HeyGov Wins First Place at Wisconsin Governor's Business Plan, in Milwaukee

In a marathon presentation ceremony at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs Conference, held on 1 June in Milwaukee, HeyGov won the Information Technology category after five months of first submitting its idea to the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan Contest (BPC). The contest, held annually, has seen over 4300 applicants since its inception in 2014. It is a highly competitive and prestigious contest. 

Dustin Overbeck, founder and CEO, laughingly explains that he practiced the presentation by walking up and down, days before. He says he also had a haircut that “...looks like he didn’t have a haircut” and wore funky socks. He says that the socks reminded him that he wants to have fun and loves to solve local municipal problems. 

HeyGov, a first, is a suite of tools for local municipalities: the toolkit currently consists of four apps called HeyLicense, HeyGovPay, HeyReserve and Hey311 - all individually developed to make ‘Clerk-work’, a term Overbeck coined, easier. By making use of information technology and the innovation it brings HeyGov can digitize processes like dog licenses, operator licenses, boat launch permits and more into an online fillable form, with quick payment with a credit card - also online. The paper binder in its entirety, well known to local municipal staff with the reservations of municipal facilities, are now digitally available with HeyReserve. 

Overbeck says that the process was daunting at times but he is grateful for the guidance of the mentors and the support from friends, family, colleagues and community members. He explains that the first attempt to enter the Business Plan Contest in 2021 didn’t end the way he hoped for and he vowed to engage with everything he had if given another opportunity. Overbeck is currently engaging with possible partners for seed funding until the end of July. 

The road for this Door County entrepreneur doesn’t end here, Dustin plans to develop another 19 apps and package them in bundles according to the municipal needs. “Packages are fluid and will be arranged according to what the biggest pain point is, in a municipality…” he explains. 

HeyGov saw its inception in 2021, in Sturgeon Bay. Dustin Overbeck, boasts an impressive record as a business owner, as president of Town Web, Wisconsin's largest municipal web design agency, and as the owner of Tweak Agency, a local branding & web agency he acquired in 2019. Dustin volunteers as a business mentor through the Door County Economic Development Corporation (DCEDC), mentoring small business owners. He is a graduate of Sevastopol High School and holds an M.B.A. from Thunderbird School of Global Management (now part of ASU).