Rajan: AI is reshaping businesses and ignoring it could leave your industry disrupted. I'm Rajan and this is Pivotal Clarity. We talk to those building or using AI founders and engineers with real world experience. Our aim is to cut through the hype and see where AI is truly making an impact. If you're a business or following tech trends, these conversations offer, uh, clearer insights than most of the press. Let's get into today's episode.

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Rajan: Welcome to Pivotal Clarity, an AI podcast. Today I have with me Laura Carr. Laura founded US Ledge and they're using AI to disrupt legislative processes. The idea is to give lobbyist and government folks real time info on bills and political trends. It's one of those things which seems obvious in retrospect, but no one, uh, was doing it well before. Laura previously worked in various political roles in D.C. and Texas. She was a policy director in the Texas Senate and did government relationship work there. What's interesting is how AI could change the dynamics of political influence. Will it democratize things or just make the usual plays more effective? Love to find out more from Laura. It's one of those examples where you find a niche and, uh, apply where AI can have a real big impact. Laura, welcome to the show.

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Laura: Thank you for having me.

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Rajan: Laura, where I want to get started with is if you could walk us through what was the founding moment for us alleged, what was the inspiration for starting this company.

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Laura: So over the past 12 years, I worked in various roles in politics and the most recent position was as a policy director in the Texas Senate. So I was actually advising the senator on all things technology policy. And it was the advent of large language models and public use of AI. So it really got my wheels a turning on how we could automate and just assist people who are interacting with the legislature, people who are in government, but also just, you know, corporations, government relations professionals, universities, journalists to just get transparency. So really got my wheels of turning on the big issues we can solve. The two big ones were, you know, accessibility committee hearings, floor debates, and state agency meetings. We have about eight to 10 meetings going on at any given time and they are hours long. Nobody can be at all of them. So the possibilities started coming up with regards to transcription and accessing them that way, and then also just the sheer number of legislation filed. You know, we have 12,000 bills filed here in Texas every year, which is the same amount as in the federal government. So we just have a much shorter time span to pass the legislation. So I thought, you know, looking and digging into these omnibus bills, it's a Great application for it. And that's when US Ledge was founded, midway through the legislative session.

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Rajan: What are some things that you've learned now, uh, which are maybe counterintuitive, uh, you wish you had known at the start of the business?

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Laura: I would say I'm, uh, very pleased that we did what we did, which was talk to hundreds of government relations professionals to really ask what their problems were. You know, I had a hypothesis, but I wanted to make sure it was correct. So the market research side was something I'm really glad we did. I wish I had just started sooner. I wish I'd started right at the beginning of 2020. I think that's the only thing I would have done sooner.

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Rajan: So you have this uh, rare combination of political and uh, tech experience. Uh, most of the people have experience in politics but don't really get tech. But there are techies who don't get politics in this intersection. How do you actually help bridge the gap? How do you actually explain technology to politician and vice versa?

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Laura: I think you need to have a little bit of both. I'm going to out myself. I'm the non technical person. Right. I'm a political nerd. And so my. We have a very large technical team that can help us uh, do this. But I do think that what our customers love is having someone who can translate for them, which is part of my role as a business development head here at US Ledge. So having a little bit of both, having somebody who's been there through the problems, but uh, then can explain how the tech can work to assist them, is kind of the dream team. So tell us a little bit about.

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Rajan: What exactly are you building in US Ledge?

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Laura: Yes. So we are essentially a mega database of information from campaign finance data to legislation, vote history, state agencies, transcriptions of meetings, and everything that has ever happened in the legislature. And we're essentially training a model to at some point predict outcomes. But right now, one of the big pieces that we are using this for is, you know, legislative CRM, where people can put in their notes and remember what's going on, who they're talking to in the building, in the legislature or outside really help people from government relations professionals, lobbyists, think tanks, PACs, journalists, really see what's going on real time in legislature and take action. Like I mentioned, there's so many meetings happening at once that it's impossible to get all of them. So being able to have summaries and AI point out specific points for a, uh, user is really, really helpful. And they're extremely excited to be able to access more information than they could ever have before. It would have just been impossible or taken an extreme amount of time. So we uh, are focused on time saving.

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Rajan: You're probably getting a lot of that's not how we do things here type of pushback. Right. They don't push back on. This is how we do things. And this completely different.

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Laura: That could have been. Maybe my biggest surprise is everyone said, why didn't I have this five years ago? And we'll say what didn't exist. Uh, this wasn't available. So I would say the biggest surprise for me has been that people have been very welcoming of uh, it in government and in business. Uh, we're B2B and B2G. So definitely pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming happiness from government. On the transparency aspect. That's been very pleasant surprise.

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Rajan: What are some of the aha, um, moments that you had? Like this is a good one, I.

