// startup autopsy

PlaceAVote.com

Direct democracy platform that couldn't monetize civic engagement

marketfitSlow Death

Years-long decline before final shutdown · Fatal mistake: Built a civic engagement platform without a viable monetization strategy, relying on politicians voluntarily adopting direct democracy tools that undermined their own authority.

Founded	2014
Closed	2017
Country	USA
Sector	Saas

50%

Key Events Timeline

2014-01-01

FOUNDING

PlaceAVote.com founded with the mission to enable direct citizen participation in legislative voting.

2015-06-01

FUNDING

Raised $0.5M to build and market the civic engagement platform ahead of election cycles.

2015-11-01

PRODUCT LAUNCH

Launched platform ahead of US election season but struggled to sign up legislators as active participants.

2016-09-01

PIVOT

Attempted to pivot toward a civic education model to attract broader user base and alternative revenue streams.

2017-06-01

SHUTDOWN

PlaceAVote.com shut down after failing to achieve sustainable engagement or revenue from its civic democracy platform.

Full Analysis

Analyst plan

Documented cause

PlaceAVote.com built a civic-tech platform designed to enable citizens to direct their representatives' votes through direct democracy tools. After raising $0.5M in funding, the company encountered fundamental ...

obstacles that prevented sustainable growth. The startup struggled with low political adoption—convincing elected officials to adopt a system that could circumvent their decision-making authority prov

Verified lesson

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€0.6M

Peak valuation

HypeCycle · MoatType · ResearchTags

PlaceAVote.com raised €0.5M before built a civic engagement platform without a viable monetization strategy, relying on politicians voluntarily adopting direct democracy tools that undermined their own authority. ended it. See the documented cause, verified lesson and all failure signals.

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