Curate Solutions

Curate Solutions operates as a civic intelligence company, providing a platform that enables organizations to monitor risks and identify opportunities within local government discussions. Founded in 2016 by the husband-and-wife team, Taralinda and Dale Willis, the Madison, Wisconsin-based firm was acquired by FiscalNote (NYSE: NOTE) in August 2021. The company's creation stemmed from Taralinda's direct experience as a construction project manager, where she observed that vendors who utilized information from city meeting minutes were more successful in securing business. This insight was paired with the technological expertise of Dale, who was a Ph.D. candidate in computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He developed the web-sweeping technology that forms the core of Curate's platform. Taralinda, who holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, assumed the role of CEO, managing the business side, while Dale focused on the technical aspects.

The company's business model is centered on a subscription-based service (SaaS) that offers access to its extensive database and customized reports. Curate's proprietary technology leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to ingest and analyze hundreds of thousands of documents weekly, including meeting minutes and agendas from over 12,000 municipalities and more than 4,000 school districts across the United States. This process provides clients with actionable intelligence, saving them from manual research. The platform serves a diverse client base, including government relations professionals, contractors, and industry associations. For these clients, Curate offers two primary products: CurateBUILD, which helps contractors find early information on private construction projects, and CurateLOCAL, designed for associations to track and advocate on issues discussed in local government. This allows clients to anticipate regulatory changes, protect their reputation, and discover new business opportunities before they become public knowledge through requests for proposals (RFPs).

The acquisition by FiscalNote, a global provider of policy and market intelligence, was a strategic move to integrate Curate's strong local government data capabilities with FiscalNote's existing state and federal intelligence services. Following the acquisition, the Curate team joined FiscalNote, which planned to invest in and expand its Madison presence. The platform's value was recognized when it won the "Best Data Innovation in a SaaS Product" at the 2022 SaaS Awards. Since the acquisition, both founders have moved on to new roles; in January 2025, Taralinda Willis was named CEO and Dale Willis became CTO of Agrograph, a company in the agricultural technology sector. Keywords: civic intelligence, government monitoring, public policy tracking, regulatory intelligence, local government data, municipal data, government relations, legislative tracking, public sector sales, business intelligence, construction leads, policy analysis, agenda tracking, government procurement, risk management, opportunity sourcing, RFP intelligence, advocacy tools, public affairs, government technology, FiscalNote