Our mission is personal for us. Ben Cohen, Co-Founder and CTO, grew up helping his father — a general contractor — to apply for hundreds of construction permits. Ben’s frustrating experiences navigating clunky portals inspired him to build better solutions for the millions of tradespeople whose livelihoods depend on getting permits fast. Prior to founding GovWell, Ben worked for Uber and Amazon as a Software Engineer, and earned his AB in Computer Science summa cum laude from Princeton.

Troy LeCaire, Co-Founder and CEO, was previously the first employee and Chief of Staff at RippleMatch, a software startup, helping it grow to 120 employees and a $200 million valuation. Prior to that, he worked for two U.S. senators from his home state of Wisconsin. He believes passionately that taxpayers deserve effective, transparent government and that technology is critical to achieving this goal. Troy earned his BA in Government magna cum laude from Cornell and studied political philosophy in graduate school before dropping out to start GovWell.

Our first product helps municipal and county governments modernize complex services like permitting and licensing. GovWell combines a highly configurable SaaS system of record with generative AI that automates work for staff, guides residents through services, and is radically simple to deploy.

Founded in 2023, GovWell powers 3,000+ critical processes for agencies in 28 states serving millions of residents. We’ve raised $9.5M in seed funding from Work-Bench and Bienville Capital, and work in person at our HQ in New York City.