Software, used intelligently, can change society for the better.
We build systems people need.
Over the past twenty years, we developed a three-part "system": building the software products that people need, the organizations that sustain innovation, and the financial models that create freedom from venture capital.
In the first era of Tipping Point Partners, new methods and tools transformed what we could build and what it cost. We delivered working systems in months — systems that the conventional process would have taken years to produce and tens of millions to fund.
Now, in this second era, the economics have shifted again. AI is a force multiplier. It compresses what was possible in months into weeks. We will deliver a software platform for Medicare plan selection in under nine months — a system that helps people navigate one of the most consequential and deliberately confusing decisions of their lives.
Lower costs change what is possible. When you do not need a venture capital return to survive, your focus shifts to the benefit of users over the return to investors. We believe that disproportionate value to users will ultimately translate into higher valuation, not the other way around.
Systems must be in production to matter. Casebook, the first web-based child welfare system for state government, has been in production since 2012. NYC Votes, the nation's first mobile campaign contribution platform, has been running since 2012. Carina, which connects home care workers to the families who need them, has been running since 2017. At JPMorgan Chase, the same design principles transformed global legal knowledge management in 2019.
Our design hierarchy has not changed in thirty-five years: end users first, frontline workers next, every other stakeholder after that. Most systems are designed to prevent users from satisfying their needs. Our system change work does not require conventional change: no laws, agencies, or hierarchies are changed in our process.
We connect what is disconnected so that people can see their options clearly and act. Our current focus is on the base of Maslow's hierarchy — food, shelter, health — in the belief that personal freedom is only possible when the most basic needs are met.
The political landscape makes this work urgent. One side of the aisle is dismantling the systems people depend on. The other side avoids the hard decisions that could transform them.
We want to meet others who share our convictions, are obsessed with a problem, and bring deep technical and product skills to the work.
What problem would you like to solve?
Our teams have designed, built and operated software-based start-ups for our own portfolio, and with partners who have included city and state governments, charitable foundations and labor:
NYC Votes and NYC Votes Contribute. NYC Votes is a public voter engagement program of the NYC Campaign Finance Board. NYC Votes is its namesake web and mobile app that provides voting information. NYC Votes Contribute is a mobile-first app that allows users to donate to candidates, while invisibly handling the necessary compliance behind the scenes. Created by a pro bono partnership led by Tipping Point Partners, with design consultancy Method and software consultancy Pivotal Labs, NYC Votes has been in continuous service since 2012. Read blog post.
Casebook is the first and only web-, cloud-, and open-source based SACWIS system for state child welfare. TPP partnered with the Annie E. Casey Foundation to develop concept, working prototype, pilot in foster care, then build a team to implement the platform in Indiana. TPP subsequently spun out Casebook into Casebook, a public benefit corporation, which has continue to develop the Casebook system. Casebook has been in continuous service since 2012. Read blog post.
Carina provides an effective, easy-to-use, and trustworthy platform for homecare workers and homecare seekers to connect for good jobs and quality care. TPP was the advisor to SEIU 775 to spin out its existing traditional services to a technology based nonprofit, Carina. TPP helped SEIU 775 assess its operations and financials, develop a plan, and hire its founding technology team. Carina has been in continuous service since 2017. Read blog post. Read PHI Report.
Tipping Point Partners’s Founder, Art Chang, has been a pioneer in many lasting transformations from the Queens waterfront to streaming music to legal knowledge management and the NYC tech and civic tech ecosystems.