Building business alliances that advance tech for the public good

The Upside Tech Alliance was launched by a coalition of Kapor Capital portfolio companies to connect women- and BIPOC-led Series A and B startups with the public agencies and cities ready to deploy their solutions at scale.

Azul Cortez at the Upside Tech Alliance exhibition booth — The Alliance booth, the front door for agencies meeting member companies for the first time.

Client type Founder-led coalition of Kapor Capital portfolio companies

My role Project manager, founding team

Scope of work Startup ecosystem building, government partnerships, investor strategy, digital launch, business development

Context and challenge

The idea for the Alliance was born at a retreat with President Obama, out of a question about who gets to build public infrastructure and who gets paid to do it.

The numbers behind that question are blunt. In 2022, the year the Alliance launched, Black founders received 1 percent of US venture capital and Latino founders 1.5 percent. Women-founded teams raised 1.9 percent. Black and Latina women founders together received one tenth of one percent.

Figures compiled by McKinsey from Crunchbase and PitchBook data.

Rather than wait for that to change, a group of Kapor Capital portfolio companies built the Alliance themselves. Promise Pay, BlocPower, Aclima and their peers pooled their standing to reach the public agencies, cities, and civic partners ready to deploy real-world solutions at scale.

The challenge was translating a bold idea into a national platform, and building the narrative, operational systems, and external trust needed to support its growth.

What I did

Supported the launch and national expansion of the Alliance from pilot stage to active national initiative.

Led key pieces of grant writing, pitch refinement, and investor-facing communications.

Conducted market and policy research to align founder impact with civic and agency needs across housing, climate, broadband, and data equity.

Developed internal operations and business development systems supporting founder readiness and public-sector procurement pathways.

Managed website troubleshooting and coordinated the soft and hard launches.

Oversaw stakeholder relationships and set strategic business development targets, identifying government and philanthropic partners with aligned values.

Served as a bridge between startups, funders, and public sector leaders, creating the infrastructure to scale responsibly and equitably.

Aclima CEO Davida Herzl and BlocPower chief of staff Sarina Cerro in conversation with city partners at an Upside Tech Alliance convening — Aclima CEO Davida Herzl and Sarina Cerro, then chief of staff at BlocPower, in conversation with city partners. This is what ecosystem building looks like in practice: founders and agency staff in the same room, which is harder to arrange than it sounds and is most of what the platform existed to do.

Tools and strategies

Pitch deck developmentCommunicating value to funders and public officials

Grant narrativesSecuring mission-aligned philanthropic support

HubSpot and AirtableTracking business development and partner engagement

WordPress and WebflowCoordinating the launch and troubleshooting in real time

Google SuiteCollaboration across communications, ops, and narrative drafting

Policy and market scansIdentifying opportunity zones for civic-tech partnerships

Outcomes

Bloomberg CityLab article about the Upside Tech Alliance alongside targeted meeting decks for Newark, St. Louis, and Miami — Brentin Mock covered the launch for Bloomberg CityLab in September 2022. Below it, the city-specific meeting decks built for Newark, St. Louis, and Miami.

Pilot scaled to national launchCity-specific proposals built and pitched in Newark, St. Louis, and Miami

National press at launchBloomberg CityLab covered the Alliance in September 2022, framing it as a possible model for how Silicon Valley works with the public sector

Member companies into governmentPromise and BlocPower secured real-world pilots

Website launchedClear digital storytelling and frictionless partner access

BD targets definedFunder and agency engagement streamlined through CRM use

Narrative and ops alignedStronger collaboration across founders, investors, and government

Promise CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Aclima CEO Davida Herzl, and Azul Cortez at the 2023 Smart City Expo — Smart City Expo USA, Miami Beach, 2023, with Promise CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Aclima CEO Davida Herzl, and me at right, project manager for the Alliance. A year after launch, the Alliance was at the table where cities buy, rather than being talked about there.

This wasn’t just about helping startups grow. It was about shifting who gets to build the future.

By creating a platform for underrepresented founders to plug into public-sector systems and storytelling infrastructure, we helped redefine what tech for public good means. From narrative design to systems architecture to relationship-building, this work reflected a commitment to equity, scale, and impact.

Azul Cortez with Michael Tubbs, Michelle DePass, and Yuh-Line Niou at the Upside Tech Alliance afterparty during Smart City Expo USA in Miami Beach, 2023 — The afterparty the Alliance co-hosted during the expo, with Michael Tubbs, former mayor of Stockton; Michelle DePass, managing director of the Upside Tech Alliance; and Yuh-Line Niou, former member of the New York State Assembly.