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Devin: What is your superpower?
Paul: Insatiable curiosity
Citizen Portal is transforming how we stay informed about local government. The platform, led by CEO Paul Allen, uses AI to create a personalized, nonpartisan newsfeed that makes it easier than ever to monitor public officials and engage in civic issues.
Paul explained, “We redesigned the site to literally use AI to detect every important topic discussed in every government meeting.” By analyzing over 1.3 million hours of public meetings, Citizen Portal generates bite-sized articles on key issues, giving users a consumable, easy-to-navigate interface resembling a news site.
This shift has been a game-changer. Paul shared that the platform has attracted nearly a million users this year alone. The tool addresses a growing demand for transparency and accountability in government while filling a void created by the decline of local newspapers.
Unlike platforms driven by ad revenue or partisan agendas, Citizen Portal operates on a subscription model designed to empower its users. “There’s no spin, no partisan bias, and no kind of echo chamber,” Paul said. Instead, the platform’s algorithm, called BRAIN, tailors content to users’ locations and interests, ensuring relevance.
Citizen Portal’s mission is ambitious yet essential. Paul envisions a world where “it’ll be a thousand times easier to become an informed and engaged citizen.” The platform not only provides insights into local schools, city councils, and state legislatures, but also offers actionable steps for users to make their voices heard.
Citizen Portal has raised capital from the crowd in the past. The performance of the business suggests that investors have reason to celebrate!
Paul’s vision is clear: to strengthen democracy by making civic engagement easier and more effective. With Citizen Portal, we can all stay informed, get involved, and make a difference in our communities.
tl;dr:
Citizen Portal uses AI to transform 1.3 million hours of government meetings into actionable news.
The platform fills the gap left by declining local newspapers with nonpartisan, customizable newsfeeds.
Paul’s vision is to empower citizens and policymakers with tools for informed engagement.
Citizen Portal is raising capital through regulated crowdfunding to expand its impact and technology.
Paul’s superpower, insatiable curiosity, drives his passion for creating tools that make information accessible.
How to Develop Insatiable Curiosity As a Superpower
Paul described his superpower as a deep passion for learning and gathering information. “I just have an insatiable curiosity for finding content in libraries, researching archives, [and] finding hidden gems,” he explained. This natural drive to consume and organize information has fueled his success, from co-founding Ancestry.com to leading Citizen Portal. He combines his love of learning with a knack for turning chaotic data into meaningful tools that empower others.
Paul shared how his superpower helped him build Citizen Portal. He and his team analyzed millions of hours of government meeting records, transforming vast, fragmented data into actionable, AI-generated newsfeeds. His love for gathering information and creating order enabled him to design a platform that empowers citizens to monitor local governance and engage more effectively.
Tips for Developing Curiosity
Identify and lean into your natural strengths using tools like the Clifton Strengths Assessment.
Focus on areas that energize and excite you rather than trying to emulate others’ strengths.
Gather and organize information in ways that help others, amplifying the impact of your efforts.
Pursue learning as a lifelong habit by reading, researching, and staying curious about the world.
By following Paul’s example and advice, you can make insatiable curiosity a skill. With practice and effort, you could make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.
Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!
Guest Profile
Paul Allen (he/him):
CEO & Board Member, Citizen Portal
About Citizen Portal: Citizen Portal is a non-partisan, AI-powered platform, with $426,200 in pre-seed funding and a seasoned leadership team, aiming to revolutionize civic engagement, revive government transparency, and transform American democracy. Citizen Portal is on a mission to transform democracy with an AI-powered approach. We are reshaping civic engagement and education by providing Americans with up-to-date, accurate, newsworthy information straight from the source. Citizen Portal utilizes AI to index, transcribe, and summarize meetings and hearings at all levels of government. By providing access to video recordings of school boards, local, state, and federal meetings, Citizen Portal helps to empower citizens, journalists, and advocates to know what is being said by their elected officials and done in their government.
Website: citizenportal.ai
Company Facebook Page: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093227401453
Other URL: startengine.com/citizenportal
Biographical Information: Paul Allen is a visionary tech entrepreneur and evangelist driven by a desire to help individuals live their best lives.
Paul has founded eight companies. He calls himself a “platform entrepreneur” since his products are usually built on top of the latest tech platform or wave, such as CD ROM, the World Wide Web, mp3 audio, or Facebook. For the past several years, Paul’s focus has been using machine learning and artificial intelligence to help individuals and organizations reach their full potential.
In 1990, Paul founded Infobases, whose mission was to digitize and publish the world’s most important books on CD ROM with a full-text search engine. This endeavor led directly to Ancestry.com—Paul’s best known company—which sought to gather and publish the world’s genealogy records, family trees, and memories on the internet to enable everyone to discover their heritage. Over 100 million people have learned about their family history at Ancestry.com.
