Jonathan Chen on user data

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.

Profile compiled from Jonathan Chen's verified public interviews and appearances. See all quotes & transcripts →