People Speak

What People Speak does

People Speak, LLC is a Boulder, Colorado-based SaaS company founded in 2017 that operates a public hearing engagement platform enabling local government municipalities to modernize citizen participation in city council, planning commission, and county hearings. The platform supports asynchronous participation (citizens review materials, ask questions, and comment days or weeks before meetings), pre-recorded staff and applicant presentations, live commenting during virtual meetings, phone-in comments via Google Speech-to-Text, and integration with multiple live video providers (Zoom, Open.Media, Microsoft Teams, YouTube, Facebook Live). Capability extensions include the Projects module for non-hearing community engagement, a CivicClerk integration for one-click agenda import, automated minutes generation with voting records, and a real-time analytics dashboard.

The company sells on a monthly subscription basis with no contracts, no startup costs, and no payment required for a free trial, positioning itself as approximately half the cost of comparable agenda management tools. Distribution is primarily direct to city planners, community development directors, and city council staff, augmented by partnerships with the American Planning Association, ELGL, and CivicPlus (CivicClerk). The platform serves mid-sized and small municipalities including Lakewood CO, Wheat Ridge CO, Grand Junction CO, Springfield OR, Topeka KS, Pico Rivera CA, and Chaffee County CO, with case studies reporting participation increases of up to 800%. The business is co-founded by Jason Sperling and Mike Ackerman, operates with 1-10 employees, has no disclosed institutional funding, and is privately held.

Name

People Speak

Legal name

People Speak, LLC

Website

https://peoplespeak.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

People Speak provides a SaaS platform for U.S. local governments enabling asynchronous and live citizen participation in public hearings, city council, and planning commission meetings, with monthly subscriptions and integrations to CivicClerk and major video platforms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Civic Engagement Software

akta.pro primary industry

Public Lectures & Speaker Series (MPAGACAI)

Keywords

• Civic engagement software
• Public hearing platform
• Local government software
• Asynchronous public participation
• Virtual public meetings

Headquarters

HQ city

Boulder

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. SaaS Platform Subscription: Monthly subscription-based software-as-a-service model. Cities and counties pay a recurring monthly fee to access the public hearing engagement platform. No contracts required — cities can cancel at any time. No startup costs. Described as approximately half the cost of comparable services.
2. Subscription - Monthly with No Long-term Commitment: Unlike competitors requiring annual contracts, People Speak operates on a monthly subscription basis, allowing municipalities to start and stop service as needed. This reduces commitment risk for government customers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

People Speak provides a SaaS public hearing engagement platform for local government municipalities (cities, counties) that enables citizens to review presentations, ask questions, and submit comments on proposed actions asynchronously online weeks before live meetings, and during meetings via web, phone, and live video streams. The platform supports pre-recorded staff/applicant presentations, live video streaming integration, issue-level commenting, meeting packet management, automated minutes, and integrates with CivicClerk for agenda publishing.

Product overview

People Speak is a unified civic engagement platform for local governments consisting of a core public hearing platform plus integrated modules and features. The core People Speak Platform enables asynchronous and remote citizen participation in public hearings, allowing residents to review presentations, ask questions, and comment on proposed actions online weeks in advance of live meetings. Projects is a companion module for community engagement on non-hearing projects supporting rich content like videos and surveys. The CivicClerk Integration enables one-click import of agendas from CivicClerk. Key features include Live Video Integration supporting Zoom, Open.Media, YouTube, Microsoft Teams and other streaming platforms; Phone-in Comments using Google Speech-to-Text; Online Presentations; a Citizen Notification System; Real-Time Analytics Dashboard; Decision-Maker Toolset; Minutes with Voting; Meeting Packet Management; and Comment Moderation. The platform serves city councils, planning commissions, and other local government bodies seeking to modernize public participation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• People Speak Platform Core SaaS public hearing engagement platform for local governments that enables citizens to review presentations and documents, ask questions, and submit comments on proposed actions asynchronously online weeks before live meetings, with live commenting, phone-in comments, meeting packet management, and automated minutes.
• Projects Companion community engagement module enabling cities and counties to collect resident feedback on projects outside of public hearings, supporting project uploads, updates, rich content (videos, PDFs), and surveys.
• CivicClerk Integration Integration with CivicClerk agenda management software that enables municipalities to one-click import agendas and items directly into People Speak for resident access and public input, with advanced mapping for items and sections.

Quantifiable outcome

• 800% increase in public meeting participation
• +6 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration9 records

AI capability3 records

Feature11 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and supporting.

