Tye Hayes, a former professional at Lockheed Martin and chief technology officer for Atlanta, is launching another startup in the data management field.
SmartGov Data Tech is an Atlanta company that spun out from Hayes’ first company, N-Ovate Business Solutions. It helps government and education agencies connect, detect and archive data. It can help implement facial recognition technology, artificial intelligence for transportation and tracking for child safety.
“We know governments are having a problem,” said Hayes. “They don't have the technical expertise in house to do this, and they don't have platforms that are geared and designed to solve use cases that happen.”
SmartGov's growth plan
The new company will launch through Black Progress Matters, a tech incubator that focuses on Black-owned businesses in data, wellness and staffing service.
SmartGov is not raising capital at this time and is funded by Hayes in addition to BPM. Hayes plans to raise capital in the future. It has no customers, although Hayes says there is a “pipeline of companies” interested in embedding its platform. Though she's targeting government and education institutions, SmartGov can also sell to private companies who have products that need to move or integrate its data.
For Hayes, there are two challenges for governments to innovate faster: modernizing infrastructure to accept new technology and formatting its data. That belief initiated her first startup, which assists government and education agencies with information technology.
Founded in 2015, N-Ovate has seven government entity customers and four business customers, including Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT), Hayes said. It also has eight employees and six contractors. Last year, the company made $4 million in revenue, Hayes said.
In the long-run, Hayes says she plans to sell SmartGov. Whereas SmartGov solves a specific problem, N-Ovate addresses larger scale issues for agencies, which Hayes says she would prefer to focus on.
“I don't want to get consumed by the product, and not solve bigger problems for the government,” said Hayes. “I want to make sure that I'm solving this problem immediately. But as [SmartGov] scales, it may be an opportunity to either have someone else come in and run it for me or sell it.”
Two decades of public service
Hayes started her career as a federal employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she worked on strategy around network security. Her passion for innovation and security was amplified as she continued her work as an information security/privacy officer at Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), then as deputy chief information officer at Atlanta Public Schools.
“Serving my country and others has always been a passion of mine because I come from urban Atlanta," Hayes said. "I'm one of those kids that was not supposed to make it out, but it happened,."
While CEO of N-Ovate, the city of Atlanta appointed her as chief technology officer in 2018 and later as interim chief information officer. In her role, she helped the city prepare its ransom network for hosting the Super Bowl and the Smart City Expo conference.
In 2020, Hayes was an honoree for the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Women Who Mean Business awards for her role as the city’s CTO.
