Aden Clemente
San Francisco, California, United States
2K followers
500+ connections
2K followers
500+ connections
About
At EffiGov, we're building AI tools to empower every civil servant in America. We're…
Activity
2K followers
-
Aden Clemente reposted thisAden Clemente reposted thisThe City Of Huber Heights started as thousands of affordable homes built on cow pastures and corn fields. Half a century later, that community has grown into a suburb of 43,000, and calls to city hall haven’t let up. Today, 73% of calls to the city are handled by our system. Six AI agents answer 1,800+ calls a month - including 1,000+ that came in when city hall was closed. Whether a resident wants to reach their council member, check the date of the next city concert, ask about the setback for a new flagpole, or request leaf pickup - there’s now an answer. 24/7, for every department. Here’s the story: https://lnkd.in/g49d33RG
-
Aden Clemente reposted thisAden Clemente reposted thisTwo years ago, I was an intern clearing plates of barbeque on the South Lawn. If there’s anything I learned that summer, it’s that things can change quickly (even, or maybe especially, at the top). Grateful to spend this 4th serving the local governments that are so easy to lose sight of in DC, now across four states. Happy birthday, America.
-
Aden Clemente reposted thisAden Clemente reposted thisSumter County is the oldest county in the country (almost twice the national average) You’d think this would be the worst place to launch voice AI. But local governments don't have the luxury of choosing which demographics they serve. When we started with Sumter in July 2025, we turned on a single agent for Animal Services and monitored it for a month. Then we added the next. Ten months later, six AI agents are answering 11,000+ calls a month across six departments - roughly two-thirds handled by the system before it reaches a human. Huge thanks to Stephen Kennedy and the Sumter County, Florida team for their partnership. They proved you don't need a leap of faith to overhaul how a county serves its residents - just a series of deliberate steps. The full story, the rollout, the numbers, and real call transcripts can be viewed @ https://lnkd.in/eHKYVfh6
-
Aden Clemente reposted thisAden Clemente reposted thisThe best feedback we get isn't from a dashboard. It's a resident saying, "I didn't realize I was talking with an AI." Sumter County now handles over 10,000 calls a month through EffiGov. I sat down with Stephen Kennedy, Assistant County Administrator for Sumter County, FL on what this changes for residents and staff. Sharing a short clip below.
-
Aden Clemente reposted thisAden Clemente reposted thisA question I get in nearly every sales meeting is what happens after EffiGov. I’ve been asked every variation of when we plan on selling and offloading our clients to the next guy, or why we don’t target the private sector (“they have more money than we do!”) Despite being horribly premature, there’s something else these questions miss - if you’re in GovTech for the right reasons, your first venture should be your last. When you sign a contract, it’s a commitment, both to the government and to the residents you are now obliged to serve. Why choose to hand off that stewardship? Are Mayors expected to resign when they get bored? I don’t know how long I’ll run EffiGov, but I do know that I won’t move on willingly, it won't be in the next decade, and I’m not leaving the public sector.
-
Aden Clemente reposted thisAden Clemente reposted thisSpoke at the Tennessee City Management Association in Murfreesboro last week - not far from where I grew up in North Alabama. Good reminder of who this is actually for.
-
Aden Clemente reposted thisAden Clemente reposted thisDC is no bellwether. Most of us see Capitol Hill through a screen, but the parts of government that are real – the water department, the permitting office, and the public hearing – that’s where government is felt and where trust is built. And when a resident’s call goes unanswered, that trust erodes. Not just in a department, but in the system itself. So we built something that makes sure those calls get answered. Now tens of thousands a month. Strong local governments are the backbone of our nation, and this is how we’ve chosen to serve the national interest.
-
Aden Clemente reposted thisAden Clemente reposted thisIf you're a talented engineer in San Francisco who wants to help cities improve their responsiveness to citizens, join the EffiGov team! Learn more and apply directly here: https://lnkd.in/gy2uGF4r
-
Aden Clemente reposted thisAden Clemente reposted this4 years ago, I tabled, knocked on doors, and rallied my peers to advocate for professional local government management in my hometown. A thousand signatures later, we put the question of a city manager on the ballot. And our community delivered a decisive mandate… the ballot initiative failed, overwhelmingly, by a 3-1 margin. I couldn’t have imagined that just 4 years after this civic experiment, I’d be serving the same public servants that I’d advocated for as a student. Our country is a patchwork of local governments that share so much, but solve the same problems in thousands of slightly different ways. But, how our governments answer calls doesn't need to change when you cross a county line. Proud to help strengthen how governments connect with the people they serve, whether in the Tennessee Valley or the Miami Valley.
Aden Clemente commented on a post
3mo
Thanks Steve!
If you're a civic hacker based in or willing to relocate to SF, we'd love to see your application!
-
Aden Clemente liked thisAden Clemente liked thisThe the only newspaper ad Y Combinator ever ran (in the Stanford Daily).
