Team and advisors
In fact, there’s far more that we agree on in this country than what shows in our news, social media feeds, or what we hear from politicians or pundits.
How decisions get made
We want to make sure we build tools, programs, and efforts that help us protect and revitalize our democracy, together. Politically sensitive issues go to the Political Advisory Board, including which projects the Accelerator selects, what goes into the Democracy Index, and eventually where investment dollars go. The board is split into three clusters, left, right and center. A decision needs two thirds of the whole board plus at least half of each cluster. If we can’t get there, we work it through or we drop it.
The Operational Advisory Board helps with things that aren’t political in nature: Programs, finance, research, tech, events, media, accessibility, and more.
Our goal is to build towards a broader and representative “Citizen Advisory Board” taking on actual governance decisions over the next few years. Please join us, and let’s work on building a highly effective, innovative, and participatory organization and country. We can do this.
Who we are
Everyone, in alphabetical order by first name. Political advisors are tagged with where they lean, so you can see the balance for yourself.
Political Advisory Board: 2 left-leaning, 2 center or independent, 3 right-leaning.
Bill Shireman
Co-founder, Solution Citizen and Circle America
Political Advisory BoardRight-leaning
A member of the San Francisco Republican Party who has spent decades getting business, environmental and political adversaries to build things together rather than argue about them.
Chris Yeh
Founding General Partner, Blitzscaling Ventures
Political Advisory BoardRight-leaning
Co-author of Blitzscaling and The Alliance with Reid Hoffman. He has founded, advised or invested in more than 100 startups since 1995.
David Nabti
Founder and Executive Director, Democracy Week
Founder
Has worked on civic and democracy efforts and impact startups for over 25 years, including co-organizing two national youth conventions in 2000 alongside the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. He has run around 100 accelerator and sprint cycles with more than 1,000 organizations, raised over $6.5 million for nonprofit and impact work, and managed the deployment of $2.3 million into early-stage impact organizations. He’s now bringing that values-oriented startup energy into the civic and democracy space.
Gabriel Aranovich, MD
Physician, Founder
Political Advisory BoardLeft-leaning
A physician and entrepreneur who has built and led digital health companies and clinical organizations. He co-founded SanLuca, advises Kyan Health and Benchmark Health, and works with the health tech program at Cornell Tech. Stanford MD, and a licensed and board-certified physician.
Jennifer Esteban
President, United Independents · Executive Director, Independent National Convention
Political Advisory BoardIndependent
She runs the message and the machinery of the United Independents ecosystem from Austin, and leads the Independent National Convention. Before that she founded FriendsMates, a co-living platform, and a digital marketing agency, and she has spent 20 years as an architectural photographer.
Joan Blades
Co-founder, Living Room Conversations
Political Advisory BoardLeft-leaning
Co-founded MoveOn.org, MomsRising and Living Room Conversations, which has spent more than a decade building structured ways for people who disagree to talk to each other. Prior to that she co-founded Berkeley Systems, the software company behind the flying toaster screensaver.
John Gable
Co-founder and CEO, AllSides
Political Advisory BoardRight-leaning
AllSides rates media bias and puts left, center and right coverage of the same story side by side. Before that he was a Republican strategist for three US Senate Majority Leaders, the RNC and President George H.W. Bush, and an executive at Netscape and Microsoft.
Julio Aranovich, PhD
Founder, Chequeado and La Voz Pública
Operational Advisory Board
He spent his career in Silicon Valley, from HP Labs to Group Vice President at Applied Materials. Then he went back to Argentina and founded Chequeado, the first fact-checking organization in Latin America and now one of the most respected in the world. He has a PhD in materials science from Stanford.
Lila LaHood
Executive Director, San Francisco Public Press
Operational Advisory Board
She co-founded the Public Press in 2009 and has run it since, building a nonprofit newsroom on the public radio model that does investigative reporting on housing, homelessness, elections and public health. She also sits on San Francisco’s Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, which exists to keep city government open.
Sarah Bonk
Founder, Business for America
Operational Advisory Board
Founder and CEO of Business for America, a coalition of companies and business leaders working on a government that functions. She spent close to 15 years at Apple before starting it.
Scott Vineberg
LA Civic Alliance
Political Advisory BoardCenter
A social entrepreneur who has started companies across media, retail, hospitality and tech, founded People Power TV, and ran as an independent for the US Senate in California in 2016. His focus now is collective intelligence and participatory democracy.
Victor Pineda, PhD
Founder, World Enabled · Inclusive Cities Lab, UC Berkeley
Operational Advisory Board
He was the youngest government delegate to help draft the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and has since advised cities and governments around the world on building places that work for everyone. Twice appointed to the US Access Board, under presidents of both parties, and he directs the Inclusive Cities Lab at Berkeley.
There’s room for more
We’re working to build a more representative advisory board across geographies, political leanings, and identities. If you want to suggest someone you think would be a great support to this effort, please let us know.