San Francisco-based mobile app Hustle, which was used by Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign team to connect volunteers with donors, has opened a new D.C. office at 1776 DC.
The office has two full-time employees, Zach Fang from the startup's headquarters, and Max Kamin-Cross, who was hired from NGP VAN to coordinate Hustle's partnerships in the area.
Hustle is a mobile platform designed to allow organizers to engage in individual, personalized conversations with supporters. Users can write automatically customized scripts, upload phone numbers and assign staffers to text swaths of supporters one at a time in rapid succession. Supporters are also able to reply directly to whoever sent the message, creating a personalized conversation between organizer and supporter.
The startup was founded in December 2014 and closed a $3 million venture round in October 2016. Clients have included Sanders, as well as Hillary Clinton and Planned Parenthood.
Hustle CEO and co-founder Roddy Lindsay told DC Inno in an interview that the decision to launch an office in D.C. just made sense considering how many time the company's executives found themselves traveling to and from the nation's capital.
"It’s our first remote office, and we’re trying to make sure that everyone is set up for success and trying to keep that San Francisco, Silicon Valley culture," Lindsay said.
However, Lindsay said they have no clear plans yet for hiring new talent outside of their hire of Kamin-Cross. Right now, the idea is to build up their existing client list to include other politicians, a few nonprofits and schools that might be interested in the platform.
"What we saw in the 2016 election is that personal one-on-one engagement through texting was a much more compelling way of reaching people than just an email blast," Lindsay said. "We've taken a lot those lessons from the 2016 campaign and are now packaging that for other types of organizations that are looking to engage."
However, Lindsay did say that a big draw to choosing the 1776 DC location for its office was the idea of being surrounding by the community's other startups.
"You’re at this great place with amazing organizations and being a part of the D.C. tech environment was a big draw for us," Lindsay said.
Image used via CC BY-SA 2.0 — credit Gage Skidmore
Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed the company's founding and the date when it closed its venture round. It's been updated to reflect those changes.
