Do you know the bill passed by lawmakers in your state last year? What about this year’s impacting tax decisions, school districts and budgets?
Even those who follow state-level politics for their livelihoods struggle to catch up given the amount of information they have created. Every state has its own legislative process, calendars and terminology, North Carolina-based entrepreneur Paul Lava told Hypepotamus. For example, Georgia’s legislative sessions take place every January through April. This year, 400 bills and resolutions cleared the assembly. North Carolina will be held from January to July. Tennessee, which concluded its legislative meeting in April, introduced more than 60 bills on the state’s voting process.
The pure scale is incredible, especially for government issues teams, lobbyists, nonprofits, businesses, law firms and political reporters. Mules gave examples in the North Carolina Legislature, but this year, new laws with over 1 million words were introduced in one day.
Seeing this confusion, Lava and his co-founder decided to build a new startup called Roboro. The Raleigh-based startup is designed to be a nationally-specific, AI-powered legislative intelligence reporting platform. Establishing its position as an “operating system for law,” Rava said the platform provides in-depth and professional policy insights in real time to historically underserved industries.
“Our mission is to empower informed advocacy so that people can promote the change they want to see in the world,” Lava told Hypepotamus.
AI is critical policy insights
Traditionally, keeping up with important laws has meant combining makeshift Excel spreadsheets, outdated keyword tools, or merely institutional knowledge with memory and solutions. Lobbyists who are likely to manage multiple clients from different jurisdictions and subjects had to rely primarily on keyword searches, where they often overlook the nuances of the policy world.
Roboro’s approach is different. Instead of forcing users to think with keywords, the platform’s onboarding process focuses on plain English input. The platform’s AI suggests related invoices, provides the necessary summary, and provides context impact analysis.
The goal is to become “eyes and ears in the law” for those following individual bills, Lava said.
The platform also provides real-time alerts, predictive analytics, and contextual insights for specific invoices and conversations taking place through statehouses.
Roboro’s output can provide users with information “often hours before their peers,” Rava added.
The startup is currently available in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, and deploys new jurisdictions each month based on geographical demand. It works with the SAAS model on both monthly and annual subscription plans.
Human balance in advocacy
The platform will not replace the fundamental human work needed to lobby or advocacy, Rava added.
“Lobbying and advocacy are very unique people (activities) and things that AI could never have been replaced,” he told Hypepotamus. “But what we believe is the best defense that happens with the right combination of human and AI. Let the machine do what works: scale, accuracy, speed.
Along with Rava, who previously served as a senior auditor at KPMG, the co-founding team includes Jenny Bo (a background in enterprise sales) and James Gieszelmann (a software engineer who previously worked for Q2 and Precision Lender).
Although Rava did not disclose specific funding details or investors, Roboro said it had secured capital from a strong but limited early supporter group.
