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As much as I'd like to stay off this site forever, it’s become clear the amount of misinformation flowing about ACRONYM + its relationship to Shadow has become a distraction from much bigger things. In the interest of full transparency, let’s get into it🧵medium.com/@taraemcg/a-no…
First, I'm the CEO of @anotheracronym, a 501c4 nonprofit org I founded in 2017 to help build power + digital infrastructure for the progressive movement. I was adamant it be a nonprofit bc for-profit digital consultants on our side were failing + greed was losing us elections.
In 2019, ACRONYM became majority investor in @ShadowInchq, a new political tech company founded by @gjniemira with a mission to create more nimble, accessible tech infrastructure for progressive campaigns. Shadow was the 2nd of 3 for-profit companies ACRONYM is a lead investor in
ACRONYM invests in for-profit companies to (1) bring what we learn, build, innovate to the broader progressive community (2) create diversified funding streams to fuel our campaign work (3) grow institutional knowledge, retain talent + keep innovating between election cycles
As the founder of the org that invested first in Shadow, Gerard provides me with quarterly updates on new client acquisition, profit-and-loss, and new Shadow product roadmaps, but I have no day-to-day engagement with Shadow business or clients.
I knew Shadow had won a contract with the IDP a while ago but only learned recently that it was to build a caucus reporting app. I was excited for the team that they were going to be driving innovation for such a historic political event, but was not involved in the project.
When news reports of Shadow’s involvement started to spread on social media Monday night, press conflated Shadow with ACRONYM - and with me personally. This is when my team moved quickly to post a statement making clear the relationship between ACRONYM and Shadow.
That statement was then unfortunately misinterpreted by many tweeps, reporters + detractors alike to suggest I + ACRONYM were trying to distance ourselves from Shadow. That is 100% false. It was to clarify the facts: the two are not the same organizations and I do not run Shadow.
If you know me, you know that I have no filter, place a high value on transparency + have no patience for BS. I also run an organization spending $75 million against Trump online, which is the focus of the majority of my time + energy.
It was my idea to invest in Shadow, I did + continue to believe in Gerard and his incredible team and yes, am also deeply saddened and disappointed by the mistake they made that will have irreversible consequences on this election.
But what happened was a mistake- a human error. It was a mistake that could have and should have been avoided - and there are many people responsible for it not having been avoided. But that’s all it was.
There was no conspiracy, there was no collusion. Nothing illegal nor nefarious occurred. And there has been no cover up by me, ACRONYM or our Board Members. Because we have literally nothing to hide.
What happened in Iowa on Monday was deeply unfortunate, avoidable + will have consequences that are still hard to fully wrap our heads around. It hurt so many organizers, campaigns and candidates we do our work to support and that breaks my heart.
I’m also confident that this event and experience will only make myself, Gerard, the @anotheracronym and @ShadowIncHQ teams better for it. More diligent, more focused, more effective + more committed than ever to this necessary work.
So now it’s time to get back to the real work at hand- coming together to do everything in our power to deny Trump a second term in office. This is the work that cannot wait + I still believe we've built the team and organization to take the fight on where it's playing out online
Last, I want to thank the hundreds of people that have reached out to me + the team over the past 48 hours to tell us they believe in us & to keep fighting. It’s going to take all of us doing everything we can to win this election + we’re not going anywhere ✊🏼🇺🇸☄️
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