San Francisco launches entrepreneur-in-residence program
San Francisco is launching a new entrepreneur-in-residence program that aims to bring innovative thinkers into city government to find technological solutions to the city’s largest challenges.
The city will work in collaboration with the White House and other strategic partners “on opportunities that are actual pain points and needs of government,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said.
The program is inspired by President Obama’s call, “We’ve got to have the brightest minds to help solve our biggest challenges.”
Starting this October, San Francisco’s 16-week EIR program will select talented entrepreneurial teams and help them develop technology-enabled products and services that can capitalize on the $142 billion public sector market.
“San Francisco’s program is one of the first EIR programs within government, who is by far, the largest customer of products and services in the nation,” said San Francisco’s Chief Innovation Officer Jay Nath. “The entrepreneurial products and services developed through San Francisco’s EIR program should drive significant impact such as increased revenue, enhanced productivity or meaningful cost savings.”
San Francisco’s EIR program will select talented entrepreneurial teams and help them develop technology-enabled products and services that can capitalize on the $142 billion public sector market.
The program plans to attract world-class entrepreneurs and technologists by providing them with direct access to government needs and opportunities, staff and their expertise, in addition to product development, ramp-up support, and insights into a gold mine of government problems and opportunities through the City and County of San Francisco.
“Products and services that successfully solve issues faced by San Francisco can easily expand to addressing similar needs of other cities and states across the nation in addition to the private sector,” said Rahul Mewawalla, a senior executive with leadership experiences across Fortune 500 and high growth companies who is leading the program. “We expect to drive significant innovation and growth in areas of pressing importance such as data, mobile and cloud services, healthcare, education, transportation, energy and infrastructure.”
San Francisco’s EIR program will offer selected teams mentorship from senior public leaders across the mayor’s office and San Francisco departments and from private sector leaders with experience at companies such as McKinsey & Company, Nokia, NBC Universal, General Electric, Yahoo! and Goldman Sachs.
