HARTFORD – U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced on Tuesday that SeeClickFix of New Haven is this month’s “Murphy’s Innovator of the Month.” SeeClickFix is a mobile app and communications platform for citizens to report non-emergency issues – such as cracked sidewalks, potholes, and light outages – to their local governments. The app is also used by local governments to track, manage, and reply to residents’ concerns. New Haven resident Ben Berkowitz founded SeeClickFix in 2007 after struggling to connect with city officials about removing graffiti on the side of his neighbor’s home.
Today, SeeClickFix employs 35 workers in New Haven. Nearly 300 governments and 1 million users across the world use the app to report and respond to local issues. To date, almost 90% of the 3 million issues that have been reported using SeeClickFix have been resolved. Over the past year, SeeClickFix has moved from only addressing request management to also addressing work management. This expanded functionality has allowed homeowners associations, housing authorities, hospitals, private property and university facilities, and many others management systems to find value in SeeClickFix. The New Haven startup completely redesigned their Android application last month, and has plans to conduct a similar overhaul of their iOS application in March.
“Ben and the SeeClickFix team are solving a problem near and dear to my heart—making government work better. With the touch of a button, residents are easily connected with local governments to solve problems and improve their communities,” said Murphy. “I’m excited to watch SeeClickFix grow and will be standing by to help them every step of the way.”
Ben Berkowitz, CEO and Founder of SeeClickFix, said, “On a state level, we’re proud and excited to see the SeeClickFix network grow across Connecticut. We started in New Haven and are being used in Bridgeport, Hamden, Killingly, Middletown, Enfield, and Windsor. More locally, we’re excited to have moved our offices into 770 Chapel Street — a growing entrepreneurial hub of activity in New Haven. We’re joined in the building by a number of other startups and organizations like MakeHaven, Patient Wisdom, and Wellinks.”
As part of the “Murphy’s Innovator of the Month” series, Murphy will recognize one of Connecticut’s distinct startups or innovators for their outstanding contributions to Connecticut each month. Murphy will work directly with the innovators selected to identify specific steps he can take at the federal level to support Connecticut’s startup, bioscience, and entrepreneurial community. The awardee will also receive an official U.S. Senate certificate of achievement.
Murphy believes entrepreneurship and innovation are building blocks for a strong economy. In the U.S. Senate, he has introduced two bipartisan pieces of legislation to incentivize angel investors to put more money into startup companies – the Angel Tax Credit Act and the Helping Angels Lead Our Startups (HALOS) Act. Last month, Murphy’s HALOS Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives. Startup companies create an average of 2 million jobs each year.
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