TrendPo, a D.C.-based data analytics and social media advertising firm for politicians, is seeing plenty of new business now that the campaign season is heating up. TrendPo, which was incubated at
The Fort, now has its own sales office in Dupont and is currently part of the
Capital Factory Incubator (CFI) in Austin, Tex.
TrendPo uses social media to create a daily leaderboard of influence for politicians. This
leaderboard ranks presidential candidates; the company can create customized leaderboards based on a client's needs. TrendPo also offers a complete social media campaign management solution.
Company founder and CEO JD Chang says that TrendPo has signed on five new clients in the past two weeks in part due to an
infographic that tells a "David and Goliath"-like story of Dave Brat, an economics professor, beating House majority leader and incumbent Eric Cantor in the
Virginia Republican primary in June.
"One of the things that we [at TrendPo] see is that political campaigns are light on their Twitter [use]," Chang says. "Brat was outspent everywhere, but he had an opportunity to use a Twitter strategy. He won [the primary because] he was retweeted by very influential people and by very influential hashtags right before [the end of] the race." Chang concedes that there were other factors at play in Brat's victory, but maintains that "Twitter was a monitor, if not an instigator, in Brat's grassroots campaign."
TrendPo itself has headed back to its roots. Chang is from Austin and half of the TrendPo team now calls that city home, thanks to CFI—an opportunity that came about because Chang pitched successfully at SXSW in April. "We didn't win the pitch competition outright," he says, "but we were one of the five [out of hundreds who applied] who got to pitch." CFI provides office space, mentors and business services as well as "a funding component" that Chang says is "not finalized yet."
Chang is happy to have to his team in two locations. "Right now, our engineering team is in Austin and our sales team is staying in D.C." at the new company digs in Dupont.
TrendPo is looking to add a few sales people to its D.C. team.