5 cool civic startups on display at the 2015 Congress of Cities

OpenCounter

Santa Clara, California, had a problem: Its complex permitting system made it difficult for startups to register with the city as businesses.

“The tools for economic development were not aligned with who was coming to us,” said Peter Koht, co-founder of OpenCounter. “Let’s try and level the playing field.”

Using his experience as Santa Clara’s former economic development coordinator, Koht helped Santa Clara — and eventually even larger cities like Indianapolis and Orlando, Fla. — get rid of its paper-based business permitting systems and replace them with a Web system that allowed businesses to get the permits and other licenses they need in less time.

The system gathers business information from the user and churns out a list of costs for the necessary permits and licenses. It also allows the user to submit the relevant application and fees.

“Permitting is a core government function,” Koht said. “Unfortunately the previous tools were not designed for the public experience. We wanted to democratize economic development.”