I talked to Christine and Jean Templin, two sisters based in Silicon Valley who recently released a political engagement platform designed to get more women actively engaged in politics. Christine has been with Twitter Engineering for 7 years and Jean has over 15 years of experience as Product Manager at several different successful startups.

Their goal is to help women across the political spectrum find their voice and be heard in government. They are attending the Women’s Convention in Detroit October 27–29 to meet with women’s interest groups to help them advocate for equality.

Can you tell me about your experience and what brought you out to Silicon Valley?

C: I have about 25 years of experience in technology, and I got the opportunity to work for a startup in the Silicon Valley area. I was super excited, and one of the reasons I wanted to work in Silicon Valley was the mindset and the way that they thought about solving problems and being disruptive and looking for new and innovative ways to solve current problems. And also what’s really great, what I really loved about the culture here is that it’s very collaborative. People are willing to share ideas, share their experiences, and give advice as you’re starting a company and you’re looking to solve problems in a new space or way.

J: I parted ways with a company on the east coast, and I decided it was time to move. The valley was where I wanted to go because there was so much opportunity. I have over 15 years experience working on mobile apps in a whole lot of different sectors.

Can you give us some background on Purple Patriot?

C: PurplePatriot is a civil engagement platform in the political space that is really targeted towards women and gives them the ability to be active in government on a daily basis.

J: That’s right, the real problem today is how do you fit active and regular participation in government into your very active lives? Because right now I think a lot of people participate, but very irregularly — they might vote, they might put a sign in their yard, but regular, daily participation is a lot better. And right now it’s more important than ever, it’s impacting all of our lives, our children’s lives, our children’s children’s lives. How do we keep this government really focused on what’s important to women and bring women to the table and make women a part of that conversation?

C: So we made PurplePatriot to be this simple and easy way to fit active participation in government into your everyday schedule. It has a bunch of different ways to engage — there’s the learning component, so you can learn about redhot issues and proposed legislation, find gatherings and other events that’re going on close to you, and join the discussion on Twitter regarding legislators and the policies that affect you. And what’s really crucial is you can engage in the conversation, so seeing what’s going on on twitter, and talking to your legislators about the issues that you care about.

Why did you want to start PurplePatriot?

C: As we’ve seen over the last 10 months, and over the last year participation in government is no longer optional. You need to be informed and you need to stay active. And we know how difficult that can be as a woman, raising a family, having our careers, just trying to move that forward, and stay engaged in politics, which they purposefully make difficult, and it’s very challenging to get the information and actually get the facts and understand what’s going on day to day in government.

J: It was after the 2016 elections. It really was an awakening for many of us, to understand that we have a responsibility to stay involved with government. So we wanted to make it easier to stay involved and engaged in the entire government process, the whole legislative process, on multiple levels, from the federal to the state, which impact our lives, to make sure that the elected officials that we hold to theses offices are performing the job that we ask them to do.

What’re your goals for being at the Women’s Convention?

C: Our goal is really to get out there and get in front of these advocacy groups and let them know that we have a platform and can partner with them to help drive their mission to promote equality for women. So that’s really what we’re trying to do. And we really see this woman’s convention as a great forum to engage relevant and interested parties that we can partner with.

How do you think this app will help women’s interest groups?

J We’re not at the table, we can’t have those conversations because there are a lot of barriers to women in politics. There aren’t that many women elected, so we all need to be out there talking, we need to be electing women to government, we need to make sure that the men who are elected into the government understand women’s issues and make policy that helps women. Because I think most men don’t understand the importance of programs vital to women, so we need to stand up for what we need.

What other problems does PurplePatriot help solve?

J: Earlier we talked about solving the problem of making it easier for busy people to engage with government and politics. Another problem purple Patriot attempts to solve is related to the partisan divide and echo chamber. Right now advocacy groups each develop their own organizational tools to help move people to action, and there’s basically no organizational standard across different groups. That’s a big inefficiency, because they’re all basically doing the same thing — moving people to call their legislators or attend protests, gatherings, and meetups. But they don’t generally share the organizing tools with different groups unless they’re “on the same side,” because right now you don’t want the other side to have access to your tools. And because of that you’re losing out on a whole lot of organizational potential.

C: That’s right, and that’s why we named it PurplePatriot: The idea of purple is blue and red coming together. We need everyone at the table, not just the blue party, not just the red party, all parties involved. So we want to give everybody these tools, the ability to organize as a group or get involved as an individual, because it’s important that everybody, no matter their beliefs or political views, has the same opportunity to get involved and be active in government. And by giving all advocacy groups, regardless of party affiliation this organizing tool, the ability to notify members or followers when it’s the most impactful time to take action, I think there’s a lot of power there.

Where do you see PurplePatriot going in the future?

J: I see PurplePatriot as the future engagement platform, where you can see what’s going on, and you really are having those really open conversations with your officials about the issues that are important.

C: It’s going to keep evolving. Our next piece is to drive this down to state and local levels. So that you as a woman can pull up the app, you can look at it, you can see what’s going on, not only at the federal level, but at the state and local level where you actually have more impact in the ability to drive change. We’re also getting ready to launch the platform or the piece around the 2018 election so you can understand who’s running in those key elections and you can support and understand how they stand on issues. So really it’s the holistic idea of an end to end engagement in the political space to get more people actively involved.

J: Yeah, the idea is that this will help us take back charge as people of the United States and take away power from these five, ten lobbyist groups. We want to really make everybody accountable for what they’re doing. And that’s what I think will start to drive this, transparency, communication, and taking away power from the lobbyists and giving it back to the people by putting it in their hands.

What is it like being women founders? And what is like working so closely with

your sister?

C: I think being women founders in this space gives us a distinct advantage, that and not having worked in politics as our careers. Back to why I love Silicon Valley, it is really how we approach solving this specific problem. As women with such an extensive background in technology, we know the challenges and pitfalls of products that just don’t fit along with being the demographic we are trying to reach.

Working day to day with my sister is great. There are things that are just natural like understanding communication style (she talks alot and I am a bullet point lady) and the division of responsibilities based on our experience. And we really can’t break up the band, we drive each other crazy some days but we have this vision, and we have the commitment to deliver it regardless of how long we push the rock up the mountain.

J: Like any other founders, this is a ride, so I need to remind myself to buckle up. There are lots of bumps along the way. But you always remember why I started the journey, and you accept nothing really goes the way you plan, and have fun! When you truly believe in what you are doing, others will join.

And about working with my sister — I trust her, I know how to debate with her, and most importantly, I know when to open the wine.