The technology industry has a terrible reputation amongst legislators and regulators across the country. In many cases, rightly so. The days of a free-wheeling tech industry are surely coming to a close—regulation is upon our doorstep.

But let's not forget, there's also emerging tech—nascent industries that deserve a chance to get it right. Autonomous cars and trucking fleets, drones, gene editing, medical nanorobots—these ideas all have the opportunity to transform American society. And they all require legal frameworks to ensure success and proper use.

I'm here to suggest a healthy collaboration between tech and the legislative process is not only possible, but prudent. The key to success: starting the dialogue earlier.

Before launching Notarize, we met our direct regulator, the Attorney General and Secretary of the Commonwealth of Virginia, to be certain we met not only the letter, but the spirit of their enabling legislation. After launching, we traveled the country and met with twelve secretaries of state tasked with reviewing the concept and (potentially) updating the National Association of Secretaries of State's (NASS) notarization standards. We then met with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Housing Finance Authority, and both Government-Sponsored Enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).

We had nothing to sell, our goal was to educate.

Notarized documents ultimately go to private and public institutions with the discretion to determine their acceptability. For example, a lender can't notarize a mortgage online if Fannie Mae won't buy it. And so, we had to engage regulators and key organizations before bringing our product to market.

My suggestion is for startups in regulated industries to do the same.

Truth is, most investors thought engaging the regulatory community meant a slow, painful death—they claimed no agency would engage quickly enough or in good faith. Investors said that by asking for permission, we'd have to wait for approvals that we'd never receive.

I think that Notarize's success is a model worth following, not just because of how we engaged, but because of how well key organizations like NASS and others did also. Based on our experiences, I offer the following advice to startups and the legal, legislative, trade, and regulatory communities at large.

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Drive Value for Others, Not Just Yourself

While it may impress a venture capitalist, no one cares that your idea will make you rich. All that matters is how your idea will impact others. If you cannot articulate how you will improve the lives for consumers and/or for industries, no one will support you. And when some group rises up to fight against your cause, if there isn't another that benefits enough to spend their political capital to fight alongside you, you're dead. The value you claim to create must be real and realizable.

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Drive the Conversation Into Public Forums

There are two hard truths. Any change will always have at least one detractor. And, to pass legislation everything must go right but only one thing must go wrong—it's easy for anyone to kill your bill in backroom meetings. In our case, we were lucky that key organizations created public forums.

NASS created a task force and invited industry to participate. The same then occurred within key trade associations. The Mortgage Bankers Association leveraged The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization to set standards, inviting a broad base of constituents to contribute.

Conversation in the public domain drove tremendous progress towards meaningful dialogue to ultimately pass legislation.

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Leverage Deliberative Bodies to Get the Details Right

Two key organizations are now evaluating remote online notarization: The Council of State Governments and the Uniform Law Commission. These groups are comprised of legislators from across the country and exist to harmonize complex issues across state lines.

As a technology vendor aiming to serve a national market, standardization is key. In our case, both groups produced model legislation enabling remote online notarization; their bills have now been adopted across the country.

These same groups are now debating autonomous vehicles, drones, and countless other technology issues. These other groups have the skills and expertise to understand your industry and engage in good faith. If you're not at a startup, but are impacted by a set of tech policy issues, look up your state's Uniform Law Commissioners. Make your point to them and you'll have outsized impact.

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Keep Privacy and Consumer Protection Separate

Every technology service collects, generates and stores data. In virtually all cases, this data relates to people. And so, every technology bill ultimately becomes a battleground over privacy and consumer protection.

This is fantastic in the abstract, but horrible in practice. Assuming the best of intentions, people ignorant of the issues are attempting to write bespoke privacy language specific to every bill. To be clear, I am an extreme believer in strong consumer protections. However, these issues deserve to be debated on their own, with uniform policies that govern every type of technology service in a predictable fashion. Technology issues similarly deserve focused, independent debate.

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Engage

Above all else, I've learned that laws are written by the people who show up. That's true for the tech startups looking to drive change, but it's also true for the industries that will be impacted. But, showing up doesn't mean barnstorming the capital. If you're in a trade association, help your local and national chapters understand how technology may help or harm your way of life, reach out to your state's Uniform Law Commissioners, and push key groups to create public forums. It may seem like technology issues are years away, but the deliberative arms of government are grinding away on autonomous vehicles and other issues today. And when they reach resolution, legislation will fly through the state houses across the country—just like the 18 states that have passed online notary bills in just two sessions.  

Much like great products, the most successful legislation delivers something that people want, and want to be a part of.

Adam Pase is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Notarize, the first notary platform allowing any person or business to get their documents legally notarized online. Adam has been profiled by Politico magazine in its “Politico Pro” series and has been a recipient of the New Leaders Council's “40 under 40″ award for exemplifying leadership in political entrepreneurship.