“I count myself lucky to not only have the benefit of Swati’s innovative mind and expertise, but to work with a longtime friend as we pursue a bold new vision for the future of our country,” Buttigieg said in a statement to WIRED.

Buttigieg is hardly the first candidate to embrace Silicon Valley's help. Building out a product team with talent from the likes of Facebook, Google, and Twitter has become standard practice for serious candidates, while tech employees are a welcome source of donations, especially for Democrats. Progressive startups, like those supported by Mylavarapu, became a force for grassroots organizing during the most recent midterms. There’s even a former venture capitalist serving in Congress: Josh Harder, representing California’s 10th district. (And while Silicon Valley might not count Brad Parscale as one of its own, the digital consultant did help get Donald Trump to the White House in 2016—and aims to keep him there as Trump’s campaign manager for 2020.)

When it comes to campaign finance staffers, you’re still far more likely to see a political or development background on resumes than a VC firm or startup accelerator; Buttigieg’s national investment director Anthony Mercurio, for instance, is an alum of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign. Not that her untraditional background fazes Mylavarapu. “I was surprised when I stepped into this role,” she says. “I didn’t know that so many of the elements that I had learned to watch for and create at Square and with the companies in our Incite portfolio would apply in this campaign context.”

Mylavarapu sees parallels everywhere. You have a “killer” product—in this case, a candidate and his message—and you want to generate organic, word-of-mouth buzz. And when people are checking this product out—maybe on the website, maybe at a campaign event—you want to keep following up with them about it. Here’s Mayor Pete on an issue you cared about. Mayor Pete is coming to your area! Mylavarapu calls it a conversation, but it also sounds like a sales funnel. We noticed Mayor Pete is in your shopping cart, would you like to complete your order?

"We’re trying to take some of those design principles and apply them in our campaign organization." Swati Mylavarapu, national investment chair, Pete for America

Another thing presidential campaigns have in common with startups? There are an awful lot of them right now. In a historically, comically crowded Democratic field, Buttigieg managed to raise over $7 million in campaign contributions during the first three months of 2019; only Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, and Beto O'Rourke earned more. The Federal Elections Commission's next reporting deadline is June 30, a sort of quarterly earnings report for presidential committees. It will be the first FEC reporting period to include Joe Biden, who reportedly raised over $6 million the day he officially announced his campaign, throwing into sharp relief some challenges facing Buttigieg.

“With Pete, we’ve got a candidate who’s not starting with the national profile that some of the other front-runners have,” Mylavarapu admits. “But I’d say the opportunity there is that we can create an even higher ceiling.”

Mylavarapu points to what her team calls “grassroots events.” Rather than just wooing political high-rollers and throwing dinners at $2,800 a head—although the campaign hosts those too—these are more like fund-raising rallies, where thousands of Mayor Pete fans, or just the Mayor Pete-curious, can see the candidate speak for donations starting at $25. The campaign is also distributing free tickets to targeted demographics, like young voters. “The idea is to make it super-open and accessible for folks at different price points,” she adds.

On Monday, Politico reported that the campaign has raised over $1 million across 16 of these events. They're a real-world complement to the campaign's viral social media moments and digital outreach. "When you look at groups like the Arena and Flippable and Swing Left and Indivisible, for example," Mylavarapu says, "all of these are groups that have used the best of lightweight, tech-enabled methodologies and small nimble teams of very talented people to mobilize huge portions of the country. And so we’re trying to take some of those design principles and apply them in our campaign organization and plans as well."