Meet Patrick Utz | CEO, Co-Founder
We had the good fortune of connecting with Patrick Utz and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Patrick, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Both of my parents immigrated to the U.S. with one goal in mind: seek greater financial mobility, and political stability, for both themselves and my siblings. Despite his entrepreneurial career starting a residential-house painting business, my father had originally planned to run for office. Thus, I became well acquainted with concepts like filibustering, long before my peers. I heard my parents talk about the horror stories in Argentina, where people would lose much of their earnings from one day to the next due to hyperinflation; countless construction projects were always put on standby due to “political corruption”…
This upbringing was key in shaping my passion for increasing government transparency. Throughout college, I’d have countless conversations with colleagues on pending legislation, and yet no one would ever read the original bill text. The result: misinformation and confusion. Thus, for my Electrical-Computer Engineering thesis at Loyola Marymount University, I decided to use natural language processing algorithms to make abstracts, or summaries, of legislative bills. Abstract was born.
Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Over the last two years, Abstract has grown into a venture backed startup with 12 employees, and a mission to increase government transparency. My co-founders and I have utilized our diverse backgrounds to make lobbying accessible by building a collaborative platform that helps organizations search, track, and influence bills in government. Abstract has enabled customers like Snapchat, the Milken Institute, and GenUp, to better digest government bills, and map out potential implications.
We’re excited to pave the way towards making lobbying accessible down to the individual level, and re-imagine how democratic societies interact with their respective governments. We believe our enterprise tech will be key in how Abstract helps promote unity, and overcome the ever-increasing division society is experiencing as a whole.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I just moved to Sac! We made the decision to move our headquarters here to be closer to the state capitol, and our customers. So far, I really love Gunther’s Ice Cream, the Sac Co-op, and Wedashii sushi.
The biggest hack to Sacramento is that you can drive to SF in 1hr 20min, Napa Valley in 40min, and Lake Tahoe in 1hr 30 min. I’ve mostly been hitting the ski slopes in Tahoe every Saturday.
The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are easily 30+ people I’m 100% indebted to for helping us get Abstract off the ground. However, I’d like to highlight the role that Dr. David Choi from Loyola Marymount University played in inspiring us three co-founders to pursue our own venture. If it weren’t for his early mentorship and advice, Abstract would have remained a school project.
His role really highlights the importance of mentorship in the early stages. Once you grow, your network expands, and resources become readily available. But in the early stages, it’s people like David who truly make a difference in planting those initial “strategic seeds”.
Website: https://www.abstract.us/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patrickutzzz/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-utz/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PatrickUtz
Image Credits
Matthew Chang (photographer)
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