Cofounder, FiscalNote
Jonathan Chen: UMD CMNS Commencement Spring 2014
Jonathan Chen, Chief Technology Officer at FiscalNote, Inc. and graduating senior (B.S. '14, computer science) delivers the student commencement speech for the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences Spring 2014 Graduation Ceremony at the University of Maryland, College Park.
In 2013, Chen came up with a fearless idea—to aggregate and analyze government legislation and predict the passage of a bill in all 50 states and Congress. Motivated by his innovative and entrepreneurial determination, that idea—which started as a spark—led Chen to create the company FiscalNote. FiscalNot...
About Jonathan Chen
Jonathan Chen, co-founder and former CTO of FiscalNote, spoke at the 2020 GGGF forum in Seoul about digital transformation and the importance of building digital assets. He described FiscalNote as a Washington, D.C.-based tech company that raised over $300 million in funding from investors including Jerry Yang and Mark Cuban, and said the company uses AI and machine learning to analyze open data for the government tech industry. Chen also discussed his other startup, Pathover, which built a food ordering app with over 80,000 users, and noted that he has been investing in social media, citing his Instagram account Hack University, which he said grew to about 90,000 followers. He argued that user data is valuable because it allows companies to push products to audiences and create new revenue streams, and advised businesses to invest in social media and treat it as a business asset, particularly during the pandemic. In a 2014 commencement speech at the University of Maryland, Chen recounted co-founding FiscalNote while a student, developing a platform that aggregates and analyzes government legislation across all 50 states using artificial intelligence. He said the company raised $1.2 million in funding, including an investment from Mark Cuban, and employed 17 people at the time. Chen encouraged graduates to be creative, tackle the impossible, and work collaboratively, stating that his team worked 12 to 16 hours a day on the startup because they believed in it. He expressed hope that FiscalNote could one day go public.
Transcript (15 segments)
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Narrator0:10
Entrepreneurship spirit of the University of Maryland. Jonathan Chen is graduating today with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science. On Monday, he'll begin working full-time for FiscalNote, a company he co-founded while a student here with two friends from high school. Jonathan and his colleagues developed a software platform that aggregates and analyzes government legislation and predicts the passage of bills in all 50 states and in Congress. The company raised $1.2 million in funding last fall, including an investment from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and they recently opened an office which employs 17 people in the DC area.
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Jonathan Chen1:11
Wonderful words. I couldn't have gotten here today without the continuous support of my friends and family. I love you guys. Also, I want to give a shout out to Brandy and Savannah from the CS department for always being there for me for the last couple years. And lastly, I want to give a shout out to everyone at FiscalNote in DC. They're working super hard while I'm here giving this speech. But enough about me, because today is about you. So let's take a second and congratulate the class of...
And Governor, let's take a selfie. I was thinking to myself, how often do you get to take a selfie while giving a graduation speech? So I was wondering, if you guys don't mind, if I can take a selfie right now. This will only take a second.
Dreading because the thought of leaving behind what has been our home for the last couple years is daunting. But for others, it's a day we've been waiting for ever since kindergarten, because honestly, homework sucks. Graduating from college is a huge milestone. When you think about it, school has taken over 17 plus years of our lives, and I feel sorry for the PhDs, it's like 25 years. And throughout those years, we have grown and matured into fine young adults. But the thing I think most people...
Masterpiece. Children ignore the criticism of others and draw whatever they want. I think we are most creative when we are younger because we don't know our limits and we don't give up. We don't care about what others think. Therefore, as kids, we think we can do the impossible, and we still can. Everyone is innately creative, but most of us are afraid to show it because we fear the judgment of others. And additionally, we give up too easily.
Some of the ideas that I had, I thought they were impossible to pursue given my lack of experience. However, I quickly decided not to let the opinions of others and the difficulty of the problem hinder my creativity. This led me to start my company FiscalNote, which aggregates government legislation across all 50 states and uses artificial intelligence to analyze that information in real time. No, I don't have a PhD in machine learning, although it would have been a lot easier to start this company if I did. So this brings me to my first message: don't be afraid to be creative and tackle the...
A simple crayon. Indeed, as corny as it sounds, I'm about to compare our lives to a bunch of crayons. When you think about it, everything we do, we leave behind a mark, a memory that can never be erased. Every important moment in our lives is just a canvas on which we leave a little part of us behind. Maryland is one such canvas. Every single one of us has our own unique color that reflects who we are. No one is the same, but if you work and color and play together, the image is...
As impossible, only endless masterpieces waiting to be drawn. Which brings me to my second message: working together, you can accomplish more than you could have ever done alone. My company FiscalNote couldn't have gotten to where it is today without all the amazing people in it working as a team. As we depart from the University of Maryland and enter the workforce or pursue a higher level of education, I encourage everyone to find something you love to do. I know it sounds cliche, but you know what's a graduation speech without something cliche? I'll tell you a secret: I'm not that smart. I'm sure the...
Mom. Instead, I focus my attention towards something I am passionate about. Blindly working hard towards a goal that you're not passionate about is not the way to go. Eventually you'll break. When I was in Silicon Valley last summer, my team and I worked 12 to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week. But you know what? It didn't feel like work. It didn't feel like work because we were working on something that we truly believed in, and it was fun. And occasionally we went to San Francisco and had some memorable nights, but I won't go into that in detail. But it's this type of hard work that you need to commit to in order to...
Generation. Sometimes it's not enough to work harder or work smarter. You must work more creatively and work as a team. That, my friends, is how innovation is born. Working with others who share the same passion as you will make everything you do much more enjoyable. And as you bounce around ideas and share your experiences with those people, you are more likely to spark innovation or make groundbreaking discoveries.
Luckily, you all have an advantage. Look to your right, to your left, behind you, in front of you. You all...
Twitter, but don't be afraid to call each other up and work together in the future. Who knows where those projects might take you? Someday, I started FiscalNote with friends from middle school, and it has been the most enjoyable experience of my life. And hopefully we can take our company public one day. I wish all of you the best of luck as you start your new lives as real adults. But don't forget this: we are Maryland Terps, and we represent the School of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, aka the best college in Maryland.
Groundbreaking scientific discovery. It's the computer scientists, the mathematicians, the physicists, the chemists, the biologists, the biochemists, the environmental scientists, the geologists, the astronomers, and oceanographers sitting right here in this room. I hope I didn't forget anyone. History has shown us that it has always been we who have pushed humanity forward. Forget the engineering school. Innovation and discovery start with us. Congratulations again, class of...
Beautiful day. Thank you for your time, and good luck. Go Terps!
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Host12:30
Thank you, Jonathan. Yes, it's all of you who actually make our college the best in Maryland. Congratulations, Jonathan. Is your family here? Yes, over there. Would you please wave? I'm sure your family is proud of you.