A $23 million venture fund for the government tech set by Nancy Scola.
Nancy tells a compelling story of a new VC firm, GovTech, which is looking for startups focused on providing governments with better technology infrastructure.
Three facts from the story stand out:
“The U.S. government buys 10 eBays’ worth of stuff just to operate,” from software to heavy-duty trucking equipment.
…
…working with government might be a tortuous slog, but Bouganim says that he saw that behind that red tape lay a market that could be worth in the neighborhood of $500 billion a year.
…
What most people don’t realize is government spends nearly $74 billion on technology annually. As a point of comparison, the video game market is a $15 billion annual market.
See Nancy’s post for the full flavor of the story but it sounds like there is gold buried in government IT.
Another way to look at it is the government is already spending $74 billion a year on technology that is largely an object of mockery and mirth. Effective software may be sufficiently novel and threatening to either attract business or a buy-out.
While you are pondering possible opportunities, existing systems, their structures and data are “subjects” in topic map terminology. Which means topic maps can protect existing contracts and relationships, while delivering improved capabilities and data.
Promote topic maps as “in addition to” existing IT systems and you will encounter less resistance both from within and without the government.
Don’t be squeamish about associating with governments, of whatever side. Their money spends just like everyone else’s. You can ask At&T and IBM about supporting both sides in a conflict.
I first saw this in a tweet by Mike Bracken.