The nascent company, the work of a pair of brothers earning their undergraduate degrees at Stanford University, hit 101 percent of its funding goal through the crowdfunding site Indiegogo. The project had 196 backers, including several who pitched in hundreds of dollars at a time.
Liam McCarty, one of the founders, said the money will help him and his brother Aidan fund development of the company’s initial product, as well as legal expenses for terms of service and a privacy policy.
The first product ePluribus is building is a plug-in for Facebook and Twitter to allow users to select their representatives so they see messages they post, as well as a website widget so people can do the same thing through lawmakers’ websites. The duo is also working on a portal for contacting representatives through the ePluribus website.
As the company grows, the McCartys want to focus on building identity verification measures to give representatives some peace of mind that the people who are contacting them are, in fact, their constituents. In the future, ePluribus could also offer lawmakers analytics packages to help with the process of tabulating constituent opinions on specific issues.