• CivicClerk (by CivicPlus)coreTechnology or Integration · 7 February 2023Integration with CivicClerk allows cities to one-click publish and import agendas and items from CivicClerk directly into People Speak, making it easier for residents to access public hearings and provide public input. Advanced mapping features ensure accurate item and section import. Private beta launched February 2023.
• 1% for the PlanetminorOthers · 8 March 2021People Speak joined 1% for the Planet, pledging to donate 1% of annual sales to support nonprofit organizations focused on the environment. Part of a global movement started by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. Thousands of member businesses have collectively raised over $280 million for environmental causes.
• Open.MediacoreTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2021Integration partnership with Open.Media enables automatic live streaming of meetings into People Speak meeting pages. The integration supports hybrid remote and in-person meetings, automatically posts recordings for public and staff access, and timestamps video recordings for rich media minutes. Open.Media videoconferencing can be combined with Zoom for hybrid meeting support.
• American Planning Association (APA)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 22 March 2019APA hosted People Speak's webinar 'The Next Evolution of Public Hearings' with nearly 600 attendees in March 2019. People Speak has presented at multiple APA conferences. APA's endorsement and event platform provides significant marketing reach to the target customer base of planning professionals.
• Zoom Video WebinarscoreTechnology or IntegrationZoom Webinars integration allows live streaming of Zoom meetings directly to People Speak. Supports RTMPS protocol for direct streaming. Springfield, Oregon uses Zoom Webinar information on People Speak meeting pages for resident access.
• Microsoft TeamscoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration enables cities using Microsoft Teams for video conferencing to broadcast their City Council and Planning Commission meetings into People Speak. Uses OBS as intermediary to stream Teams meetings to platforms like Facebook/YouTube for embedding.
• YouTubesupportingTechnology or IntegrationYouTube live streams can display within People Speak using the standard share URL. Wheat Ridge uses this to broadcast Zoom meetings to YouTube for remote audience access.
• Google (Google Speech-to-Text)supportingTechnology or IntegrationPhone-in comment feature uses Google's speech recognition technology to automatically transcribe voice recordings to text. Comments are recorded as voicemail and transcribed in near real-time with audio and text delivered to the site.
• ELGL (Engaging Local Government Leaders)coreGTM or Marketing PartnerELGL (Engaging Local Government Leaders) awards People Speak the 2020 Haverford Award and hosts webinars featuring People Speak customer case studies. ELGL's network of local government professionals serves as a key marketing and peer validation channel.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights10 records

Broad incumbents

• OpenGov: OpenGov is a broad govtech vendor providing budgeting, permitting, and civic engagement modules to local governments. Its civic engagement offerings overlap with People Speak's community-input functionality as part of a larger portfolio.
• Granicus: Granicus is a broad incumbent govtech vendor offering agenda management, public meetings, and citizen engagement across federal, state, and local government. Their meeting and engagement suite overlaps with People Speak's hearing participation and CivicClerk-style workflows at scale.

Emerging players

• Polco: Polco provides civic engagement and community surveying tools for local government. It focuses on representative resident input and benchmarking, comparable to People Speak's analytics dashboard and projects participation layer.
• CitizenLab: CitizenLab provides a citizen participation platform for local governments featuring surveys, idea collection, and consultations. Comparable to People Speak's broader Projects module and asynchronous community engagement layer.
• Zencity: Zencity is a civic analytics platform that ingests resident feedback (including from public-input channels) to give local governments actionable insight. Its overlap is on the analytics and resident-input side of People Speak's real-time dashboard and comment flows.
• MindMix: MindMix offers citizen engagement, meeting management, and broadcasting tools for municipal governments. Their integrated approach to meetings and constituent participation overlaps with People Speak's hearing and live video tooling.

Direct peers

• Bang the Table (EngagementHQ): Bang the Table offers EngagementHQ, a community engagement platform used by municipalities for online consultations, surveys, and crowdsourced ideas. It is comparable to People Speak's Projects module and broader digital participation functionality.
• CivicPlus: CivicPlus is a leading civic engagement and municipal website platform, whose CivicClerk agenda-management product People Speak directly integrates with. They overlap in selling digital participation and agenda tools to local governments, making them the most directly comparable peer.
• PublicInput: PublicInput is a civic engagement platform purpose-built for local government public input across hearings, surveys, and projects. It targets the same municipal customers with comparable commenting, project engagement, and analytics features.
• Peak Democracy: Peak Democracy focuses on online public input platforms for local governments, including public hearings and community forums. Its feature scope around open meetings and asynchronous input is closely comparable to People Speak's hearing platform.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/1PeopleSpeak
• Facebookfacebook.com/peoplespeaksoftware

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about People Speak