About Us

Shaping the Future of Our Communities, Together

We’re on a mission to return 5 hours a week back to every elected and local government knowledge worker.

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How it all started

The First AI Platform Co‑Founded by a Local Government

In truth, we didn’t dream this up.
Washoe County did.

They came to us with the radical idea: what if government didn’t just buy GovTech, but actually built and owned it? How could it shape the future of AI in local government?

Madison AI was co-founded with Washoe County, NV, making them not just a customer, but an equity partner shaping every decision. The result is a platform designed only for local government, by the very people who live its challenges every day.

This isn’t tech made in Silicon Valley and handed down to cities. It’s GovTech reimagined—with government in the driver’s seat.

Meet the team shaping the future of government work

Erica Olsen

CEO • Co‑Founder

2x Founder – Author

A strategist and author of Strategic Planning for Dummies, Erica’s spent 20 years helping thousands of organizations make big-bold visions a reality. Today, she’s driving the vision of returning 5 hours/week to every staff member and elected so they can focus on service to their communities

Dave Solaro

County Partner

Assistant County Manager @Washoe County

Dave still serves as Assistant County Manager in Washoe County, but Madison AI was his idea—no, really, it was. An architect who spent 15 years leading public works, engineering, and community services, he understands government work deeply and is shaping the future of it nationwide.

Todd Ballowe

Head of Engineering & AI

Founding Team

Todd Ballowe transformed a spark of an idea into working code—and he’s the one powering Madison AI behind the scenes. With 15+ years coding enterprise applications used by Make-A-Wish, Kia, and Chobani, he’s the builder who takes big ideas and turns them into AI that delivers.

Tom Spengler

CEO @SOVRA – 2x Founder

Board Member/Investor

Tom Spengler is a legend in GovTech, having spent the last 25 years defining how governments connect, engage, and get work done. The co-founder and former CEO of Granicus and now CEO of SOVRA, he brings unmatched experience and vision to help shape the future of Madison AI.

Behzad Zamanian

Chief Information Officer @Washoe County

County Partner

Behzad is the CIO for Washoe County—but he’s also advising Madison AI on how to approach safe, secure AI deployments in the GovTech space. With 25+ years leading IT strategy, infrastructure, and security in government, he brings the practical expertise to make bold ideas work at scale.

Kristine Richter

Head of Client Success

Founding Team – Ex-Microsoft

Kristine is Madison AI’s Head of Client Success—she builds our strategy for deploying enterprise AI in local government and makes it stick. With over 50 successful rollouts under her belt, she turns complex launches into smooth, high-impact deployments that deliver.

Heyden Enochson

Head of Marketing

Founding Team

Heyden is Madison AI’s Head of Marketing—our boots-on-the-ground driving our brand, web design, content, product UI/UX, thought leadership, and speaking efforts. With 11 years in SaaS marketing, he’s the creative engine that brings Madison AI to life in the market.

Kim Perkins

Principal Strategist

Founding Team – Ex-Google

Kim is a Principal Strategist at Madison AI, helping lead client deployments and ensuring local governments succeed with enterprise AI. With 15+ years in strategic planning and change management, she brings the expertise needed to guide smooth, impactful rollouts.

Kendal Ferris

Sales Manager

Ex-GoDaddy – Ex-Citrix

Kendal is Madison AI’s Sales Manager, helping local governments discover where AI can make the biggest impact. With a consultative approach, she guides leaders, electeds, and teams to understand and hone in on the opportunities that truly transform how government work gets done.

Mark Wheeler

Chief Public Data Officer

Mark is one of the most respected voices in GovTech, having served as the former CIO for the City of Philadelphia and as the former Director of Data and AI for the Federal Centers of Excellence. He brings years of experience turning complex public data into tools that actually help people get work done. Mark is joining our team to deepen our government data expertise even further and help build AI that truly delivers results in local government.

Dana Searcy

Client Success Manager

Dana joins us following years of public service with Washoe County in Northern Nevada, most recently completing the development of the Nevada Cares Campus project as the Division Director of Housing & Homeless Services. Dana’s passion for helping local governments work better for their communities fits perfectly with our mission at Madison AI—to make public service more efficient, human, and impactful.

Frequently asked questions

What workflows does the Madison AI™ engine help automate in local government?

The Madison AI™ platform can be configured for a range of use cases in local government, including:

A chatbot research assistant for your elects and staff to search and analyze policy, voting records, statues, and code.
Draft your staff reports with citations and error checking.
Access your history of board decisions.
Find and cite anything in your library of 50+ files.

The Madison AI™ engine was created by Washoe County and OnStrategy. Why?

The Madison AI™ engineis a direct collaboration between the public and private sector in the name of good governance. Washoe County is directing the development and the new opportunities, automations, and use cases to be used directly in the governing process.

OnStrategy is the technology company and strategy partner helping create the technology.

What governments have deployed the he Madison AI™ platform?

The Madison AI™ engine has been deployed within the City of Reno, Washoe County, the County of Santa Clara, the Northern Nevada Regional Transportation Commission, and other government clients.

In a time study by the City of Reno, the Madison AI™ engine reduced the time it took to produce business licensing staff reports by 75%.

How does the Madison AI™ engine help prevent generative AI hallucination?

We build your Madison AI™ Knowledge Assistant from your government’s data and train the model to generate results ONLY from your library of institutional knowledge.

Building the data foundation helps create a higher level of accuracy and completeness while avoiding common AI hallucination and drift.

How long does it take to deploy the Madison AI™ platform?

The Madison AI™ platform’s set up, data science, and deployment can be completed and ready for your team in about 2 weeks.

Custom staff reports can be deployed in approximately 4 weeks.