Chip Kennedy began his journey as a technologist and entrepreneur in New York, where he built his own product studio to write code and build apps for startups. This endeavor enabled him to collaborate with a range of entrepreneurs in the area.
He then moved to Raleigh, and after living in the Triangle for about two years he realized he was missing something: a strong connection to the burgeoning tech community.
Kennedy thus resolved to do two things: figure out what his next job was going to be—with hopes of developing a project in the civic sector—and create a community in a space where he felt he wasn’t seeing it.
These interests sparked the formation of his own startup, CivicReach.AI, as well as the networking event Triangle Tech Night.
CivicReach was born from a combination of Kennedy’s lifelong family values (concerning what it means to give back and help others) and his personal interactions with government customer service.
This customer service comes into play through any number of small, everyday tasks that run through government offices—from renewing a driver’s license with the DMV to navigating interactions with a landlord. Kennedy noted that interactions in these spaces are often frustrating for citizens. This in turn leads many to avoid seeking services or assistance altogether.
“We think too few people make these calls,” Kennedy said. “Too few people have access to this information. Too few people have access to these resources, so we’re lowering the barrier [of] entry to get access to all of this.”
To do this, CivicReach is employing multilingual voice AI agents to streamline communications.
Developing CivicReach.AI
The startup began as an unpaid research project whereby Kennedy would speak with those running government phone centers and ask if they thought AI could help improve their services. Everyone said no.
He kept having these conversations, however, and ultimately learned about the difficult parts of call center jobs, and what problems employees in these jobs feel most impact their customer service.
One of the largest issues was that many workers did not like picking up the phone because it was often a frustrating way to relay information to citizens. To address this issue, Kennedy developed voice AI systems that could help pick up the phones— which in turn freed up government workers to get back to the more important (and less frustrating) parts of their jobs.
“We take a corpus of information sources for any government we work with—all public information—channel it and train an AI agent to work for that government agency to just do simple FAQ,” he said.
The startup’s AI is multilingual and allows the caller to get information that is up-to-date, accurate and useful.
Individuals can also call in about administrative issues like paying parking tickets or requesting that a pothole be filled in. The software will take them as far along in the service delivery process as possible—even calling them back once the issue has been resolved. This takes the administrative burden off of both the resident calling and the workers addressing the issue.
As helpful as these practices are, CivicReach is still operating in a new space where Kennedy and his team have to figure out ways to solve specific problems for individual customers (which in their case are government offices).
“There is no playbook,” he said, “We can look at how other technologies have worked in government. We can look deeply at the problem that we’re solving and understand it, but voice AI for resident engagement, voice AI for government, is new.”
He said they currently make educated guesses, listen to their customers and pay attention to the technological advancements happening broadly for voice AI. Altogether, these efforts help them make predictions about how they can more creatively solve problems.
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Startup: CivicReach
Founders: Chip Kennedy (CEO); Lindsay Freeman Avagliano (COO)
Founded: 2024
Team size: 4
Location: Raleigh
Website: www.civicreach.ai
Funding: $225K friends & Family; Raising pre-seed
While this makes for a difficult process, Kennedy said it is rewarding when people are excited to take a chance on CivicReach and join the team.
“Something I love about building a startup in my career as an entrepreneur and… especially with this chapter is, oftentimes, when someone says yes to you—whether that’s a customer, an investor, an employee—it’s because you’ve hit a minimum threshold of convincing them to take a bet,” he said.
Kennedy said the highlight of this journey is when he knows he has developed a product and structured the pitch in a way that resonates with someone and wins them over.
CivicReach is currently looking to hire new team members, connect with potential customers and work with communities across the country. Kennedy also encourages founders and anyone in the tech industry to reach out and connect.
