Win the Future (group)

Win the Future (WTF) is an American political organization. It was co-founded in 2017 by Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus, and Adam Werbach following Donald Trump's election to the U.S. presidency.

Win the Future
Formation2017
Websitewinthefuture.com

Focus

WTF's website says that the organization is “a non partisan project lab exploring and developing techniques to give more voice and choice to the American voter.[1]

A December, 2018 article in the New York Times said that the group was created "to encourage every American to become an informed voter."[2]

Methods

On September 25, 2017 WTF projected a 70 ft wicked-witch themed image onto the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. calling on Congress to protect the Affordable Care Act. The group chose this theme using a summer crowdsourcing campaign where they gathered ideas from their members on social media.[3]

In 2018, the group announced a collaboration with political comedian Samantha Bee to develop a non-partisan voter turnout game called This is Not a Game: The Game.[4]

Bee launched the game in the weeks before the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. According to Bee, the goal was "to make something that would drive voter turnout in a bipartisan way."[5]

After launch, the app was downloaded 50,000 times in the first 24 hours, causing outages for some users.[6]

WTF projected a 70-foot digital "billboard" onto the side of the Rayburn Office Building in Washington, DC on September 25, 2017

Founding

WTF was seeded with a donation of $500,000 from Reid Hoffman and Mark Pincus. Its board of advisors includes leaders from U.S. progressive political organizations. This includes James Rucker, the co-founder of Color of Change, who is also a board member at Moveon.org.[7]

Criticism

The group's launch received criticism from some political groups. Critics described its founders as out of touch, and according to one article "all that is wrong with Silicon Valley."[8]

Rucker, admitted that the launch "may have been a little rough," but that asking "what it means to be pro-business" should be healthy.[9]

References
  1. "#WTF - Win the Future". WTF. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  2. "Reid Hoffman". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-12-29.
  3. "A new political group backed by Mark Pincus and Reid Hoffman is running its first ad in support of Obamacare". Recode. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  4. "This is Not a Game: The Game". Retrieved 2018-09-11.
  5. "Samantha Bee Previews Mobile Trivia App for 2018 Midterm Elections". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  6. Roettgers, Janko (2018-09-13). "Samantha Bee's Trivia App Clocks 50,000 Downloads in 24 Hours, Struggles Under Load". Variety. Retrieved 2018-12-28.
  7. Roose, Kevin (2017-08-06). "Political Donors Put Their Money Where the Memes Are". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-09-20.
  8. "Tech Billionaire Mark Pincus Admits He Was Blindsided By The Backlash To Win The Future". Fast Company. 2017-07-06. Retrieved 2017-09-21.
  9. "Tech leaders struggling to disrupt Democratic Party". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2017-10-23.

Further reading
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