Our Story

Public Democracy, Inc., is a data solutions and market intelligence company on a mission to develop better data and more meaningful AI systems that reflect users’ values, support their priorities, and allow them to better share in the value of the data they create. We work deeply in the digital and data space, but we think of ourselves as an IRL company (borrowing the gaming/internet slang for “in real life”) because everything we do in the digital space is focused on real world outcomes that align what is right with what works.

We got our start over a decade ago in political communications and organizing. We succeeded where others had failed by listening to the communities we were tasked to mobilize and persuade and taking a data-driven approach to inform our strategies. 

Whereas most data has been built to solve the challenge of “what will people click on and what will keep them coming back,” we intentionally took a different approach. We built our Values Data, from the very first byte, to discover, “what do people care about and what will they do together?” 

Our founder and president, Eric Sapp, was trained as a pastor. He knew people are best understood by their values, best engaged through empathy, and best served when they can realize they belong and can make a difference.

These principles are what we built our Values Data on, and they served us well as we expanded our focus from politics into broader advocacy, entertainment, and community building. Inspiring someone to act —whether it was supporting a homeless veteran, taking the kids to a family film, or joining friends and neighbors to support a White House or UN initiative — always started with understanding what mattered most to our audience and then finding a way to give them an opportunity they’d value.

As the engagements and commitments mounted and we developed deeper insights into the values motivating different communities, we realized there was a responsibility that accompanied the Values Data we were building.

We understand that each data point represents a moment when we connected with a real person — where their willingness to engage provided a glimpse into their values, hopes, and sometimes fears. Every engagement recorded in our database reflects a point when a person believed that something we were offering them could make a difference and that their participation could matter.

We believe that through better data and the more meaningful AI it creates, we can empower individuals, improve communities, and advance the common good. That belief is what drives our work. If you share that vision and want to be a part of the next chapter of our story, then we invite you to reach out to us to talk about about how we can work together.