OUR STORY
Rooted in New Orleans. Ready for the world.
We started Civilized because the communities that need the most support are often the hardest to reach. That's still what drives us.
WHY WE BUILT THIS
We built Civilized to close the gap.
Nonprofits and civic organizations work hard to serve their communities. They publish newsletters, run programs, staff phone lines, and show up every day. But when a resident needs help at 9pm on a Tuesday, that work is invisible — buried in PDFs, scattered across websites, lost in voicemail.
We built Civilized to close that gap — not by asking organizations to change how they work, but by making what they already do instantly findable, in any language, at any hour.
WHERE WE'RE GOING
Answers are just the beginning.
We're building a civic engagement platform — one app where people volunteer for local events, submit a 311 and track its status, join a virtual town hall, and get real answers about the place they live.
It's AI for good in service of a social network that works for communities and the cities they call home — not advertisers or algorithms. We're connecting everyone in a city to each other and to the city itself. Starting in New Orleans, then across the country and the world — community by community.
OUR PRINCIPLES
We built it this way on purpose.
No changes necessary.
Civilized connects to what you already publish — your site, newsletters, emails. No migration, no new workflows.
Honest answers.
Every answer is grounded in your approved content, with visible citations. When it doesn’t know, it says so — and flags the gap.
Your impact travels.
Publish once and your answers join a federated network of community organizations, reaching people beyond your own site.
Built for everyone.
Civilized answers in 70+ languages automatically — because an answer someone can’t read isn’t really an answer.
Backed by people who get it.
Our investors aren't just writing checks — they're rooted in the same communities we're building for.
+ local investors who believe communities deserve technology that works within their constraints.
OUR TEAM
The people building it.
Founded in New Orleans by Matt Wisdom and Silviu Claponea, and built by a small, focused team of engineers, designers, and community strategists.
Matt Wisdom
CEO & Co-founder
Silviu Claponea
CTO & Co-founder
Carrie Wiley
Chief Product Officer
Deanna Dearing
Chief People Officer
Chris Phillips
Executive AI Agent Engineer
Julie Simon
Executive Talent Search & Coaching
Kevin O’Sullivan
Director of Marketing
Baldwin Wingard
Customer Success Manager
Christian Neatu
Senior Engineer
Tyler Meyer
Agent Engineer
Allan Madin
AI Agent Engineer
Peter Leonard
AI Agent Engineer
Marquez Williams
Account Executive
Ready to get started?
Bring Civilized to your community
Start with a free Answers setup — we'll deliver your search bar in ~72 hours.
Get started free