The lack of media integration and mobile use is a time of the past with 5ivepoints in our midst. This newly designed innovative form of technology is altering the campaign scene, one user at a time. Founded May of 2011 with a launched alpha in August, 5ivepoints was born as a product on January 1st at the NY Tech meetup.
5ivepoints is a mobile election app aiding campaigns and advocacy groups alike to "transform virtual enthusiasm into real world action by 'gamifying' real elections". It's a free app that allows for volunteers to complete "missions" from door knocking to social media sharing by using their own smartphone device. Points and badges can be earned along the way to display their impact on behalf of their cause, aiming to make the top of a campaign's leaderboard to highlight their efforts.
This app is not limited solely to the user, but also for campaign managers that can benefit from real-time analysis of supporter activity to maximize volunteers on their campaign. 5ivepoints is associated with people like Ari Wallack, a designer from the Barack Obama advocacy group, and Joe Trippi, campaign manager for Howard Dean.
I caught up with the men behind the app, Laurence Zuriff and Chas Mastin, during a lunch break at the CampaignTech Conference. Though they only recently started up and are currently located in NY, D.C is looking like the place to be next for this up and coming business venture.
They have arrived at the perfect time with the presidential election approaching.
How did you come up with the idea?
I (Laurence) did work on a political campaign run by a friend of mine. I was excited to be involved, but once I got under the tent and saw how tech was being used, I wasn't too happy. There was a lack of social media integration and mobile use was basically non-existent for this 2010 campaign. Our politician ended up losing by 500 votes and the idea was sparked. I could provide that social media integration and mobile platform; I could turn this into a business.
I found Chas Mastin and we launched our business, creating something disruptive that worked with big data in the process. What's key about our business in comparison to others is that though we create lists, we don't re-sell them. We only re-sell our app.
What was your goal with 5ivepoints?
We wanted to do something gamified since there is nothing like that in place. Our main goal was to do the obvious, lower the bar for voter participation, but why not make it fun in the process? By downloading our app you can help out a campaign in a simple way. We currently have over 100 million registered voters so we still have 80 million to go, but we hope to change that with a new one stop shop as an interface for voter ID and voter lookup all in one package.
How do you make a campaign fun and less painful?
It's important to have an experience that's not terribly painful to retain voters. Everyday we continue to develop and add features to keep people interested. One of the things that has been lost in the past four years has been the art of the political button. There was a reason a donkey and elephant were originally used to represent each part, but we want to change up the scene.
We now use badges that are designed by an award winning illustrator specifically for us, straying away from the repetitively overused boring depictions of the ordinary donkey and elephant. Wanting people to enjoy and be engaged in the process is what's most important for us as we remain politically congenial.
What makes you different from your competitors?
Rather than focus on the needs of the campaign manager, we focus on the user experience. Not everyone is a professional campaigner. If you design an app to make it look like what a campaign manager wants it will be dull and cumbersome so we switch up the game with everything one or two buttons away, big letters, minimal jargon, and talking points to educate those using the app.
There is a man in the market we are going after which is at the low end of the market. The 250,000 people that run for elections year after year in local, state house races, etc. need support as well, they just can't afford it. We want to be the whale that picks up the krill (I admit that's a bad analogy), so we offer presidential skills for the guy running for mayor at a rate of just $50 a month.
What advice do you have for other startups since you are clearly a success story?
- Raise as much money as you can because things will always be more expensive than you thought.
- Be adaptable to understand the technology you are creating, but then understand how people want to use the technology you are creating.
