How to Win Government (And Actually Get What You Want)
Why most founders lose before they even start — and how to get approvals, contracts, and traction by understanding how the system really works.
About This Session
Governments are the world’s largest customers, investors, and ecosystem shapers. A single decision can unlock entire industries — or shut them down overnight.
Yet most founders approach government the wrong way.
They optimise for visibility, noise, or persuasion — without understanding how the system actually makes decisions.
This is not a policy talk.
It’s a working model for getting things done.
The Framework
Government operates as two systems at once:
The Frontend — politics, narrative, public wins. This is where attention lives.
The Backend — bureaucracy, process, institutional incentives. This is where decisions actually get made.
Most founders only ever engage the Frontend.
The ones who win know how to work both — deliberately and in sync.
What You’ll Learn
Why political noise rarely converts into real traction — and what does
How policymakers and bureaucrats think differently, and why that gap matters
The critical difference between Frontend and Backend strategy
How to align your ask with the system’s actual incentives — not the ones it advertises
A practical execution framework: idea → approval → implementation
The Speakers
Randall Baran-Chong has spent 15 years operating at the intersection of policy, advocacy, and regulation — testifying before Parliament, reshaping regulations affecting tens of millions of people, and contributing to legislation and national consultations. He is the founder of a pioneering advocacy DAO coordinating founders across Web3, AI, and emerging technologies to engage governments at every level.
Gautam Gupta served as Councillor and Acting Mayor of one of Australia’s fastest-growing cities — a metropolitan local government of over 300,000 residents — before moving into the startup world. He has sat inside the room where decisions are made, and now works with founders navigating the same systems from the outside. He brings a rare inside-out perspective on where power actually sits — and how to access it.
Together, they cover the full spectrum — from advocacy to execution, from influence to outcome.
Who Should Attend
If you’re building in AI, Web3, healthtech, climate, or any regulated space — government is already part of your product roadmap, whether you’ve planned for it or not.
The founders who succeed are not the loudest.
They are the ones who understand the system early enough to shape it — rather than react to it.
Come ready to work. This session is interactive.