
Seneca Systems (YC S16) Raises $3.5M to Make Cities More Responsive, Efficient - ktothemc
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/27/seneca-systems-raises-3-5-million/
======
nathan_f77
> Feher said the constituent management software the federal government uses
> is “very expensive and not really want we needed at the local level,”

I think this is a great way to find startup ideas. There's a lot of expensive
and awful software that needs to be replaced with modern websites and mobile
apps. The other day I was reading through this huge thread about IT people who
hate IBM's WebSphere product with a passion [1]. (Excuse the explicit
language.) I guess this is the enterprise / government world. And it's not
just IT, there are underserved government workers, insurance agents,
accountants, etc. working with outdated and terrible software. Patching things
together with spreadsheets, or pens and paper.

I posted this the other day, but it's also relevant here. From @patio11: [2]

> Here's an exercise you can do: do you understand what a life insurance agent
> does all day every day? Make it your mission for a week to do so, well
> enough to explain it to a close friend who has no access to your sources.
> All you have to do to learn this is read and make conversations happen.
> (People are happy to talk to you!)

Go and talk to real people and solve real problems!

P.S. Congrats to the Seneca team on the launch!

[1]
[https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7zb7jt/ibm_jav...](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7zb7jt/ibm_java_cto_devs_shouldnt_have_to_learn_docker/dumthik/)

[2] [https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/im-patio11-patrick-
mckenz...](https://www.indiehackers.com/forum/im-patio11-patrick-mckenzie-
creator-of-appointment-reminder-ama-fb96fd1f86?commentId=-L5qqQU1KexqFnGATD7I)

~~~
ghein
Lots of software is awful because the client is an awful purchaser.

If you have a convoluted and slow purchasing process that favors existing
vendors you are going to have problems. If you have that type of process and
can't spend very much money up front, you are going to have worse problems.

Government, at all levels, has the second problem. This selects for large
vendors (they can handle cash flow irregularities, have many low cost staff,
have existing relationships and are on VoR lists/can easily pass
credit/reference checks) and low quality. Price is especially key - bad
software can be superficially cheap but "unexpectedly" need lots of consulting
work or change requests. New high quality software is typically delivered by a
firm that can't take advantage of post hoc consulting and change request
revenue.

One easy way to block a startup with dropbox like pricing and market approach
- privacy/security requirements. Make a state/federal law or regulation
requiring all software touching citizen personal data be certified as safe. To
ensure less waste and data security all software of any price must be provided
by a firm on the VoR list. Purely for privacy and integrity purposes, of
course!

When a government agency with minimal budget is the entire market, you face
incredible hurdles to succeed that have nothing to do with product market fit.
There's a reason why Uber and AirBnB broke laws & regulations and why
government clients outside of defence & intelligence are typically the last
targeted by a generalist software firm.

~~~
ncd
Most of what you describe takes place at the state and federal level, but not
local. In fact, discretionary funds are plentiful in our target market—people
are often shocked to learn that we've never run into price objections when
selling, and we've successfully sold to cities ranging in population from 20k
to 4m. In other words, they aren't "awful purchasers" as you call them—they're
hard-working, dedicated people looking to improve their efficiency with money
to spend, but they aren't being provided with solutions they can experiment
with on a monthly basis. We're trying to change that.

In addition, the strategy you've outlined is the one nearly every incumbent in
every enterprise space has leaned on to protect themselves from disruption,
but it only works for so long (as we've seen time and time again). I also
think people overestimate the ability of large companies to quickly adapt
their offering—the machinery of enormous sales, marketing, and product
organizations can't turn on a dime.

~~~
ghein
Every state is different in terms of regulations and local governments can
vary in terms of processes, especially with the size of the jurisdiction.

In my experience cities have just as many procurement problems as
state/federal but with far less money to spend. You may have success with a
Dropbox/Hootsuite approach of selling to non-traditional users under certain
price limits. It just makes it so much harder when it's your only market.

As to plentiful discretionary funds... everyone's definition of this is
different. Another challenge I've faced with local governments is that their
speed to spend is similar to state & feds. Smaller sales with a sales velocity
the same as if not slower than the feds is another challenge.

But if you've got people to make fast decisions and spend enough so that the
unit economics makes sense you have my heartiest congratulations.

~~~
adrianratnapala
> Every state is different in terms of regulations and local governments ...

But still it is no accident that ncd's analysis works at the local government
level: there are tens of thousands of those governments so variation means
there will be some viable customers around.

------
ncd
Just noticed this went up! Happy to answer any questions about what we're
doing, or more importantly, how the amazing folks in local government are
performing their jobs. Also, I noticed the article doesn't link to our site,
so [https://www.senecagov.com](https://www.senecagov.com)

~~~
flowless
I don't feel like adoption of another proprietary platform is the way. I like
the idea of open data, APIs or even open IoT networks like TTN that can be
used and even improved by anyone. How are you planning to handle various
integration requests with other services the cities run?

~~~
ncd
Totally agree about open data and we actually do integrate with a large number
of systems via [http://www.open311.org/](http://www.open311.org/), an open
standard built by cities and vendors working together.

