The Fixer Who Helps Startups Like Uber Beat the Government

Bradley Tusk just won a big victory for Uber against NY Mayor Bill de Blasio. Now he wants to help other startups take on regulators.
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Tech is obsessed with “disruption,” so much so that the term has all but lost its meaning. Startups touting the next big thing can rake in millions while offering not-so-imaginative ideas such as a grilled cheese restaurant chain or a “Dropbox for physical storage” (Which is also, you know, just a regular box.)

But tech at its most enterprising can build whole new economies around brand new industries. Google did it with search; Amazon with online retail; and Facebook and Twitter with social networking. These days, however, the buzziest startups with the highest valuations—think Uber and Airbnb—aren't just the ones challenging incumbent businesses; it’s almost an assumed part of the deal that at some point the most successful startups will have to go up against the government.

Tusk Ventures

Bradley Tusk thinks there’s something to that idea, and he hopes to capitalize on it. This week, he and a few like-minded colleagues with political and investing experience introduced Tusk Ventures, which Tusk touts as the nation’s first political consulting firm that aims to help startups leap the myriad regulatory hurdles that many face.

Tusk himself is a former creature of government: in 2009, he served as campaign manager for Michael Bloomberg's successful mayoral re-election. But he says tech can work at a more exhilarating pace than government—and often get more done. “I think that what we’re seeing is that a lot of tech companies are doing things a lot better than government can, whether it’s their direct mission, or a byproduct of their mission,” Tusk tells WIRED.

“When the mentality is ‘We’re going to get this done no matter what,’ a lot more gets done. That’s fun to be around, and in some ways, the reasons why I went into government 20 years ago are, I feel, more relevant now in tech than in government.”

Uber Take All

Tusk’s firm arrives at a time when the influence of tech is steadily seeping into the government sphere. In the second quarter of this year, Google was the third-largest lobbyist in the corporate world, spending nearly $5 million to court Congress. Facebook, Amazon and Apple also spent mounds of cash—around $1 to $2 million each. According to a recent BusinessWeek report, Uber has 250 lobbyists and 29 lobbying firms in US statehouses alone, one-third more than Walmart. And as a recent Politico article noted, many former government officials—including high-profile Obama adviser David Plouffe, now at Uber—have left the White House for the hills of San Francisco.

Tusk himself started consulting in 2011 as a political strategist for Uber, which offered him equity in lieu of his regular fee. (“We said sure, and that worked out really well,” Tusk says.) Most recently, he helped spearhead Uber’s recent campaign against New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who proposed capping the number of cars that ride-hailing companies could put on the road. He was closely involved in the all-out blitz to lobby City Council members and raise public awareness of de Blasio’s proposed plan. The firm supported the campaign with TV and radio ads, mailers, phone calls, digital ads, and campaign-style rallies.

Di Blasio ultimately backed down.

“Tech founders really try to fight if anything gets in their way, while government lets everything get in their way,” he says.

'Just Like a Political Campaign'

Despite Uber's success, Tusk says his goal is not to wage the same fight every day, in every market, for every customer. "It’s expensive, for one," he says. "In the end, the goal is to figure out how to work with regulators, and how to tell your story in a positive way."

Current clients include Zendrive, a startup that watches driver behavior, and General Assembly, a programming school that teaches technology skills. For now, Tusk Ventures will likely take on about a dozen or so companies a year, Tusk says. But the opportunities are broad, he says, from tech in the classroom to new health insurers taking on the old guard, online gambling to telecommunications to real estate, where platforms are replacing brokers.

In Tusk’s view, the intensity of a political campaign translates well to helping tech companies push back against regulatory resistance.

"You have to understand how government works," Tusk says. "How to make things happen, how regulations are passed or blocked, how laws are passed or blocked, how you shape opinion or run campaign. ... That’s more important than being a subject-matter expert."