Mobile Advocacy
April 20, 2018
- Author: Cindy Loffler Stevens
March/April 2018
More articles in this issue:
A pioneer in advocacy, Dr. Ximena Hartsock, COO and president of Phone2Action co-founded the venture-backed, civic engagement technology company as a platform to bring people and lawmakers together. Born in Santiago, Chile, Ximena began her career as a teacher, a principal and an assistant school superintendent and was on the executive cabinet of former Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty.
Why did you start Phone2Action?
About five years ago I was traveling across the country and I realized that advocacy is really hard to do on the ground. I saw there was opportunity with smartphones and technologies that would allow us to create a platform to connect people with their lawmakers at every level and do it like a matching system. The idea is to empower people to share their opinions about public policy and to connect with lawmakers that have an impact on policy.
What lessons have you learned?
I started my career as an educator. I was a teacher, a school principal and then an assistant superintendent of a school. Then I completely transitioned to technology. Lots of people told me I was crazy to quit my cozy government job. I moved across the country to work in a think tank first and then founded Phone2Action. What I learned is you can transition a career at any age and from any background, so not thinking that you need a technology degree to be successful in technology is the number one lesson. And the second lesson is that resilience is fundamental.
How can you stop your ego getting in the way?
So often, especially when we are young, receiving feedback is difficult. We tend to take any feedback that we get in a negative way and as criticism. The most important lesson is to put the ego on the side, take the feedback as a gift and utilize it to continue growing.
What advice would you give other entrepreneurs?
Anyone can be an entrepreneur. The biggest mistake that we make is to say, “This is such a good technology, I want to do the same thing.” What we should do is look at the expertise that we have and use the technologies that are available out there as an amplifier. If you look at Lyft, they were not planning on building a company but they had an idea and built those solutions without being afraid and asking for permission. If you have an idea and a level of expertise of any type, use it to create something new. And execution is key. Ideas are not enough.
Do you have an intern program?
We have a Fellowship program that is an apprentice program. People that come to us are interested in social good and social justice and also technology. We had four high schoolers that built an artificial intelligence tool to read sentiment analysis on politics that we just launched at CES. But the program really is a platform, not just for college students, but for anyone that wants to transition into technology — because civic technology and open government are new fields that did not exist five years ago. The jobs of the future are going to be technology jobs.
What is the Good Tech Summit?
The Good Tech Summit is an annual conference held in Washington, DC that we launched last year. It is focused on showcasing the power of technology for social good. We had speakers like Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple; the head of marketing for Facebook; the founder of VOX Media; former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley; and people that are innovators and creators that are using tech to make a difference in the world.
What was compelling at CES?
I loved to see so many women founders at Eureka Park. That is exciting. Number two, I love the diversity that exists there. There are 150 countries exhibiting at CES. And lastly, new technologies like artificial intelligence and automation are being used in a variety of ways ranging from self-driving cars to smart homes.
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