SeeClickFix Sold, Staying In New Haven

by Thomas Breen | Oct 14, 2019 8:55 am

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Posted to: Business/ Economic Development, Media

A Kansas-based “gov tech” business has purchased New Haven’s homegrown, internationally adopted problem-solving company —which only plans to stay, and grow, in the Elm City, according to its local founder and director. On Friday, the Manhattan, Kansas-based company CivicPlus bought New Haven’s SeeClickFix, a digital information sharing company headquartered on Chapel Street that allows citizens the ability to report, comment on, map, notify public officials, and track government-led progress on everything from potholes to graffiti to illegal dumping. Ben Berkowitz, who founded the local company in 2007, told the Independent Monday morning that he will remain as the director of SeeClickFix, and that the company will be staying put in New Haven. It currently has around 32 employees, he said, and plans to hire at least six new staff members as soon as possible. “It wasn’t about timing for me as much as it was about the ‘who,’” Berkowitz said. SeeClickFix, which is used in hundreds of cities around the world, has grown into a “very dominant market leader” in the service request management and 311 space over the past decade, he said. “There really wasn’t any strong competition left for us.” So he felt like his company had leverage to fetch terms amenable to his board. And CivicPlus, he said, was the only company he was really interested in selling to. They are the largest provider of city websites, he said, with around 3,700 in the U.S. alone. “This is an opportunity to really scale up quickly with their partners,” he said, “plus, to work on some increasingly interesting opportunities and problems within citizen engagement.” CivicPlus operates city platforms that touch more than just service requests, he said, thereby giving SeeClickFix an opportunity to grow into even deeper areas of citizen-government communication. He said the sale, the amount of which he declined to share, also provided a financial return for his board members, team members, and all other investors in the company. “That box also got checked,” he said. Most importantly, he said, CivicPlus is committed to keeping SeeClickFix in New Haven. The name is staying the same. He is remaining as director. The company is staying put on Chapel Street, and only growing in its number of employees. “They are going to grow this business here in New Haven,” he said.

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posted by: BevHills730 on October 14, 2019 9:04am Congratulations Ben and team!!

posted by: Elmer's Glue on October 14, 2019 9:38am Say goodbye to SeeClickFix. It’s just a matter of time before some venture capitalists buy up CivicPlus (this has already started to happen), load it up with debt, fire all the employees, and walk away from the carcass with a cool payday. Just like VC has done with local newspaper and news services all over the country. Very sad day. Except for Ben, who sold out his workers and his community.

posted by: 1644 on October 14, 2019 10:00am Local news hasn’t been financially viable for years. SeeClickFix, in contrast, creates efficiency in service requests, saving municipalities money, at least if they actually want to provide services. Whether it remains in New Haven is another question.

posted by: BenBerkowitz @Elmer’s Glue. VC has been part of the business since 2010. I was careful to keep control with founders and common over the years. The same is true for CP and it’s one of the reasons I’m excited to work with them. Time will tell. I know you’ll be watching. I’ll be watching closer.

posted by: Elmer's Glue on October 14, 2019 10:28am I would like to trust Ben on this, but we’ll see. Local news and news service is a low-margin but eminently sustainable business. It has become unsustainable because of the one-two punch from VC trying to extract 10% annual profits from small-city newspapers, and Facebook gobbling up ad revenue. Our democracy is in trouble because of what VC and FB and other corporate monopolies have done to local journalism. Let me just add that if you read the NHI regularly and have the means to support them financially - please do so. Don’t take it for granted. Journalism is the lifeblood of democracy.

posted by: Patricia Kane on October 14, 2019 11:59am Had SeeClickFix been set up as a worker co-op, the workers would have decided if selling the business was a good move or not. Sure, a few people, will benefit, but in a worker’s co-op, everyone is an owner and they decided how profits are shared.

The old capitalist model sends profits from labor to the top. There is nothing egalitarian about the day to day management or the destiny of the workers. It’s a kind of pyramid scheme with workers constituting the bulk of the wealth creation, but out of the loop on profits.

My vision for New Haven is that we find a way to support new approaches to new businesses.

Local workers in local enterprises with all money remaining local (as much as possible).

Technology alone will not improve society, despite the grandiose visions of the hedge fund investors and techies.

