GovLoop founder speaks

The sale of GovLoop to GovDelivery has generated a lot of buzz among young feds. GovLoop founder Steve Ressler, who left his government job to run the site full time, spoke to Federal Computer Week about the transaction.

How did you launch GovLoop?

I started it on the idea that people in government should be connecting and learning from each other. It had a slow start. It took about six months to get to the first 1,000 members and then it kind of started growing out of control. Basically, I had a 9-to-5 job, and this was my 5-to-9 second job.

Why did you merge GovLoop with GovDelivery?

This is less about the money and more about adding resources. I will hire three people shortly, and that will help a lot. This is really about affecting government on a larger scale.

I met Scott Burns, [chief executive officer of GovDelivery], at a Gov 2.0 camp. I really like Scott. We both have public service in our backgrounds; we both have Midwestern values that are important to me. I think we share the same mentality and vision.

Will you be generating revenues at GovLoop now?

The site is not generating revenues now. As a government employee, I was not able to do that. We will be looking at things like setting up premium groups on the site with companies like Microsoft and also groups for topics, such as the H1N1 virus.