Campaign tech startups chart a different path for product development

Political tech startups are increasingly abandoning the build-and-they-will-come product model in favor of one that relies on a rich client that supports new tools. On the left, a recent example is Action Network, which said in June that it was developing new tools for its platform in partnership with DLCC.

On the right, Numinar, which provides machine-learning-based data modeling and outreach tools, is now following the same path after initially taking the traditional political startup approach, turning to the Startup Caucus, a Republican tech incubator, for help getting started and raising capital in investment rounds, including a recent Series A that closed in April.

But when it came time to create a new relationship management tool, the company changed tack—responding to a request from a client who said they needed a relationship management tool for their work in this cycle.

“This was really inspired to develop (by) the Sentinel Action Fund, in particular, who were looking for a way to galvanize grassroots movements in a way that the Republican ecosystem hadn’t done before,” said Lauren Devoll, Numinar’s head of development. “The left has been doing this for a long time, so Sentinel did a lot of research on what the best tech vendors would be on the right, and we just happened to be the right fit for them.”

The tool is now available in beta for other Numinar customers. “It’s public, it’s active, it’s accessible, but we treat it as just another form of outreach tool. In fact, we’ve seen a lot of organic interest in it.”