About
Built from both sides of the problem.
Influent was founded by a public affairs strategist who kept seeing how hard it was to scale authentic participation and a technology founder who believed modern tools could solve that problem without taking the human out of it.
Today, we combine campaign judgment, technology, AI, data, and execution to make authentic advocacy practical at a scale that was never possible before.
Democratize advocacy.
We started Influent because we kept running into the same problem from opposite sides of our careers.
Tanner had spent years running public affairs campaigns where the most persuasive voice was almost always a real person living the issue. During one 30-day California clean-air fight, there were more than 160 people ready to speak up, with stories that could genuinely change how decision-makers understood the issue. But finding each person, hearing their story, drafting every letter, preparing every op-ed, and helping every advocate participate took more time than the campaign had. The faster alternative was the same one the industry had relied on for years: give everyone a form letter and ask them to press send.
Nate saw another possibility. Technology could make the hard part of authentic advocacy practical. Not by inventing what people should say, but by helping campaigns listen to what real people already believed, understand what they had experienced, and turn those experiences into clear, persuasive participation at scale.
That became Influent. We believe taking part in the decisions that affect your life should not require a policy degree, hours of free time, or the confidence to write the perfect letter from scratch. If an issue matters to you, there should be a practical and accessible way to tell the people making the decision. And public affairs teams should not have to choose between authenticity and scale. They should be able to find the right people, hear their stories, and put those voices to work quickly without flattening everyone into the same message.
Our mission is to democratize advocacy and modernize public affairs by making meaningful participation easier for more people.
People are the hero. Technology just makes it possible for more of them to be heard.
Tanner + Nate
Tanner Kelly
Co-founder · Public Affairs & Strategy
Tanner is a public affairs strategist and campaign operator with more than 12 years of experience leading legislative, regulatory, corporate, grassroots, and coalition campaigns. He began his career at a large national public affairs firm before founding TK Public Affairs, where he has advised companies, nonprofits, coalitions, and advocacy organizations through high-stakes policy fights. His work has centered on finding the people and stories that make complicated policy issues real to decision-makers. At Influent, Tanner leads public affairs strategy, campaign execution, messaging, coalition and stakeholder engagement, and helps shape the product around what campaigns actually need to win.
Nate Saletan
Co-founder · Product & Technology
Nate is a technology founder and product leader with more than a decade of experience building and scaling consumer technology companies. He has been part of founding teams across philanthropy, data, and peer-to-peer communications platforms. At Influent, Nate leads product, engineering, AI, and data, turning complicated campaign workflows into technology that is fast, intuitive, and capable of supporting individualized participation at scale.
Different backgrounds. One problem.
Tanner understood what campaigns needed. Nate understood what technology could make possible. Influent was built at the intersection.
Democratize advocacy.
Modernize public affairs by making it easier for real people to participate meaningfully in the decisions that affect their lives. Everyone deserves a voice that matters.