An Antidote to DOGE? Strengthening Urban Policy Entrepreneurs

Since at least the 18th century, the term “entrepreneur” has been used to refer to business people, historically young men, who take on the risk of starting a new enterprise. In the 1700s, they were mercantile tradesmen backed by nobility. Today, they are founders of B2B SaaS companies, backed by VCs. When they succeed, entrepreneurs are celebrated with fame and fortune, and appear on lists like the Forbes 30 Under 30. 

But there is another crop of entrepreneurs who go unnoticed, but make perhaps a larger difference in our day-to-day lives: the “policy entrepreneurs” toiling away in city agencies — and on the streets — across the country. Take Justin Zwick, who has taken on the herculean task of modernizing the paper-based voucher system New York’s Department of Sanitation uses to track the 100,000 tons of garbage it collects across the city. Or Olyvia Siekman at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, who is trying to figure out how to reduce rape crimes, which have been stubbornly rising. 

Justin, Olivia and 400 other New York City policy entrepreneurs came out on May 22 to the Pilot Pitchfest — an event we started to help match city agency staff with new ideas with the supporting resources they need from civil society. Because here’s the thing: Entrepreneurs of all stripes need collaborators and amplifiers to succeed. Entrepreneurship requires a team.

The term “policy entrepreneur” was first popularized by John W. Kingdon in 1984, and more recently Michael Mintrom has defined it to mean “energetic actors who engage in collaborative efforts in and around government to promote policy innovations.” These unusually zealous individuals take on the project of policy change, often when it’s not part of their formal job description. They build cross-cutting coalitions. They collect evidence to make their case. And they take advantage of windows of opportunity, like a pandemic, to advance their cause. A policy entrepreneur might work at a city agency — or might be an academic researcher, a member of an interest group, or just any person who sees something broken and decides to try to help fix it. Policy entrepreneurship is inherently a bottom-up exercise. 

I became an accidental policy entrepreneur before I had ever heard the phrase. In 2022, I was on a short-term academic fellowship at Cornell University, conducting research in collaboration with Daria Siegel at the New York City Economic Development Corporation on why the City had such a hard time buying from early-stage companies. What started as a small research project turned into a two-year campaign, culminating in the City of New York modifying its procurement code. 

That change was only possible because the conditions were in place for Daria and me to succeed. The academic affiliation gave me credibility, and Daria had the authority and know-how to navigate the City. But it was really the motley team that assembled around the cause of procurement reform — Julia Fusfeld, Marc Heinrich, B.J. Jones, Stacey Matlen and too many others to name — who made it happen. 

My own experience with policy entrepreneurship is why I am so excited about the potential of the Pitchfest. At the event, agency staff were invited to deliver low-stakes, two-minute pitches on problems they were having. We had everyone from deputy commissioners to analysts on stage. The audience was composed of academic researchers and volunteers from civil society, who now have the opportunity to “match” with a city agency. Think Tinder x Science Fair x Y Combinator Demo Day. We heard problem statements as wide-ranging as how to prevent asphalt deterioration at bus stops, to how to ensure emergency preparedness at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. (Note: The City’s Department of Emergency Management wants you to have fun, “but not too much of it.”) 

Going forward, we hope to have the privilege of running events like the Pitchfest in more places. For now, here is a sampling of the 50-plus pitches we received this year in New York.

Apply by June 2 to be matched with an agency and sign up to follow along. We hope to see you at a Pitchfest in your city!

Sample Projects

Alec Bardey at the Department of Transportation wants to automate the way the DOT counts traffic data using computer vision, to inform future transportation planning.

Maryanne Schretzman at the Center for Innovation through Data Intelligence wants to study the use of Emergency Housing Vouchers during COVID to improve our understanding of tenant decision-making.

Olyvia Siekman at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice wants to analyze crime data to inform efforts to reduce incidents of sexual violence, and improve long-term public safety.

Meghan Shineman at the Department for the Aging wants to evaluate the impact of the department’s community-based services on cognitive health among older New Yorkers.

Justin Zwick from the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) wants to create a digital voucher system to track trash pick-up, replacing a paper-based process.

Sherman Olivera at the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) wants to assess the impact of the SafeGrowth pilot, a crime prevention program which ran in three neighborhoods.

Tom Porcelli at New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) wants to incorporate AI-driven transcription tools to improve the turnaround time and accuracy of call records.

Carlos Piedad wants to understand how the burden of rising utility cost impacts low-income New Yorkers, including developing innovative rate design proposals.