Story Bellows named one of nation’s civic tech superstars

Story Bellows is one of the country’s top civic innovators, says a new list from Government Technology Magazine. The list features the CEO of Nextdoor, a civic platform that Philadelphia uses, the director and CEO of Healthcare.gov and the director for robot-assisted search and rescue at Texas A&M University.
Bellows ran FastFWD, one of the city’s banner innovation efforts: a $1 million business accelerator with an end goal of getting more startups piloting their products and services with the city.
“Maybe one of the most exciting byproducts of FastFWD is a new RFP, honed from what the city has learned through working with program participants,” GovTech reported. “[Bellows] describes the new document as ‘a much more entrepreneur-friendly, startup-friendly RFP than we’ve ever issued in the past.'”
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Bellows is also the director of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, a public-sector think tank formed in 2012.
Last year, Mayor Michael Nutter and Chief Innovation Officer Adel Ebeid were named to the list.