Chip Kennedy

Chip Kennedy

Founder | Digital Product Builder

Iโ€™m a social entrepreneur and digital product builder. Iโ€™m the founder and CEO of CivicReach.AI - a startup and mission to leverage voice AI to make local government radically better at providing for everyone.

My mission is to build great big things that serve the builders, the users, communities, and society. I care about building (and helping others build) tech that brings more equity, access, and dignity.

๐Ÿ’ฌย ๐Ÿ‘‰ย To get involved with CivicReach.ai, drop a line: โœ‰๏ธย chip@civicreach.ai

๐Ÿ“ย ๐Ÿ‘‰ย Interested in the Research Triangle, NC tech community? You should be - follow me on LinkedIn for events/opportunities and check out Triangle Tech Night

Guides

How to (not) Build Alone: Leveraging Your Network as a Solo Founder | Published May 2024
Where do I start? Advice for new (and seasoned) entrepreneurs | Presented June 2023

Engagements

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CivicReach.AI

๐Ÿ›๏ธย Government Tech

Founder & CEO | AI/ML Architecture, Government Sales, Product Strategy

๐ŸŒย Voice AI for Municipal Government

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Collective

๐Ÿ“ฑย Social Media

Interim CPO/CTO | Marketplace and Product Strategy, Social Media Product Strategy, User Testing, Software Engineering

๐ŸŒย Non-Profit Social Subscription Network

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The Amalgamation

๐Ÿ›๏ธย Government Tech

Product Advisor | Marketplace and Product Strategy, Product Architecture

๐ŸŒย Underutilized Small Business Collective

๐Ÿ“ฐย Triangle Biz Journal: Startup's plan to get more contracts to minorities? Form a collective

๐Ÿ“ฐย RaleighNC.gov: Fall 2022 Impact Partner Grant Winner

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Guaranteed Health

๐Ÿฅผย Digital Health

VP of Product and Engineering | Digital Health Product Strategy, Product Architecture, Technical Product Management

๐ŸŒย Hybrid End of Life Healthcare

๐ŸŽงย Podcast: The human side of technology with Chip Kennedy of Guaranteed Health

๐Ÿ“šย How To Do Technology Better in Healthcare

๐Ÿ“ฐย Axios: Exclusive: Guaranteed a dignified death

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Parachute Health

๐Ÿฅผย Digital Health

Product Manager | Marketplace and Product Strategy, Product Architecture, Technical Product Management

๐ŸŒย ePrescribing Healthcare Platform

๐Ÿ“šThe Next Chapter: Parachute Health

๐Ÿ“ฐย Built In: 48 Healthcare Technology Startups and Companies on the Forefront of Modern Medicine

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Tastemakers Africa

โœˆ๏ธย Travel

CTO | Marketplace Product Strategy, Product Architecture, Technical Product Management, Software Engineering, Data Science

๐ŸŒย Community and Travel Marketplace

๐Ÿ“ฐย TechCrunch: Tastemakers raises $1M to sell Africa experiences to the world

๐Ÿ“ฐย Skift: Top Travel Startups to Watch 2019

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Periodikal

๐Ÿฆย FinTech

Product Advisor + Interim CTO | SaaS Product Strategy, Wireframe Prototyping, Product Architecture, Technical Product Management

๐ŸŒAccountant Portfolio Management

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NYC Office of Technology and Innovation

๐Ÿ›๏ธย Government Tech

Client Workshop + Engagement | Project Management, Mission + Brand Consulting

๐Ÿ“ฐย NYC.gov: New York City Celebrates Open Data Week 2018

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Collectively

Founder + Director of Studio | Team Management, Product Architecture, Mission + Brand Consulting, Community Engagement

๐ŸŒย Startup Product Studio

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GoodWerk

๐Ÿ“ฃย Political Engagement Tech

Client Engagement | Product Architecture, Web Development, Social Community Engagement

๐ŸŒย Millennial Political Engagement Platform

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Agritecture + AgTech-X

๐ŸŒณย Environment Tech

Client Workshop + Engagement | Project Management, Mission + Brand Consulting, Community Engagement

๐ŸŒย Urban Agriculture Community

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Justice for Kurds

Client Workshop + Engagement | Product Management, Theatre Operations, Mission + Brand Consulting, Community Engagement

๐ŸŒย Cross-Cultural Initiative

๐Ÿ“ฐย Theatre Mania: Bernard-Henri Leฬvy to Presentย Looking for Europeย at the Public Theater (Theater Mania)

Media

Pitch Winner: FoundersLive, Raleigh-Durham | 2024
2024 AI-in-Government Accelerator Cohort Launches at CivStart in partnership with GovAI Coalition and NLC | 2024
Pitch Winner: Raleigh Foundedโ€™s Pitch Please | 2023
Podcast Guest: โ€œThe Human Side of Technologyโ€ by the Impact Indicator | 2023
Panelist: CWRU Spartans Step Up Series, Future of Travel | 2021
Featured Interview: Digital Ocean Hatch Storytellers Series | Web Summit 2019