We need democracy in the work place. Not one where people can be fired for any reason at any time. Not one where the business sold, assets sold off and workers have no jobs. Not one where the profits go to a far away owner with no investment in the well being of the city or the people.

Surely someone in New Haven has an idea that would work and show everyone else how to do it.

Check out economist Rick Wolff on YouTube for details.

posted by: TheInternet on October 14, 2019 1:13pm Patricia,

As I understand it employees of SeeClickFix were option holders and as such had an option to be shareholders. They would have benefited from the transaction as well.

posted by: 1644 on October 14, 2019 2:41pm Pat: The business entity you are describing is an ancient one: the partnership. Any group of people are free to go into business as a partnership if they wish. As it is, lots of start-ups offer stock options as an incentive and alternative to higher wages. Sometimes, they pan out, sometimes not. :are scale co-op generally fail because workers take profits in higher present earnings rather than retaining earnings and accummulating capital for future investment or downturn protection.

posted by: Patricia Kane on October 14, 2019 2:46pm @1644. A partnership can still hire workers who are not equity owners. A worker’s coop makes every worker an owner. Some hire managers and pay them according to what the workers deem appropriate. It’s grassroots owner/management and the opposite of the traditional top down operations that have frozen wages for the lat 50 years while exponentiallly increasing CEO pay.

posted by: Dennis Serf on October 14, 2019 2:57pm Congrats to Ben and his team at SeeClickFix. Founders put their time, money, and most of all their reputations on the line and live with an extraordinary amount of job insecurity - often for many years. Glad he was able to make it to a financial exit.

posted by: 1644 on October 14, 2019 3:32pm So, Pat, when you had your law office, was it a co-operative sans employees? Did everyone take part in decisions regarding the firm? Or did you, however, beneficent you may have been, reserve ultimate decision making authority to yourself on the basis that your contributions in capital and skill were unique and thus you were deserving of such authority?

posted by: Patricia Kane on October 14, 2019 4:41pm @1644: When I had a law office with a staff, I had no idea about worker coops or socialism or any of the alternatives to conventional set ups.

Nevertheless, the staff were paid before I was and staffers got bonuses of equal amounts when we had a good year.

Hours were somewhat flexible and set by the staff for themselves.

There was no sick leave. I called it “mental health leave”. Why make adults lie about having a cold when you know they want some time off - when I felt the same way.

I hired people who were responsible and human. There were 3-4 weeks of paid time without any explanation. The only condition was that the work had to be up to date and someone else could cover if necessary. I never had to ask anyone to stay late. They did it on their own.

When someone had a personal crisis, they had a choice to go home and deal with whatever or spend some time talking. We all had work, but we also had to take care of each other on occasion. I invested in my colleagues and it made for a very different kind of experience than I had in a NYC firm.

When we needed to hire someone, we did a group interview in a non-hostile way. Since the person qualified for the job, the only question was determining compatibility. The guy who liked to play at home with his guns was not a good match.

Occasionally someone slipped thru who had another agenda. Staff simply told me the score and that person was let go.

Were I doing an office with staff today, once I acquired staff, I’d either find a model of sharing that works or develop it with my colleagues.

A coop doesn’t mean everyone makes the same pay, but it does mean that they discuss the relative contributions and hours they all put in. No doubt my mediation skills would be very helpful.

posted by: 1644 on October 14, 2019 4:52pm Occasionally someone slipped thru who had another agenda. Staff simply told

me the score and that person was let go.

We need democracy in the work place. Not one where people can be fired for any reason at any time. Employment at will can be convenient, no? You fired people because you disagreed with their off-work activities (“playing with guns”) or they had an “agenda”, whatever that means.

posted by: Patricia Kane on October 14, 2019 5:52pm @1644: I know you’re eager to play “gotcha”, but we never hired the guy who played with guns for relaxation.

As for the person wasn’t willing to work, but did want to be paid, it only took a week and a half for the staff to alert me and tell me to move fast. The staff made the decision; I only acted on it.

We have to let go of these hierarchical models and be willing to imagine something more humane, not just productive.

Aren’t you tired of reading about workers, like the ones at General Motors, who made substantial concessions to keep a plant open and a few years later, when it was hugely productive, GM announced it was closing it any how and moving it to a cheaper labor location?

