CitySourced

CitySourced operates as a mobile civic engagement platform, connecting citizens with their local government agencies. The company provides a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution tailored for the public sector, generating revenue by licensing its platform to municipalities. This platform consists of a mobile application for residents and a corresponding back-office Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for government use.

The company's journey began in 2006 when founder Jason Kiesel created FreedomSpeaks, a non-partisan political social network. This evolved, and in the spring of 2009, development started on the CitySourced mobile application, officially launching in September 2009 at the TechCrunch50 conference. Other co-founders include Kurt Daradics and David Kralik. A significant milestone was reached in December 2011 when the company secured a $1.3 million Series A investment and formally changed its name from FreedomSpeaks, Inc. to CitySourced, Inc. In a key strategic move, CitySourced merged with government software provider Rock Solid Technologies in April 2019. Following the merger, Jason Kiesel assumed the role of Chief Product Officer for the combined entity. The acquisitions continued, with Rock Solid later being acquired by Granicus in October 2022.

The service empowers citizens to report non-emergency civic issues, such as potholes, graffiti, or broken streetlights, directly to city hall. Using a smartphone, a resident can take a photo of an issue, which is automatically geotagged, and submit it through the app. This creates a service request in the city's work order queue. For government clients, the platform provides a centralized system to manage these service requests, track their status, and communicate with residents. It also offers analytics and reporting capabilities, allowing municipalities to identify trends and hot spots for service issues, thereby improving operational efficiency. The system is designed to integrate with existing back-office software used by local governments, ensuring that information is routed seamlessly between departments and citizens.

Keywords: civic engagement, govtech, citizen reporting, 311 software, SaaS, municipal software, service request management, Jason Kiesel, Rock Solid Technologies, Granicus, public sector technology, citizen relationship management, mobile government, smart city solutions, community reporting, issue tracking, local government services, public works management, constituent services