Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley don't always understand each other. It's a problem that a lot of people want to solve, as evidenced by tech companies on the West Coast showering D.C. with resources for think tanks and lobbyists, while government officials and politicians make a point of stopping by to talk to executives at tech companies and venture capital firms when they travel to the Bay Area. Former U.S. Senate press secretaries Christyn Lansing and Jamie Corley see potential in helping connect the two worlds, founding TheBridge and launching a twice-weekly newsletter to do exactly that.
"We're targeting people who work at the intersection of politics and tech," Corley, the former press secretary for Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN), told DC Inno in an interview. "That's our audience."
A mix of headlines, job posting and profile information, TheBridge is a very quick read at the moment, which the founders explained was deliberate. The point is to show one group what's going on with the other group in a way both can understand. The email newsletter, which is currently sent on Tuesdays and Thursdays, sources and translates news and job postings, as well as including short profiles of people from one coast for the other. Corley is now living in San Francisco, while Lansing, the former press secretary for Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), lives in D.C.
"We've been testing a beta version of the list for friends and family in both cities since September," Lansing told DC Inno. "People in both cities know they're going to have to start interacting with each other, but they were getting confused, no one was translating the two worlds to each other."
The beta launch has already started putting the newsletter into the offices of lawmakers and tech company employees alike, the co-founders said. And while they do of course want power players to read the newsletter, the audience they hope to reach is much broader, from new employees and interns on up through the executive level. The relaxed tone of the newsletter evokes the standard Millennial snark level too. All of that is ultimately in service to highlighting commonalities between the two communities.
"If it wasn't before, it became apparent last week [after the election] that D.C. and Silicon Valley are on a collision course," Corley said. "Issues like driverless cars, artificial intelligence, immigration; there are a lot of points where they're going to intersect and people want to make sure there's a pipeline of information on things like how to make a career switch from D.C. to Silicon Valley or back. We haven't found found another platform that is doing this"
"D.C. and Silicon Valley are on a collision course."
As the newsletter list grows, the plan is to monetize it through ads and, starting next year, events. With a growing list of connected people in both cities, the hope is that the cross-pollination already prominent during the Obama years only grows. The president famously has brought in major Silicon Valley players to his administration, while plenty of his team have since moved on to work at tech companies. And while TheBridge is strictly non-partisan in terms of policy goals, better communication in general is the whole point.
"We don't need to get them on the same side of every issue, but they do need that translation help," Landsing said. "That's why something like TheBridge is needed more than ever to build more productive communications and better relationships."
