Status of PeopleCount, Feb 3, 2019: Trying again slowly…
(If you don’t know what PeopleCount offers, click here.)

Status of the demo: I have a PeopleCount web-server beginning to work. I barely touched it in the last year. I began to try again in December to replace the server that died. Atop the demands of a full-time job, it’s a bit much. I might be able to finish the demo if I have two solid weeks. To code, I need solid chunk of times and no distractions.

Status of the mailing list: About 170 people. When it reaches 10,000, crowd-funding becomes possible. Did you invite your friends? (It’s possible with fewer than 10,000 if a volunteer team runs it- and PeopleCount will provide wonderful prizes worth 3-60 times the investment!)

Status of the blog: There are 400 articles in the blog…

Volunteers: None. Since PeopleCount is a B-corp, not a non-profit, people can’t volunteer to work for me. But they can form a group to support it on their own, for instance to talk about it on social media or fund-raise.

Upshot/chances: Without funding, there’s only a small chance that I’ll produce a demo that’s good enough to gain funding, much less finish a production server for a live beta.

Even if I had a demo, there’s little chance investors would be interested. Understanding the dynamics of our political system is beyond most people, and without that, PeopleCount doesn’t seem compelling. My plan for launching and growing is solid, but that’ll also require full-time work.

A demo would be more interesting to a congressional or presidential challenger, but they’re all dead-set on a traditional high-cost, low-engagement, poorly-communicating campaign. They believe they understand politics and are much too busy for something unproven.

If you want to help, put together a team to crowd-fund PeopleCount.

Or convince a representative, senator, or congressional or presidential challenger to buy our future services at a steep discount.

Or convince one of the many wealthy people in America to invest $300k. It could start with just $50k.

Good luck. There are a few people who believe PeopleCount can work. But without real backing, whether it’s a fund-raising team or an investor, it’s too easy to dismiss me as a crackpot. I’ve talked to all sorts of people. Almost all believe they either understand it from a few sentences or don’t need to because it’s trying to fix a problem they’re sure can only be fixed by fighting harder.

Try telling someone there’s a way to fix politics. They’ll probably smile and shake their head. They’ll probably ask no questions, much less ask for a business plan.

So I’ll continue to push the demo forward, and when I’m done I’ll show it to one person who, so far, expressed interest. Then I’ll try to finish the production server. If I can start a beta by this summer, we have a chance.

Or, you can volunteer, and we can provide a new foundation for politics that’s designed to allow democracy to work, and work reliably.