Resume

โ†’ founder @ CivicReach.AI

โ†’ host @ Triangle Tech Night

โ†’ advisor @ Collective

โ€”

โ†’ fmr. technology + product consultant for startups ๐Ÿค

โ†’ advisor @ The Amalgamation ๐Ÿชง

โ†’ former VP of product and engineering @ Guaranteed Health ๐Ÿง‘โ€โš•๏ธ

โ†’ mentor @ Five One Labs ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ถ

โ†’ mentor @ Gaza Sky Geeks ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ธ

โ†’ advisor, former interim chief technology officer @ Periodikal ๐Ÿงฎ

โ†’ former product manager @ Parachute Health ๐Ÿช‚

โ†’ caregiver to my Dad, ALS patient

โ†’ former chief technology officer @ Tastemakers Africa ๐ŸŒ

โ†’ partner nyc open data week 2018 ๐Ÿ“ˆ

โ†’ speaker @ impact summit 2018 ๐Ÿ’ก

โ†’ founder and former director of studio @ Collectively ๐Ÿš€

โ†’ former lead software engineer @ Referrio ๐Ÿ“

โ†’ B.S. computer science @ Case Western Reserve University ๐ŸŽ“

โ†’ caregiver to my Uncle, long-term brain tumor survivor

โ†’ former software engineer @ Lean Dog ๐Ÿถ

โ†’ former paper boy @ The Patriot Ledger ๐Ÿ—ž๏ธ

About Me

I've spent 8+ years as an entrepreneur, product builder, and software engineer with a passion of helping startups grow their platforms, ideas, and communities.

Now, Iโ€™m the founder and CEO of CivicReach.AI - a platform to help local governments deliver radically easier, more equitable, and affordable government communications and services to everyone. We have a hard-working team, kick ass advisors, and a social mission that inspires me every day.

From 2021 - 2023, motivated by pandemic lessons at the personal level and society level, I worked specifically with digital healthcare startups. As the VP of Product and engineering at Guaranteed Health, I lead healthcare product, engineering, and technology strategy and execution. I also worked at Parachute Health where I had the privilege of building and scaling their medical ordering platform for medical facilities, suppliers, manufacturers, and health systems, all to improve patient outcomes.

Pre-pandemic, I was CTO of Tastemakers Africa: a community platform centering Black experiences, Black voices, and Black stories across the world. It was the best startup Iโ€™ve had the opportunity to build with (and had the best founder I've had the opportunity to run a company with). We built a travel experiences marketplace at scale, created a global virtual community, and brought on fantastic investors - including Precursor Ventures and Flybridge Capital.

On the come up, I found my way in the startup world by founding and running a startup studio: Collectively. We brought on extraordinarily talented product designers and software engineers to work with startups, venture capitalists, and accelerators. We built digital products for some amazing mission-driven organizations and even ran discovery sprints for the NYC Mayor's Office. Iโ€™m most proud that we created a valuable community at the intersection of impact startups and product freelancers.

Outside of technologist-ing, I'm always (trying to be) training for my next marathon ๐Ÿ‘Ÿ, reading about politics ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ, and learning cooking from youtube ๐Ÿ›.

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As a product builder: I think the harder the problem, the better.

I care about clarifying + subdividing challenges, using + creating data ethically, and creating products that make us all better. I'm a resourceful nerd who loves focusing on user journey and business goals.

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As a product leader: I think a product is only as good as the team behind it.

I care about building products that bring communities together, building teams that challenge and inspire each other, and scaling up while holding true to mission. I'm a team builder and an empathetic leader.

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As a human: I think the internet is a beautiful place, in moderation.

I care about civic engagement, solving systematic societal inequalities, and supporting organizations that work with those who need it most. I'm a critical optimist - never losing appreciation for a challenge, while channeling the innate difficulty into motivation.

Causes I Support

Hollie was a good friend to projects and companies I've worked with and a truly amazing individual. I believe that companies have a responsibility to support the local and online communities around them and Digital Ocean practices this responsibility well.
A dedicated and uniquely amazing non-profit bringing socks, connection, and attention to communities in need across New York City. Their mission, social media, and daily work is an important reminder for us all to get to know our neighbors.

Credits

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My avatar is from Naddya Adhiambo Oluoch-Olunya from Nalo Studios (@nalostudios)

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Notion Icons from NuttLabs

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Photo Credits:

Links

For Startups

Workshops

Resource Library๐Ÿ›๏ธDigital Product Building for Government๐Ÿš€Digital Product Building for StartupsThe Library