- [Narrator] From a
loft space in Manhattan,
the tech startup MobilizeAmerica,
this is one of its
co-founders, Alfred Johnson,
is hoping to help the 2020 Democratic
presidential candidates
optimize people power,
with a Silicon Valley-slick platform
that organizes volunteers
and helps get supporters
to show up for events.
- Working with Cory Booker's campaign,
Kamala Harris' campaign,
Kirsten Gillibrand, and Pete Buttigieg.
That number we expect to
grow pretty substantially.
- [Narrator] In a crowded field
of presidential candidates,
the problem it's solving, Johnson says,
is the challenge of grassroots gardening.
- The whole dynamic around
individual grassroots donors,
individual volunteers, being
able to power campaigns,
I think is something that
we're increasingly seeing
as something that's
table stakes important.
- [Narrator] Johnson, before
starting MobilizeAmerica
two years ago,
worked in the tech industry.
He also cut his political teeth
on President Barack Obama's
2008 presidential campaign.
His co-founder, Allen Kramer,
who used to work at Bain & Company,
worked on Hillary Clinton's
presidential campaign in Virginia.
- We automate a sequence of
both emails and text messages
to make sure that I actually show up.
- It's kinda hard to get
people who sign up for things
to show up for them,
and they come at much higher
numbers through the system.
- You know that?
- We know that.
We have observed the flake
rates, which is a technical term.
- Flake rates?
- Flake rates.
Number of people who sign up
that flake on the shifts
that they've signed up for,
and it's much less through Mobilize
than through other systems.
- We just launched this
ability for volunteers
to create their own events
to support a campaign,
doing things like hosting their own
canvas kickoffs or phone banks.
- But what if volunteers for Kamala
decide they wanted to host an event
where they're gonna throw
eggs at Cory Booker's house?
- (laughs) So, we've
built in an admin layer.
So if I submit an event,
it goes to the administrators
of the campaign
to review and make sure
that there aren't any typos,
the event is in line with their branding.
- [Narrator] It's part of
what they're paying for
with the service.
MobilizeAmerica charges between
$30 and $2,000 per month.
Nonprofits with fewer than 5,000 members
can use it for free.
The company says, ahead of
last year's midterm elections,
370,000 volunteers
and almost 1,000 local
state and federal campaigns
and progressive groups used the platform.
Those volunteers signed up
to knock on more than nine million doors
and made almost 10 million calls.
MobilizeAmerica was used by candidates
in some of the most high-profile contests.
- I am so proud of you.
- [Alfred] With Beto O'Rourke's campaign,
with Stacey Abrams' campaign,
with Mike Espy's special
election in Mississippi.
- The ones you've just
mentioned, they all lost.
- That's true, but we worked with
a tremendous number that won.
In the House of Representatives,
we worked with 35 of the 40 members
who ended up flipping seats.
- Do you have to be a Democrat?
- Do you have to be a
Democrat? Currently, yes.
- So, Schultz, the
former CEO of Starbucks,
if he came to you wanting
to use your service?
- Our current plan is to
only work with Democrats.
- [Narrator] Republicans
don't appear to have
a rival platform just yet,
though other companies, including
one called NationBuilder,
which is nonpartisan,
offer tools for volunteer organizing.
- Could the other side galvanize quickly
and do something that's the
equivalent, do you think?
- I think it would be very
hard to do it quickly.
The level of data that
we were able to observe
in the 2018 midterms,
I think is a great
advantage that we'll have,
looking at 2020,
and thinking about what the
right product ought to be.
