Clause Out

Today is the inauguration of our 🎙️Building With the Public🎙️ campaign! With 100 days to go until the election, we’re taking inspiration from Franklin Roosevelt and his famous 100 days of action. 🇺🇸✍️ The idea of Building With the Public is that we’re turning our business and product development into a dialogue, rather than doing it under wraps. We’ll show both our progress and our stumbling blocks—wins and wtf’s—as the chips fall. We don’t have a master plan for how this will work. 😬 That’s the story of startup life for you! And the reason we’re opening up about all the uncertain bits is to let YOU have a say on what we’re building. For the public, with the public. Over the next 100 days, we’ll be posting every day and inviting you to conversations about: • 👥 People and principles • 🛠️ Processes and product • 🏃 Pounding the pavement! Check out our new website to get started as a beta tester: clauseout.com 🎞️ Image credit: Library of Congress

However you feel about the election result, one thing is strikingly clear — The American people are dissatisfied with the status quo and the political establishment. This has been our attitude ever since we started Clause Out last year. The system either isn’t working for a big chunk of voters. Or, it fails at educating voters about the role of government and the rationale for policies. We would like to congratulate Donald Trump on his electoral victory and encourage everyone to join us in taking a closer look at policy matters. Democracy doesn’t start and end with elections. If this speaks to you, let us know. If it doesn’t, tell us why. We believe in vigorous debate.

Day 💯 of Building With the Public! When we started this campaign, we didn’t have all the answers—or even a complete plan. We just wanted to keep our development open, giving you the chance to weigh in on how Clause Out takes shape. Building this way reflects our viewpoint that policymaking shouldn’t be a one-way street. That goes for our business, too. Over the last 100 days, we’ve shared about our progress and our setbacks virtually in real time. In this kick-off campaign, we covered: 🌐 People and Principles – Who’s behind Clause Out and the values that guide our work. 🛠️ Processes and Product – How we’re building tools to make civic engagement easier and more meaningful. 🏃Pounding the Pavement – Taking it to the streets to get feedback and understand where to go from here. Thanks for following along! We’ll keep you posted on what’s next, and we appreciate your feedback and support. Keep it coming! 📣 #BuildingWithThePublic - Day 100

Road trip reflections from Pennsylvania #BuildingWithThePublic - Day 99

🇺🇸 Making the rounds in Scranton to hear what’s on people’s minds going into the election. Just chatted up someone who asked, “Why are we bombarded with these political ads and then we hear nothing for years?” Good question. 🤔 We’re asking the same thing. These undecided voters on our CEO’s home turf are skeptical that either party is looking out for them and will act on their promises. Our goal at Clause Out is to give people a direct line to their representatives to increase accountability. #BuildingWithThePublic - Day 98

This is an open question after we complete work on our initial product in the coming days: How do we sponsor local and state policies? We decided to put our energy into federal bills to get things moving with the beta. Now that we’re almost ready to start delivering regular content and live updates/notifications, we want feedback on which policies are most relevant. Meanwhile, greetings from the front lines of the election: Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, where this picture was taken today. #BuildingWithThePublic - Day 97

Five days left until the election—and more info on what we’ve been building the last 100 days. Our CEO is making the rounds in his hometown of Allentown, Pennsylvania to hear how people are feeling about the political system these days. Spooky spoiler: Not great. 😳 Let the canvassing begin! We’re on the lookout for disillusioned but optimistic people who are interested in what government is (or isn’t) doing. #BuildingWithThePublic - Day 97

Hitting the road to connect with U.S. voters! 🚘 One thing our CEO keeps hearing on the ground is that it’s hard to understand where candidates stand on the policy issues themselves… Is this your impression too? Why or why not? #BuildingWithThePublic - Day 96

Meetings are a must when we're spread out across three continents. 🗺️ We tried something a little different today by shifting the focus away from tasks and updates. Rather than info-sharing, we focused on: 💫 Inspiration - are there positive signals we should know about? ⛽ Motivation - how do we connect to the problem we're solving? 🫂 Connection - what's going on in our lives apart from work stuff? Not all meetings require a defined agenda to be effective. Yea or nay? #BuildingWithThePublic - Day 95

📰 Breaking news: We’ve been selected for the Climate Tech Catalyzer run by Kaplak Ventures! It’s an honor to be selected for this cohort as we switch gears from product development to commercial sales and impact strategy. Not only are we serious about revitalizing civic engagement and improving the political climate, but we’re also setting on sights on legislation like the IRA that influence decarbonization. Can’t wait to share more updates as we go, and we’re thrilled about this opportunity! 💚🇩🇰🇺🇸 #BuildingWithThePublic - Day 94