There are too few businesses, like Malden Mills, where the owner decided to rebuild after a fire because he knew his workers depended on the Mill for a living. It may be that small business is the only place a conscience survives the greed and exploitation that have become the norm.

PS Isn’t the City of New Haven trying to set up a worker coop laundry? Someone has vision.

Why does Walmart feel it has to limit its workers to less than half time so they don’t have to pay them benefits? The Walton billionaires aren’t wealthy enough?

If 50 of the top corporations pay NO tax on their income, why aren’t they raising worker wages and benefits instead of buying back their stocks or enhancing CEO pay?

Stick with the old models and just wait for the next crash/ depression/ recession, whatever.

posted by: 1644 on October 14, 2019 7:05pm Pat: You do know that Malden Mills went bankrupt multiple times, right? That the employees’ pensions were only 49% funded when the PBGC took it over? The bankrupt company’s assets were bought by a hedge fund.

posted by: Patricia Kane on October 14, 2019 7:51pm @1644 At the time of the fire, Malden Mills was making a hot product (no pun intended) and was viable. The owner could have retired on the insurance proceeds, but chose not to. This made him a hero to a lot of people.

No, I did not know of any bankruptcy subsequently. Nor do I know what precipitated it.

The fact of his choosing to rebuild out of concern for his employees and their families at the time he decided, showed unusual connection and compassion for the people who contributed to his success to that point.

posted by: 1644 on October 14, 2019 8:28pm Pat: Yes, the fire left a market opening for competitors, and paying the employees while the plant was down left the company without capital to withstand a recession, so it went under. The creditors controlled it for a few years, until it went under again and the assets bought by Chrysalis, which just cashed out in June of this year.

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/12/17/lawrence-polartect-aaron-feuerstein-malden-mills/

https://peprofessional.com/2019/06/versa-sells-polartec-milliken-company/

http://www.milliken.com/news-overview/our-stories/polartec-officially-joins-milliken-company

posted by: missthenighthawks on October 14, 2019 8:46pm SeeClickFix is a great idea and has tremendous future potential. I see nothing but growth for this company.

As for SeeClickFix staying in New Haven, I doubt it will be here long. Almost without exception, buyers tell sellers they aren’t going to change things in the existing company, but, after they’ve had a chance to move in and understand it more thoroughly, most of them consolidate and move. Especially when the buyer is from a business friendly state - like Kansas.

posted by: Bill Saunders on October 14, 2019 8:59pm My greatest concern is that these new Kansas City ‘investors’ just purchased an ‘information infrastructure’ that can be used to target citizens as easily as it can be used as a tool in aiding government in doing ‘their job’. Without the proper ‘guidance and standards’, this could easily ‘turn bad’. Ben is well aware of my concerns in this regard.

Let’s see how it plays out. It’s almost a ‘narc site’ already!

posted by: Five Fifths on October 14, 2019 9:36pm I, for one, hope that Ben Berkowitz made a boat load of money in the transaction.

posted by: Dennis Serf on October 15, 2019 2:09am This is good news for New Haven in other ways as well. When a startup gets sold some employees eventually leave and use their startup experience and knowledge, and any stock gains, to start new ventures. In many ways the intellectual and financial capital will remain in New Haven. Dennis Serfilippi

posted by: Jessica.Light on October 15, 2019 7:35am Thank you Ben for all you have done and continue to do to help our city.

posted by: tmctague on October 15, 2019 1:04pm Congrats to Ben and company, a really great idea. Always amazed at how quickly problems are resolved on SeeClickFix. Hopefully more municipalities adopt this and grow it.

posted by: formerNHIT on October 15, 2019 1:19pm Grats Ben and Staff! Hopefully you got enough of a payout to retire soon. There’s no glory in working until your too old to enjoy the fruits of your labor. I admire the Seeclickfix business model and the impact it has had on some communities. Unfortunately for myself I never had a unique idea to take to market nor will I ever have one, I’m stuck doing the daily grind until I am dead (like most of us!). Hopefully most of the staffers will land well if they get pushed out.

posted by: Paul Cezanne on October 15, 2019 1:49pm Congrats Ben and Co.! Thanks for all you do for New Haven!