatives. By enabling elected officials to make smarter decisions from Acta’s data analysis, the company hopes to increase participation in local governments.
Acta was part of Launch Chapel Hill’s 2019 summer cohort. Huynh and team used the opportunity to interview 25 local governments across the country as part of a customer discovery strategy designed to shape its business model.
“The Launch program has been essential to our journey as a company,” said Huynh. “As we look to the future, we want to emphasize that, as we grow, we want to maintain our footprint in Chapel Hill. Now we are looking for office space in the area, so that we can grow our company locally.”
This summer, Acta’s growth stemmed from zeroing in on exactly what its own customers need. “When we came into Launch, the first thing that they emphasize was the importance of customer discovery,” said Pavani Peri, and undergraduate student who works with Huynh as part of Acta’s leadership team. “We’re focusing on data analytics because we realized that’s the largest pain point for local governments and planners.”
Acta’s efforts to understand customer needs are paying off. Following its 10-week sprint with Launch Chapel Hill, the company is now engaged with two new potential customers and has a demo lined up with a state government in the fall. “That’s a lot of traction thanks to customer discovery,” Peri noted.
An international award-winning startup accelerator, Launch Chapel Hill helps entrepreneurs committed to building an early-stage, high-potential business into a self-sustaining enterprise. Entrepreneurs are able to immediately get plugged into the entrepreneurial community in the Triangle through networking events, lunch-and-learns and opportunities for shared space with other entrepreneurs.
| UNC-CH