Imagine retiring after a lifetime of public service — as a veteran, air traffic controller, or first responder — only to wait six months in financial limbo because a decades-old government process can't handle your application.
That was the reality for thousands of federal retirees every year since the 60's, having to apply for retirement within a paper-based, broken system plagued by delays and inefficiency.
If you had told us we’d relocate our lives to move to D.C. to fix this, we’d have called it ridiculous.
Yat had just left a decade-long run at Airbnb, helping to build it from scrappy startup to public company; likewise, Dennis also came from startups in manufacturing and AI. Government work simply wasn’t in the life plan.
Yet in under a year, our team of two has transformed this outdated paper process into a modern, digital workflow. The new system is on track to handle 100,000 digital applications by the end of the year, many of which will experience significantly reduced processing time.
We share our experience in this blog post in hopes that what started as a mission to give retirees the transition they deserve can turn into something bigger: a proven playbook for modernizing outdated government systems. The same systematic problems we encountered are not unique to retirement, and our approach to them can hopefully be applied to streamlining other outdated areas where citizens interface with their government — from applying for benefits, to filing taxes.
We're proud to have cut through some bureaucracy and make an impact here, and we’re excited for what's possible when talented builders turn their skills to public service.
What Makes Retirements So Complicated?
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