ONRAMP

Polco wins trip to Silicon Valley

Kathleen Gallagher
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Nick Mastronardi (right) and Dylan Cooper, both of Polco.

Polco, a Madison startup with a political participation platform, has won the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce's "Pressure Chamber" pitch contest and an all-expenses-paid trip to Silicon Valley.

Polco, whose corporate name is Policy Confluence Inc.,  operates a crowdsourcing platform that connects citizens with their local governments on public policy issues and polls. Cities and counties can put a widget for a poll on their website or in a link on a social media post or newsletter, said Nick Mastronardi, a co-founder.

"We save cities time and money connecting with their citizens," he said.

Polco has raised $250,000 of seed funding, according to CrunchBase. It has four full-time employees including Mastronardi, he said.

The startup earlier this month won the best presentation award at the Madworks business accelerator pitch night and the "Peoples' Choice" award at the Wisconsin Innovation Awards.

"Nick Mastronardi and his team are passionate about public service and improving civic dialogue and have done a tremendous job using technology to facilitate more citizen involvement in government," said Zach Brandon, the Madison chamber's president.

The contest was judged by a panel of four investment industry professionals from Chicago, Minneapolis and Ann Arbor. Polco will receive an all-expenses paid spot on the Madison chamber’s startup delegation to Palo Alto in October for meetings with top Silicon Valley investment firms.