CivIQ Named Among DC's Most Promising Civic Tech Startups
Hilltop's AI-powered constituent engagement platform recognized by Technical.ly, Mindshare, FedScoop, InStyle, and more — as advocacy partners report 320% conversion increases and 140,000+ messages delivered to Capitol Hill
WASHINGTON, D.C. — March 25, 2026 — Hilltop, the civic technology company behind CivIQ, today announced a series of national recognitions and platform milestones that underscore a growing demand among Americans for faster, more effective ways to reach their elected representatives.
CivIQ has been named one of DC's most promising early-stage startups by Technical.ly's annual RealLIST Startups report, selected to the Mindshare 2026 cohort of 55 top founders and innovation leaders, and featured in FedScoop's coverage of the Congressional Hackathon on AI and legislative modernization. The platform has also earned recognition in InStyle magazine and the Together Purple Substack series Built by Women — reflecting the human story behind the company as much as its technical ambition.
The recognitions arrive as CivIQ reports its strongest engagement data to date: advocacy partners using the platform have seen a 320% increase in constituent conversions, a 94% reduction in time-to-act, and 15x growth in list-building — while more than 140,00 messages have been delivered directly into Congress's official constituent services system.
“Most Americans aren’t apathetic. They’re stuck. They care deeply about what’s happening in this country, but the tools available to them haven’t kept pace with how people actually communicate. CivIQ closes that gap. We built the direct line that every citizen deserves but has never had.”
— Aubrey Ottenstein, Co-Founder & CEO, Hilltop
CivIQ works by matching constituents to their lawmakers, using AI to help craft personalized messages — not copy-paste form letters — that are delivered directly into the backend systems congressional offices already use to log, tag, and respond to public input. The result is civic engagement that actually reaches the right desk, in a format offices can act on.
The platform's design reflects a deliberate departure from the petition and form-letter tools that have defined digital advocacy for the past two decades. Every message generated through CivIQ is unique to the sender, contextually relevant to active legislation, and delivered through verified official channels — not email inboxes that route to spam.
Advocacy partners report measurable impact
March Fourth, a national advocacy organization with nearly 100,000 supporters working to end mass shootings in America, has been among CivIQ's earliest and most vocal partners. The organization deployed CivIQ to mobilize its network for direct Congressional outreach and reports dramatic improvements across every engagement metric.
“Partnering with Hilltop has been a game-changer. The platform is seamless, intuitive, and incredibly empowering for our audience. Our users love how easy it is — it’s a no-brainer tool that makes advocacy simple and effective.”
— Founder & CEO, March Fourth
A platform built for the current moment
Hilltop's recognition across civic, tech, and women's leadership media reflects a broader shift in how Americans think about participation. At a moment when public trust in institutions is under pressure and attention spans are short, CivIQ is built to convert frustration into action — in under two minutes, on any device.
The company was co-founded by Aubrey Ottenstein, a former Capitol Hill staffer and nonprofit executive who built Hilltop after experiencing firsthand both the exhaustion of trying to reach elected officials and the inefficiencies facing legislative offices managing high volumes of constituent contact. Hilltop's platform serves both sides of that relationship: giving citizens a faster path to their representatives, and giving offices cleaner, more actionable data on what their constituents actually care about.
Hilltop is currently working with advocacy organizations and policy nonprofits as its primary go-to-market segment, offering white-labeled tools that let organizations deploy CivIQ campaigns directly to their supporter networks. The company's CivIQ for Government product is in development, targeting legislative offices directly with constituent sentiment dashboards and real-time engagement data.
About CivIQ
CivIQ is an AI-powered civic engagement platform that helps Americans reach their elected officials faster, more effectively, and through verified official channels. Built by Hilltop, a civic technology company based in Washington, D.C., CivIQ serves individual constituents, advocacy organizations, and legislative offices. Learn more at civiq.chat.
About Hilltop
Hilltop is a Washington, D.C.-based civic technology company on a mission to make it fast, smart, and effective for Americans to engage with their government. Its platform suite includes CivIQ (consumer-facing), CivIQ for Advocacy (white-labeled for organizations), and CivIQ for Government (for legislative offices). Hilltop is powered by a belief that democracy works better when participation is easier.
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