-
Aden Clemente liked thisAden Clemente liked thisOn July 3, Vulcan Technologies hosted the Patriot Games Hackathon, inviting Austin's best and brightest to celebrate 250 years of America by building in response to the following prompt: "use AI to strengthen our Republic." Congratulations to our award winners! Kylie Sankar Jason Lee Abay Bektursun Nick Zemtzov Thanks Founders Feed for the awesome video
-
Aden Clemente liked thisAden Clemente liked thisToday at Sway I helped several voters verify their registration, and then scoped + pushed some code. As I did this, a reflection: The tension between 'help someone now' and 'build something that lasts' is so fundamental to (1) ops work and (2) civic tech. If you're a politics nerd—whether you're skeptical or fascinated by the latest civic tech—or a builder who wants to wade into the messiness of politics, you've probably done this dance too. I'd love to yap with you about it and cook for you too. DMs / comments open!
-
Aden Clemente liked thisAden Clemente liked thisThe City Of Huber Heights started as thousands of affordable homes built on cow pastures and corn fields. Half a century later, that community has grown into a suburb of 43,000, and calls to city hall haven’t let up. Today, 73% of calls to the city are handled by our system. Six AI agents answer 1,800+ calls a month - including 1,000+ that came in when city hall was closed. Whether a resident wants to reach their council member, check the date of the next city concert, ask about the setback for a new flagpole, or request leaf pickup - there’s now an answer. 24/7, for every department. Here’s the story: https://lnkd.in/g49d33RG
-
Aden Clemente liked thisAden Clemente liked thisI was a terrible salesperson. Then one sentence changed everything, and we grew Hyperspell 50x in 6 months. When I started selling, I'd get on calls and immediately start overselling. I'd talk about the product, the roadmap, whatever feature we shipped that week. I was so focused on proving value that I forgot about the human on the other side. Even when the product was a perfect fit, I scared people away. Then I started working with Rob Snyder, and he told me: "You aren't the hero of this story. Your customer is." Sales isn't about convincing anyone. It's about finding people with a burning need and helping them win. Then he broke my thinking again: "The sale is not complete until they renew a year from now." I stopped using slide decks. I spent hours listening to prospects. Sometimes I said "we aren't the right fit, but let me connect you with someone who is." Some of those people came back later and became customers. That approach took us 50x in 6 months, and we haven't slowed down. Rob's thinking now shapes how our whole company works with customers. Today, Rob put everything he taught me into a book: The Power of Pull. It's on Amazon now. If you sell anything, read it.
-
Aden Clemente liked thisAden Clemente liked this"Odds Man Out" is out today! For more than two decades, I was intrigued by the story of three entrepreneurs - Jay Cohen, Steve Schillinger and Haden Ware who were trapped in paradise. I'd soon find out there was so much more to the story I saw back then on 60 MINUTES. Fast forward to 2022, when I came across a LinkedIn profile for Jay Cohen. I sent him a message and asked if he was the founder of World Sports Exchange, WSEX.com. I couldn't believe it was actually him, but there he was. We started messaging and then we'd started doing video calls. Those conversations led to a book deal with Debra Englander at @posthillpress. His book, "Odds Man Out" is out today and I couldn't be more excited. The book is available for sale at BN.com, Amazon and everywhere books are sold. I'm calling it the beach read of the summer. Cohen's fast-paced memoir is a thrilling ride set in the mid-1990s in the early days of the internet. Starting with a foreword by Cohen's defense attorney, the legenday Benjamin Brafman, the book takes readers from the pits in the Pacific Stock Exchange in San Francisco to the white sandy beaches of Antigua. Cohen and his colleagues Steve Schillinger and Haden Ware were years ahead of their time and started what was one of the first fully online sportsbooks, World Sports Exchange. They were true innovators and were the first to offer a sports futures exchange as well as micro bets, live bets where you could trade in and out until the final whistle. The site was an early analogue to Kalshi and Polymarket, offering futures markets on the Oscars, MVP awards, movie openings and even elections. This is an entrepreneur's journey with international intrigue that's wrapped in a legal thriller. Cohen's story is an unflinching look at the revolving door of power and how the professional sports leagues, led by the NFL, gamed the justice system to serve their own interests. Regardless of your opinion of sports betting, this is a story that deserves to be told. Thank you to Jay for believing in me to help shepherd your story. Special thanks to Don Rearden for bringing Jay's story to life. And a big shoutout to all of the people who contributed - Haden Ware, Melinda Sarafa, Gyneth McAllister, MBA, Geoff Bacino, Gary Sparks, Bob Blumenfeld, Mark Mendel and Darren Laville. Thank you! Go to WSEX.com order your copy today. Thanks! Cover art by the great Vincent Keane. #books #sportsbetting #predictionmarkets
-
Aden Clemente liked thisAden Clemente liked thisTo celebrate our country's 250th birthday, Commonweal is releasing the 2nd annual edition of the AmTech 76: our yearly list of the 76 venture capital firms investing in the future of America. America faces great challenges: revitalizing the US defense industrial base, securing energy infrastructure for the AI era, providing healthcare that works for all Americans, and modernizing the public institutions that bind us. The startups solving these problems all share one thing in common: government is part of the journey, either as a customer, regulator, or partner. That's what we mean by #AmTech. This list is designed for founders navigating the government landscape who need to know which VCs have conviction and expertise in AmTech markets. Every firm on this list has placed real bets in AmTech. If you're building where government is part of the journey, these investors want to support you. From our founding 250 years ago, Americans have always bet on individual ingenuity backed by strong institutions. We believe that is the right formula for America’s future. That’s why we founded Commonweal Ventures: to back companies building our nation's future, and to help them partner with the public sector to scale and win. When we launched in 2022, talking about the intersection of government and technology seemed strange to most VCs. How times have changed! Over the past five years, the AmTech ecosystem has grown beyond our wildest expectations. More capital, more founders, more firms who get it. The momentum is palpable. We’ve had the privilege of co-investing with many firms on this list — including Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Lowercarbon Capital, and many others — in companies like Crux, Sharp Performance, Advocate, BLTN by Multitude Insights, and Grid Aero. We assembled this list by drawing on hundreds of nominations and by analyzing more than 3,000 AmTech deals executed over the past 12 months. If you want the full #AmTech 76 list with additional detail, including representative deals for each firm, comment “AmTech” and we’ll DM you the PDF report.