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Laura: Would say when you know, you're in a meeting and you start explaining things and then we just show them how they can take, you know, something that would have taken them an hour and a half to have done, do that in 30 seconds. And that has just been mind changing and changing for a lot of people. So that's been the biggest exciting point I think is just seeing people's reaction to what we felt then.

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Rajan: Would you say that you haven't encountered any AI?

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Laura: Skeptics definitely get those all the time. Right. I think everybody comes in a little skeptical, especially if they haven't heard of us yet. But uh, we are getting really great word of mouth traction from marketing as well. But whenever we do meet somebody completely cold and new, there's definitely hesitancy. We met with a lot of people who've never used AI before. So when they can see how it can help their day to day, halfway through they'll be like, this is amazing. How do we, how do I sign up? And that has been very cool to see someone change their mind on that.

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Rajan: Talk to me a little bit about how do you think uh, product market fit? You know, it's a, it's a kind of a holy grail for startups. You're going after a very unique type of customer, which is government. The buying cycles are different, complex. How do you think about product market fit?

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Laura: It's exciting to see where we are now because what we did at the very beginning I mentioned I had a hypothesis, here's what would help me. But I wanted to know from others. So we actually acquired a smaller company that focused on election Data, but they were doing the data, you know, showing it manually. So they were manually collecting this data. We purchased that company, they had about 500 customers and then we interviewed those customers for six months and that was really finding that product market fit. You know, we've noticed there just wasn't something in the space here in Texas and we're seeing now still nationwide that does create the processes in the simplistic way we do. So it's been exciting, but I think it's all down to the customer. You just have to ask them what problems can we solve and how do we help you eliminate those?

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Rajan: So those 500 initial customers, is that how you found your early, uh, adopters? For US Ledge, it was a mix.

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Laura: Of just my own network and then some of those early customers and then word of mouth spreading. So we were, we didn't rebrand and relaunch to US Ledge until two months ago, but we actually launched our software back in March of this year. So a lot of word of mouth. And our early adopters were lobbyists really. They were the main folks that were interested and mainly because it's a very competitive field, it's a very tough job and anything that can give you just one leg up into getting that information for clients or for your corporation, then it's big. So they were the first early adopters.

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Rajan: What would your advice be to some founders who are trying to go after this market on how to find their first 3, 10, 30 customers?

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Laura: I would say having had somebody in the field would be really helpful. So somebody that knows the problems and knows how to solve them. I think creative solutions to solve them are going to start coming. But my advice would just be talk to the people in the field or work with people in the field to understand.

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Rajan: And beyond that, how do you think about go to market on scaling distribution, uh, for yourself?

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Laura: Yes. So Texas is the largest and I say most complex legislature. So one of the good parts about this is we're actually in a slow period right now. We're coming up on the busy season, which is a six month period from January to May. And if all goes well in that realm where, you know, we're already looking at scaling to other states now that either don't have anything similar and their government websites aren't very accessible or just really big markets that have a lot of interest. So yeah, we're looking at scaling and doing that nationwide, but Texas is definitely the hardest. So if we can make this uh, work, then we feel it's going to be a good start. But Each state is unique and different, so has its own set of issues and challenges. So we'll definitely spend some time in each state too.

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Rajan: What do you think is the biggest misconception about AI and politics?

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Laura: I think just that there's been a desperate need for it. People, I think, would be thinking that people would be more skeptical, but really it's such a competitive field and it's now every industry is using it. I think most people are under the impression I need to use this so I don't get behind, and I need to use this because I don't want my competitor to be using it and I'm not. Uh, there's definitely this fear of missing out that we're seeing from different folks.

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Rajan: As a founder, what is your favorite, uh, productivity hack?

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Laura: Working out and eating healthy? I would say staying active. And that helps me be extremely energetic. So that helps a lot.

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Rajan: You want to use one word to describe the future of AI in legislation.

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Laura: Transparent.

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Rajan: On the topic of transparent, you said, uh, you're trying to make, uh, government more transparent with AI. That sounds good conceptually, but, like, how does it work in practice?

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Laura: I think it's going to just change a lot of things. All the information that we use is publicly available data. It's just it would take a team of 50 people to potentially dig into what one, uh, you know, click of an AI button can do. So I think it's just going to really change the process. You know, all this information from campaign finance information, vote history, legislation, it's going to change the game. And I'm excited to see how. I think it's going to make, you know, smaller organizations, nonprofits, students, universities, people doing research, journalists just have more accessibility to know what's actually going on. So I think that that's an overall good.

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Rajan: Any good war stories on how, uh, you saw AI make a recommendation and led to like a policy outcome?

