Coming January 2021

What is HillTracker?

HillTracker is a legislative tracking application that will allow users to track bills throughout the legislative process. The application includes features such as legislative tracking, *live whip counting, find information on particular bills and laws, receive a daily briefing on issues that you find important, build a profile to keep tabs on legislation and read articles on important issues that are trending political issues. We are available to provide those services thanks to information on the Congressional Record and Congress.gov. We are also committed to maintaining your information private by not sharing or selling your information to third-party advertisers.

Why Now?

The Congress.gov website is cluttered and could use a little bit of clean-up. With HillTracker, people can check where a piece of legislation is at in the legislative process. We need to make legislation simpler to understand because the average American is affected by public policy. To make it easier to understand, we now have an accessible glossary in multiple languages that will allow users to understand the jargon legislators use to craft public policy. Why now? I think people have been caught up in presidential politics, but people must know the legislative process. During my Maymester class in Summer 2020, I had to build a legislative history on the 1994 Crime Bill. It was one of the most complicated pieces of legislation that were signed into law by President Clinton. I had previous background in legislative politics, but the average American doesn't have the extensive knowledge in legislative politics. The Congress.gov website, alongside the Congressional Record, is difficult to navigate. We use both services to serve our users with the idea of making it easier for our users to understand. I was inspired by my experience because I felt the average joe needed to receive this information in a more accessible way. With the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been glued to their phones on economic relief. This would be the best way to keep track of all COVID-19 pandemic relief packages.

Audience

Screen Shot 2020-12-02 at 11.31.48 AM.pn

Tabitha, 25

Screen Shot 2020-12-02 at 11.32.06 AM.pn

Vicente, 23

This app is geared to people who are both well-educated and for those who are interested in politics (i.e. community organizers). Tabitha is a policy analyst for a major think tank and needs all the help she needs in order to complete her task. She thinks that the Congress.gov website is cluttered and difficult to understand, but she uses HillTracker to make finishing her task easier. She values efficiency at the office because she knows that things need to get done. She is hard worker and her bosses value that from her. Tabitha is politically active. She interned at Capitol Hill, and for the governor's office in New York. She also likes to help people out at food banks and homeless shelters because she wants to help out her community. Outside the office, she enjoys reading and watching tv shows during her spare time. Before COVID-19, she spent time with her friends and traveling.

Vicente is a recent graduate from California State University, Northridge with a degree in communication studies, but is now attending graduate school at Stanford university for Sociology. He really enjoys helping people out as much as possible because he understands what they've been through. He was not interested in legislative politics until he got involved in volunteering at food banks and health fairs. He saw that people from lower-class status had a difficult time navigating society. His solution was to get involved in community organizing to stand-up for the rights of those people. Outside his studies and community organizing, he enjoys taking hikes, reading sci-fi books, watching documentaries and comedies.

HillTracker is a great solution for all people whether you know a lot about politics or just getting started. We will help you out with getting you started in legislative politics. People will still get access to the full text of legislation, but our users can get a brief summary of what is most important. Whether you are a policy analyst in D.C. or a factory worker in the heart of Michigan, you will be able to understand legislation. This is HillTracker.

Competition

Screen Shot 2020-12-02 at 11.34.55 AM.pn

Trackbill50 is a similar service to ours, but it tracks bills in all fifty states. We plan on offering this service down the line, which would qualify them as an indirect competitor for the time being. A citizen account includes searching for bills and legislators in the current session only. Paid accounts start at $500/year and include services such as looking at a single state or congress. The second tier is called unlimited and sets users back $3,500/year and lets users search all fifty states and congress. The third tier is called enterprise which gives users the previous price services, but includes management. Users on unlimited or enterprise paid accounts can search for bills. Our service will let users on a free account look through legislation. Paid users will be able to get the same access, but will include more content such as videos, podcasts, or in-house articles.

Legistorm is a web-based platform dedicated to government affairs professionals who need to monitor activity up on Capitol Hill. They will track Capitol hill hearings, town hall schedules, press releases, and Twitter feeds. There are multiple price points that will attract a different clientele based on the needs. There are limitations to what users can do because one of their plans called the “Pro Gov” model is only accessible if working on Capitol Hill. Legistorm is an indirect competitor because it does a lot more than our service, but we’re serving a different audience. HillTracker gives users a simple way to keep track of legislation coming from Capitol Hill. We offer users a premium version of the app that will allow them keep track of live votes, exclusive video content, and of course, unlimited legislation tracking. The free version of HillTracker will allow users to keep track of 7 pieces of legislation.

Trackbill is a database service that will allow users to receive legislative alerts, automated reports, embed widgets on websites, team collaboration, hearing schedule alerts, and whip counter. They’re considered our direct competitor because we seek to offer the same services for much, much less. This service will allow users to search bills and find basic information about a bill. In order to track a specific bill alongside other services, users must pay to get those features. Hilltracker will offer those features for free for up to 7 bills, and unlimited scheduling for a monthly fee.

Govtrack seeks to publish the status of federal legislation, information about House Representatives and senators, voting record, and original research on legislation. They’re one of the oldest government transparency websites. They’re a direct competitor because we seek to essentially do the same thing. The exception being that we’re making it easier for people to seek out this information through an app on all major platforms. Govtrack only has a website, but our service has a mobile application on iOS. We expect to expand to other platforms in the future. We will not accept advertisements from partisan political organizations, and promise not to share information with social media websites. Users can create an account with their email address or use an encrypted service to log-in (ex. Sign in with Apple). Upon researching this website, they use five website trackers including Facebook and Google services. Our application includes a daily update personalized for each user.

HillTracker Prototype

Sign-up or login screen

Discovery page

Bill overview

Profile

Business Model

Initial Investment:

I was provided $100,000 Herndon Bucks to jumpstart business. Alongside the Herndon Bucks investment, I asked for $250,000 in venture capital investment from a top VC funding agency. A presentation was made to tell VC funding agencies of costs, potential revenue that the application will gain within the first year. This will help with the iOS development, web development, and technology hosting. In total, the initial investment will be 350,000.

Expenses:

Our major expenses will be app development on iOS, web development which will commence next year alongside Android development. Our second major expense will be digital advertising through Google Ad Sense and a major social media campaign. Our third major expense will be the employment of two people. One person will be in charge of iOS development, and the other will be tasked with content creation for the bill overviews. We will be using Public APIs to get access to congressional data.

Revenue:

HillTracker is available for free for all users on light ad-support through out application. All users will be able to track five bills for free. For unlimited tracking and content features, users will pay $7.99 a month or $80/year. While users will be able to view unlimited amounts of bills and laws, tracking will be limited. We believe that is our best course of action in making a profitable app. Based on our assessment of all available information, we estimate 2,500 users will be on premium accounts within the first month. That translate to around $239,700 per month.