Paul’s teams have a history of building viral products. MyFamily.com (1998) attracted millions of users, and for a time, was the fastest growing online community on the web as well as the top photo sharing site in 2000 and 2001. Paul’s We’re Related app on Facebook (2007-2010) gained more than 120 million users in two and a half years.
From 2012 to 2017, Paul worked with Gallup to promote the StrengthsFinder assessment (now called CliftonStrengths) from the Washington, DC headquarters. As the “Global Strengths Evangelist,” Paul helped increase online purchases of the assessment and supported a global community of strengths coaches. Today, more than 30 million people have taken the CliftonStrengths assessment.
Paul’s most recent creation is Soar.com, a company whose mission—once again—is to uplift humanity. Paul is a strong advocate for using AI in positive ways, specifically to enable individuals to become the best version of themselves. When excellent training is paired with AI generated feedback on actual performance, leaders, managers, founders, and individual contributors can achieve excellence faster than ever before.
Soar is an AI Studio that will form more than fifteen separate corporations to bring PURE AI (Personalized Uplifting Responsible Ethical AI) to many fields, including education, faith, government, health, finance, medicine, law, family history, and the workplace. Eventually, Soar will enable people to build and customize their own AI assistant (think of Jarvis from Iron Man or Janet from The Good Place) to help them learn, grow, make better decisions, and maximize their time on Earth.
Paul’s influence extends beyond entrepreneurship. He’s a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, teaching the importance of family stories and personal strengths in shaping one’s identity. A lifelong learner, Paul has amassed a vast library of thousands of books. In fact, Paul’s dedication to learning extends to his teaching roles in Internet Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University. He’s received numerous accolades, including Ernst & Young Utah Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000 and MarketingSherpa National Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008.
Paul is a fellow of the Utah Genealogical Association and was named a Cyber Pioneer in 2010 by the Cyber Law Section of the Utah State Bar. In 2016, he was the honored alumnus of the BYU Humanities College, having graduated in 1990 with a BA in Russian. Most recently, Paul has been featured on The Pulse of AI, The Briefing with Steve Scully, The Business of Learning, and The Adventures in Machine Learning podcasts.
Paul and his wife, Christy, reside in Missouri. They have 8 adult children and 5 grandchildren.
X/Twitter Handle: @paulballen
Personal Facebook Profile: facebook.com/paulallen
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/paulballen
Instagram Handle: @paulallendc
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Upcoming SuperCrowd Event Calendar
If a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.
Join us on June 25, 2025, at 8:00 PM Eastern for the Superpowers for Good Live Pitch—streaming on e360tv, where purpose-driven founders take the virtual stage to present their active Regulation Crowdfunding campaigns to a national audience of investors and changemakers. Selected startups are chosen for their commitment to community, alignment with NC3’s Community Capital Principles, and their drive to create real-world impact. Thanks to sponsors DNA and DealMaker, this event is free to watch and amplifies the voices of underrepresented and mission-aligned entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this inspiring evening where capital meets purpose—tune in to discover and support the next wave of impact-driven innovation.
Impact Cherub Club Meeting hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, on July 15, 2025, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, the Club meets to review new offerings for investment consideration and to conduct due diligence on previously screened deals. To join the Impact Cherub Club, become an Impact Member of the SuperCrowd.
SuperCrowdHour, July 16, 2025, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Devin Thorpe, CEO and Founder of The Super Crowd, Inc., will lead a session on "Balance Sheets & Beyond: The Impact Investor’s Guide to Financials." If terms like “income statement” and “cash flow” make your eyes glaze over, this session is for you. Devin will break down the fundamentals of financial statements in clear, simple language—perfect for beginners who want to better understand the numbers behind the businesses they support. Whether you're a new investor, a founder navigating financials, or simply curious about how money moves through mission-driven companies, you'll leave this session more confident and informed. Don’t miss it!
SuperCrowd25, August 21st and 22nd: This two-day virtual event is an annual tradition but with big upgrades for 2025! We’ll be streaming live across the web and on TV via e360tv. Soon, we’ll open a process for nominating speakers. Check back!
Community Event Calendar
Successful Funding with Karl Dakin, Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ET - Click on Events.
Devin Thorpe is featured in a free virtual masterclass series hosted by Irina Portnova titled Break Free, Elevate Your Money Mindset & Call In Overflow, focused on transforming your relationship with money through personal stories and practical insights. June 8-21, 2025.
Join Dorian Dickinson, founder & CEO of FundingHope, for Startup.com’s monthly crowdfunding workshop, where he'll dive into strategies for successfully raising capital through investment crowdfunding. June 24 at noon Eastern.
Future Forward Summit: San Francisco, Wednesday, June 25 · 3:30 - 8:30 pm PDT.
Regulated Investment Crowdfunding Summit 2025, Crowdfunding Professional Association, Washington DC, October 21-22, 2025.
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