City Council Meetings Now Streaming Online

The Personal Origins of Hamlet

Sunil Rajaraman’s venture, Hamlet, stemmed from a deeply personal experience.

In 2022, he campaigned for a city council seat in a California town, an effort that ultimately proved unsuccessful.

However, this experience fundamentally altered his perspective on local governance and the inner workings of the municipality.

The Problem of Opaque Local Government

“I aimed to enhance my candidacy,” Rajaraman explained to TechCrunch. “My goal was to gain a comprehensive understanding of my city’s operations, the rationale behind past decisions, and the viewpoints of those involved.”

He quickly discovered a significant obstacle: a lack of transparency. Information was difficult to access, creating what he described as a “total black box,” deliberately obscured from public view.

From Idea to Launch

The increasing availability of recorded city meetings online, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic, sparked an idea.

Rajaraman envisioned a company dedicated to making local government proceedings understandable for everyone.

Consequently, in 2022, he founded Hamlet to achieve this objective.

Leveraging AI for Insight

“We employ AI to analyze thousands of hours of city council and planning commission meeting footage,” he stated. “This footage is then transformed into actionable intelligence.”

He emphasized the superiority of video recordings over traditional meeting minutes, as the latter represent interpretations, while “the video doesn’t lie.”

Expanding Beyond Media

Initially conceived as a media venture, Hamlet’s trajectory shifted when real estate developers and political action committees expressed interest.

Rajaraman realized that these private entities also required deeper insights into local government activities.

Enterprise Solutions

For enterprise clients, Hamlet provides agenda tracking and alerts regarding relevant topics across specified cities.

The company also synthesizes post-meeting information, eliminating the need for lengthy video reviews, and enables searches within the video archive to monitor competitor mentions.

Funding and Vision

To date, Hamlet has secured approximately $10 million in venture funding from investors including Slow Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Banana Capital, and Kapor Capital.

Rajaraman articulated a bold ambition: “We want to become the ‘Bloomberg’ of this space.”

Introducing Hamlet TV

On Friday, Rajaraman announced the launch of Hamlet TV, an extension of the company designed to inform the general public about governmental proceedings.

This streaming channel is available on TikTok, YouTube, AppleTV, and Instagram, and will highlight key moments from council, commission, and school board meetings.

Processing Extensive Government Footage

Rajaraman revealed that his company has already processed thousands of hours of government meetings for various clients.

“We’ve encountered meetings lasting over 15 hours without breaks,” he noted.

Humor as a Gateway to Civic Engagement

His team began curating humorous clips from these meetings, recognizing the potential of humor to increase public engagement with democracy.

“Procedural videos often fail to capture attention, but amusing content is more likely to be watched.”

Unexpected Moments and Underlying Significance

One particularly surprising moment captured on Hamlet TV involved an individual addressing the city council while dressed as a cockroach to discuss a pest control issue.

However, Rajaraman emphasized that the true surprise lies in the importance and relative invisibility of these meetings.

The Tucson Amazon Decision

He cited the recent decision by the Tucson city council to reject Amazon’s $3.6 billion data center as an example.

Despite months of planning, he believes that only a limited number of people actively followed the proceedings to understand the reasoning behind the decision.

Rajaraman’s Background

This is not Rajaraman’s first entrepreneurial endeavor or foray into media.

He previously co-founded the analytics platform Scripted and served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Foundation Capital twice.

He also founded and later sold The Bold Italic to Medium.

A Commitment to Democracy

Rajaraman acknowledged that Hamlet TV is unlikely to generate substantial revenue, reiterating his commitment to fostering greater civic involvement.

He also plans to provide the Hamlet tool free of charge to local journalists.

“Data is valuable, but context is paramount,” he stated.

Future Expansion

Hamlet is actively seeking collaborations with government affairs organizations, advocacy groups, and renewable energy developers.

“Democracy thrives when citizens are informed,” Rajaraman concluded. “We are dedicated to making that information accessible.”