Insights
It Started With a Simple Question
My personal story behind the idea
Every great idea begins somewhere. Sometimes with a problem, sometimes with an experience, and sometimes with a simple question that refuses to leave your mind.
For me, MyCivic began with a question.
I was thinking about how much the world had changed because of something so simple, the ability of ordinary people to share their experiences and be heard.
Look at companies like Amazon, Google, and many others. Every day, millions of people leave reviews, write comments, share their frustrations, express their satisfaction, and suggest improvements. What fascinated me was not the technology behind these platforms. It was the power they had given to people.
For the first time, an ordinary customer could publicly tell a global company what was working, what was failing, and what needed to change. And companies learned to listen.
Of course, not every review led to an improvement, and not every company listened equally. But the principle was powerful. Customer feedback became an essential source of information. It helped companies recognize problems, improve their services, understand expectations, and build stronger relationships with the people they served.
And I kept thinking about one thing.
If the world's largest companies understand the value of listening to their customers, why shouldn't our cities and municipalities listen to their citizens in the same way?
That question stayed with me.
Because when you think about it, the relationship between a citizen and their municipality is far more important than the relationship between a customer and an online store.
If a package arrives late, we can complain. If a restaurant disappoints us, we can leave a review. If a product doesn't meet our expectations, we can rate it, explain why, and sometimes influence how it gets improved.
But what happens when the street where our children walk to school is unsafe? When the streetlights don't work? When the park where families spend their afternoons is neglected? When a municipal service fails, or when an ordinary citizen has a good idea that could make their neighborhood better?
Where does that voice go? Who listens? Who takes responsibility? And most importantly, how does that voice become real change?
I began to realize that there was something fundamentally wrong with this picture.
We had built a world where people could easily rate a pair of shoes, but often struggled to influence the quality of life in their own neighborhood.
That thought bothered me deeply.
Because cities are not just roads, buildings, public institutions, and infrastructure. Cities are people. They are the places where our children grow up, where our parents grow old, where we build our memories, where we work, dream, struggle, and hope for a better future.
And I believe the people who live in those cities should have a meaningful voice in how they evolve.
I never believed that citizens should only be heard once every four years, when they vote in an election. Democracy cannot simply disappear between elections. The relationship between citizens and their local government should be continuous, transparent, and built on mutual responsibility.
But I also understood something else.
Municipalities face enormous challenges. Mayors and their administrations are expected to manage countless responsibilities, often with limited resources, fragmented information, and growing public expectations. Listening to thousands of citizens is one thing. Understanding their concerns, identifying priorities, coordinating departments, and turning those concerns into measurable results is an entirely different challenge.
I didn't want to create just another place where people could complain.
I wanted to create a way for cities to listen, understand, act, and improve.
A system where a citizen's concern wouldn't simply disappear into an inbox. Where recurring problems could reveal patterns. Where municipal leaders could see what mattered most to their communities. Where departments could coordinate their work, where progress could be tracked, and where decisions could increasingly be guided by real information rather than assumptions.
I imagined a city where technology could shorten the distance between the people who live there and the people responsible for leading it.
A city where a mayor could understand not only what was happening across the administration, but also what citizens were experiencing in their everyday lives. A city where listening wasn't a political gesture, but an essential part of governing.
That was the beginning of MyCivic.
What started as an idea about citizen feedback gradually grew into a much bigger vision: an intelligent command center that helps mayors lead smarter, faster, and more accountable municipal administrations.
Because I realized that giving citizens a voice was only half the solution.
The other half was giving municipal leaders the tools to respond effectively.
And that is what makes this mission so personal to me.
I don't want MyCivic to be just another technology company selling software to municipalities. I want it to contribute to a different culture of local government. One in which listening becomes a habit, accountability becomes visible, and improvement becomes continuous.
I know that technology alone cannot solve every problem. It cannot replace responsible leadership, political will, or the dedication of people working in public administration.
But I believe technology can make good leadership more effective. It can make problems harder to ignore, priorities easier to understand, and progress easier to measure.
Above all, it can help restore something that is too often missing between citizens and public institutions.
Trust.
I want citizens to feel that their opinions matter, not because someone promises to listen during an election campaign, but because they can see that their concerns are understood and that something is being done.
I want mayors to have a clearer picture of their cities, not only through reports and statistics, but through the real experiences of the people they serve.
And I want municipalities to evolve not simply because technology is advancing, but because the people living in them deserve better.
When I think about the future of MyCivic, I don't measure its potential only in the number of municipalities using the platform.
I think about the small changes that can make an enormous difference in someone's everyday life. A safer street. A repaired playground. A faster municipal service. A problem finally resolved after being ignored for months. A citizen who realizes that speaking up was worth it.
These may seem like small victories. But thousands of small victories can transform an entire city.
And perhaps that is what has motivated me from the very beginning. The belief that meaningful change doesn't always start with a grand political vision or an enormous investment.
Sometimes, it starts with someone asking a simple question.
If companies can become better by listening to their customers, why can't cities become better by listening to their citizens?
I asked myself that question.
And I decided to do something about it.
That's why MyCivic exists.
Because I believe the future of our cities should not be shaped only inside municipal offices.
It should be shaped together with the people who call those cities home.