-
Aden Clemente liked thisAden Clemente liked thisThe goal wasn't to build a million-dollar company they'd drop out of college for. Rudy Arora and Sarthak Dhawan just wanted to create something they would find useful, maybe market it a little bit, and if it went well, pay for college with the profits. The co-founders grew up in the suburbs outside Dallas and met in middle school. Dhawan said they were always tinkering with random things together and trying to build stuff. Their app was born out of a problem they faced with taking good notes in class as they transitioned from high school to college in 2023. They launched their AI learning tool in January 2024, and by March 2025, the app was generating almost $500,000 a month. Today, the app has generated over $13 million in lifetime revenue. Read about how they scaled their startup on Business Insider: https://lnkd.in/eeDsmNqQ (Credit: Courtesy of Rudy Arora and Sarthak Dhawan) #AIapp #startupsuccess #youngentrepreneurs #techstartup
Experience
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Education
-
-
-
Test Scores
-
ACT
Score: 36 / 36
Other similar profiles
Explore more posts
-
Delta Wu
Allen Zhu (GSR Ventures): The AI app boom is imminent — the next ByteDance, Kuaishou, or Rednote was likely founded this year. At the 2025 Inclusion Bund Conference, Allen Zhu delivered a clear, unsentimental read on where AI is headed: the real opportunities are beyond the model. Key takeaways for builders & investors Model plateau → miniaturization. Under the Transformer paradigm, core “intelligence” gains are tapering; wins will come from UX and cost. Expect smaller, cheaper models, smarter data curation, and edge deployment. Apps are shifting text → voice → video. Token consumption is exploding in real use cases. Voice is breaking out now; ultra-low-latency video (~1s) could trigger the next wave. Moats live outside AI. Think workflows, editing/polish, proprietary/regulated data, operations, and specialized hardware (e.g., capture devices, smart name badges). Do the “boring, dirty work” others avoid. Agents: go vertical or get absorbed. Generic agents lack defensibility and will be eaten by advancing base models. Build sticky, domain-specific agents tied to real processes and outcomes. Commercialization > vibes. Retention is king. Beware “vibe revenue.” In SV, many VCs wait for ~$2M ARR post-launch; in China, sub-12-month paths to ~$5M ARR are becoming the bar. China founders’ edge & go-global. Strength in To-C experience design and hardware supply chains; look to Japan/SEA/MENA to avoid direct “model wars” and compete on execution. From UNIQUE RESEARCH’s tracking of thousands of AI apps globally, we see the same arc: the model dividend is flattening; winners are those who embed AI into specific scenarios, compress latency/cost, and build non-technical moats in data, workflow, and user insight. Bottom line: Don’t chase generic model horsepower. Ship products that deliver outcomes in real workflows—and measure yourself by retention, renewal, and unit economics. https://lnkd.in/gC63AABv
-
Yaniv F.
This is very true. The valuation trap is real. But I don’t think this is a YC story. It’s a market story. We’re seeing the exact same thing here in Israel. Seed rounds at 30–40M for companies with no product, no real validation, sometimes barely a prototype. Not second-time founders. First-timers. I’ve personally seen more than 20 rounds like this just last year. This isn’t about YC “pushing” companies. The system as a whole hasn’t adapted. The cost of building collapsed. The speed of iteration exploded. But pricing logic stayed anchored in 2021. When capital doesn’t recalibrate to reality, it doesn’t just create paper risk. It creates structural fragility. Good companies get boxed into impossible expectations. They are forced to grow into valuations instead of growing into product-market fit. That’s how promising businesses die early. The tragedy isn’t overvaluation. The tragedy is killing companies that could have become durable, profitable, meaningful businesses. This isn’t a YC issue. It’s a venture industry inertia issue. And the longer it takes to adjust, the more collateral damage we’ll keep seeing.
Explore top content on LinkedIn
Find curated posts and insights for relevant topics all in one place.
View top content