--- title: Sean Parker's New Startup 'Brigade' Seeks To Repair U.S. Politics description: With backing from early Facebook investor Sean Parker, Brigade Media LLC has already raised an impressive $9.3 million in funds to improve civic engagement from the federal level down to state and local politics canonical: https://time.com/61898/silicon-valley-sean-parker-brigade/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-14T17:37:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:01:57.964Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sean Parker's New Startup 'Brigade' Seeks To Repair U.S. Politics og:description: With backing from early Facebook investor Sean Parker, Brigade Media LLC has already raised an impressive $9.3 million in funds to improve civic engagement from the federal level down to state and local politics og:url: https://time.com/61898/silicon-valley-sean-parker-brigade/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bc85b601d449735/69868a99361760428f90b7b5/sean-parker.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster Inc. and managing partner of the Founders Fund, stands for a photograph following a television interview on day three of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2012 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sean Parker's New Startup 'Brigade' Seeks To Repair U.S. Politics twitter:description: With backing from early Facebook investor Sean Parker, Brigade Media LLC has already raised an impressive $9.3 million in funds to improve civic engagement from the federal level down to state and local politics twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bc85b601d449735/69868a99361760428f90b7b5/sean-parker.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Silicon Valley Startup Seeks to Repair U.S. Politics  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Apr 14, 2014 5:37 PM UTC  Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster Inc. and managing partner of the Founders Fund, stands for a photograph following a television interview on day three of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2012 Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster Inc. and managing partner of the Founders Fund, stands for a photograph following a television interview on day three of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2012Simon Dawson—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Apr 14, 2014 5:37 PM UTC Guided by its scrappy startup ethic, Silicon Valley has disrupted entrenched industries from hotels to rental cars to pizza delivery, but a group of tech barons are raising the stakes with what may be their biggest challenge yet: American democracy. Former Facebook president and Napster co-founder Sean Parker will command a $9.3 million war chest as CEO of Brigade Media LLC, a startup aimed at improving civic engagement in the U.S., according to an [SEC filing](http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1604907/000160490714000001/xslFormDX01/primary%5Fdoc.xml) made Monday. With financial backing from other Silicon Valley bigwigs, including early Google investor Ron Conway and Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, Brigade will take aim at boosting political engagement in government from the federal level down to state and local politics. “When you get beyond the federal level and certain statewide offices, most voters don’t know who’s making decisions on their behalf,” one anonymous source reportedly familiar with the matter told [Politico](http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/napster-co-founder-sean-parker-startup-brigade-105673.html). Other big Silicon Valley names will join Parker on the company’s board, including Adam Conner as vice president of politics, John Thrall as vice president of engineering and David Henke on the board. Citing anonymous insiders, Alex Wilhelm at [Techcrunch](http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/14/brigade-media-raises-9-3m-from-sean-parker-to-shake-up-american-democracy/) reports Brigade will address the view that American democracy is not “scaling” properly to keep pace with changes in American society. Brigade, he says, will apply digital solutions to help voters stay informed and choose leaders. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/61898/silicon-valley-sean-parker-brigade/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/61898/silicon-valley-sean-parker-brigade/"},"headline":"Silicon Valley Startup Seeks to Repair U.S. Politics","datePublished":"2014-04-14T17:37:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:57.964Z","description":"With backing from early Facebook investor Sean Parker, Brigade Media LLC has already raised an impressive $9.3 million in funds to improve civic engagement from the federal level down to state and local politics","url":"https://time.com/61898/silicon-valley-sean-parker-brigade/","keywords":["Technology","Tech"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bc85b601d449735/69868a99361760428f90b7b5/sean-parker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bc85b601d449735/69868a99361760428f90b7b5/sean-parker.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster Inc. and managing partner of the Founders Fund, stands for a photograph following a television interview on day three of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2012","caption":"Sean Parker, co-founder of Napster Inc. and managing partner of the Founders Fund, stands for a photograph following a television interview on day three of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in 2012","creditText":"Simon Dawson—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/technology/","name":"Technology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/61898/silicon-valley-sean-parker-brigade/","name":"Silicon Valley Startup Seeks to Repair U.S. Politics"}}]}] ```