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Laura: So we're coming up on this legislative session and we haven't been active in session yet while the software's been utilized. So there's a lot going on in the background. But I would say people are using us right now to transcribe committee hearings that happen and find out immediately. So say there's six meetings going on at once. They're then able to summarize for a client exactly what happened and then take action on this quicker than they could if they had six people in the building. And one person can now do that. So I'm, um, seeing in the legislature that's going to be exciting as far as people will be able to know information faster so that they can actually impact vote outcomes before they happen. So if they get that information, sometimes it's two days too late now. People will be able to get that information before there's a vote and then go take action. Whether that's grassroots or main bread and butter customers, which are lobbyists, they can go and voice their concerns.

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Rajan: Do you think are there any unintended consequences that can come out of more transparency? There's always a balance, I'm sure.

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Laura: Definitely there'll be some things that people don't want to know that come out. I wish.

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Rajan: What about lobbying is one of those things that everyone complains about but no one really understands. So if you were to explain lobbying to, let's say, a kid that was 11, 15, how, uh, would you explain that? I mean, it looks like a word that nobody wants to sort of hang around with. And there's a lot of industry around it.

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Laura: Sure. And having been a lobbyist myself and having so many customers who are, I would say there's definitely a misconception on what lobbyists are. They're essentially advocates on an issue and they educate people on issues. And pretty much every corporation, every small business company and nonprofit, um, charity has someone who represents them. And that's essentially what a lobbyist is. So having somebody who's able to go into an office and explain what an issue is or an unintended consequence of a bill that is a lobbyist. So we're definitely helping a lot of people just interacting with the legislature. Some people are government relations professionals and maybe not necessarily lobbyists, but it's all very, um, one in the same.

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Rajan: The thing about government is it's usually always doing catch up. By the time they regulate one thing, the World has moved on to the next. How do you think that is playing.

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Laura: Out with AI here in Texas specifically? I think there's a very kind of laissez faire approach to it. It's very pro business state and they are not necessarily wanting to regulate AI, which is a great place to be as a business owner in this space. And they definitely, you know, we're stakeholders in a lot of the AI advisory committees and councils, so we get to kind of put our stake in the game. I think one of the big concerns that legislators have is more on the deep fake side and things like that. But I do feel overwhelmingly that it's very positive to small business and to um, startups. It's very good to see. So I think there's very little regulation right now which is going to be great for business.

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Rajan: So some of the use case that we explained is that like AI is helping deal with information, uh, like reading summary, reading notes, reading through a lot of like, you know, information that is publicly available out there. What do you think is the next set of problems AI can help with?

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Laura: Environment, I would say drafting legislation. Drafting legislation, that is a very, very big topic and every state and globally has that issue and you need a lot of attorneys to write that and they just can't write fast enough. I mean you imagine 12,000 bills here in Texas last session. Uh, and I think that the writers, there's just, there's not enough writers. So if I think that's definitely a good use case.

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Rajan: What do you think is happening, uh, in the international angle between AI and covered out there, other countries which are, are uh, exploiting use of AI and the government as the US has done.

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Laura: We did actually have somebody from Cambodia reach out to us and said, can you help bring transparency to Cambodia? We would love to, let's get there. But we can, we'll try as fast as we can. So I definitely think there's a use, you know, in the EU and across, all across the world for being able to see what's actually happening in, you know, real life, not behind closed doors. That'll be useful around the world.

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Rajan: Coming towards the close. Uh, I have a couple of more question. Let's do a thought experiment. It is 2034. AI has transformed the government the way you have envisioned. Paint the picture. What does the world look like?

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Laura: I think it will be a much better world, I will say, with having people have just far more access to information that's factual and see it for themselves, you know, see what actually happened, see what someone actually said. See what the bill actually meant. I think that's very helpful for just your average citizen who wants to get involved in, you know, or just keep up with what's going on. Uh, you know, an 80 page bill or 400 page bill is impossible to read for the average person. So I think it will help be a more informed society.

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Rajan: What's your advice to founders looking to jump in in this intersection where you are working? Uh, what do you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?

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Laura: So advice I would give is just jump in and do it. Startups are so fun and like I said, I wish I did it sooner. Taking the risk and finding a really good team. I think we have a really wonderful team we've been working with for over a year now and so that has been really solid who have the same mission and values and goals. So I think that that's, that's the main advice I would give.

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Rajan: It was such a fun conversation, you know, time just few. So thank you for uh, being on the podcast and sharing all that wisdom.

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Laura: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Good to be. Take care.

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Rajan: That's it for this episode of Pivotal Clarity. This is an Opeca podcast. Opeca is an accelerator for global Indian founders building AI software companies. We're exploring the fast changing world of AI together with our listeners. If you like this podcast, you can find more on our website and other popular podcast apps. Subscribe if you want to keep up.

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