Watching My Team Present to Parliament (While I Made Tea)
Nine months from coffee shop complaints to Parliamentary presentation
Last Tuesday morning, I did what any self-respecting CEO would do when their company gets invited to present to a Parliamentary Select Committee: I made a cup of tea and watched it on Parliament TV.
Not exactly the stuff of entrepreneurial legend, is it?
But here's the thing—chronic illness doesn't care about your big moments. My Fluoroquinolone Associated Disability had other plans that morning. So while Simon and Rachel travelled down to Westminster to explain Suffrago to the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, I was relegated to being a very proud, slightly anxious spectator.
And bloody hell, were they brilliant.
Nine Months From Idea to Parliament
If you'd told me last October that by June we'd be presenting democratic innovation to MPs, I'd have suggested you lay off the Tennent's. Back then, Suffrago was little more than animated conversations between Simon and me about how broken political discourse had become.
Now here was Simon, Suffrage’s CTO with a PhD in Statistics who describes himself as a "tech nerd who learned to speak human"—explaining to parliamentarians how we capture "the real voice of people at scale, not just the what, but the why."
Watching him speak, I felt that peculiar mix of pride and terror that comes with seeing your hard work distilled into a few minutes.
The Bits That Made Me Sit Up
Tom Gordon MP's introduction was perfect, mentioning my slightly bonkers attempt to become the "AI-powered candidate" in the Selby by-election. That campaign was mad, but it led directly to Suffrago. Sometimes failure is just delayed success in fancy dress.
But the moment that made me actually shout at the television was when Simon said: "You as representatives become CEOs of your own constituency dashboard, regardless of whether somebody voted for you or not, with data at your fingertips."
That's it. That's the whole point.
MPs shouldn't just be managing complaints. They should be running their constituencies like enlightened chief executives—understanding not just what people are angry about, but why they're angry. Context matters. Data without context is just noise.
Anonymity as a Shield for Good
Rachel's explanation of our approach to anonymity hit home too. We're not naive about online safety. We've seen what happens when platforms abdicate responsibility. But we genuinely believe anonymity can be "a shield for good and a shield for honesty" rather than a weapon for trolls.
The key bit that Rachel explained: you're only anonymous on Suffrago as long as you follow the law. Break it, advocate violence, or threaten people, and we'll work with our Political Neutrality Council and pass information to law enforcement.
Because democracy needs honest conversation, not performative outrage.
Building Something New
The line that summed it all up came at the end: "We're not looking to fix broken polling. We're looking to build something entirely new—the ultimate democratic platform."
That might sound grandiose, but after nine months of seeing 26 MPs across all parties actually use our platform, after watching our reports get picked up by national newspapers, after building constituency dashboards that MPs tell us they've never had access to before, well, maybe grandiose is exactly what democracy needs.
The View From the Sofa
Watching your team present to Parliament while you're stuck at home isn't how I'd planned it. But it gave me something invaluable: perspective.
This wasn't about me. It was about Simon's technical brilliance, Rachel's operational expertise, and the genuinely important problem we're solving together. Democracy really is broken when social media amplifies the loudest voices rather than the most representative ones. Traditional polling really has failed us—1,500 people can't represent the nuanced views of 67 million.
But we're building something that can.
The committee seemed genuinely interested. Chi Onwurah MP, the chair and only chartered engineer in Parliament, thanked them for showing how AI can be used "positively to deliver on the promise of better citizen engagement."
Not bad for a nine-month-old startup that began with two mates complaining about Twitter.
What Comes Next
We've got 26 MPs using the platform. We've got Local Democracy Reporters in dozens of constituencies. We've got interest from India about scaling internationally. We've got reports being commissioned by national charities on everything from suicide prevention to transport accessibility.
And now we've got Parliamentary recognition that what we're building matters.
The next challenge? Scaling responsibly. Growing without losing the political neutrality that makes us trustworthy. Building something that serves democracy rather than exploits it.
"Stop asking what we think people should care about," Simon told the committee. "Start listening to what they're already saying."
That's not just our business model. It's our manifesto.
If you want to watch the full 11-minute presentation, it's on Parliament TV. And if you want to see what we're building, visit suffrago.org.
Suffrago: Your Voices. Heard.