The HeyGov Journey: How We Started and Where We’re Headed

At HeyGov, we like to think of ourselves as a team of problem solvers—fueled by the mission to make clerk-life easier for municipal staff across the country. But how did we get here? Let’s take a trip down memory lane.

The journey begins here. HeyGov is the brainchild of Dustin Overbeck, a Wisconsin native hailing from the charming town of Sturgeon Bay. Dustin’s journey into the world of municipal apps with HeyGov began 14 years after he founded Town Web, a company dedicated to building websites for municipalities. Over those years, Dustin got to know the ins and outs of municipal work, forming strong relationships with clerks and treasurers along the way. He quickly realized how essential these unsung heroes are to keeping towns and cities running smoothly.

The Start of it All - Our Mission

With a clear mission in mind—helping clerks and treasurers do their jobs more efficiently—Dustin set out to create HeyGov, a sister company to Town Web. The idea was simple: use technology to ease the burden on municipal staff. It worked with awesome websites, why not with magical apps. The first step on this journey? A little something we called internally the Pothole App.

Back in the days before COVID-19 turned the world upside down, we were working on an app designed to help residents report municipal issues like potholes, abandoned vehicles, fallen trees and more. It was simple and to the point. But as the app evolved, we realized we could do so much more. We adopted the Open 311 standard and rebranded it as Hey311, an app that allows clerks to receive and manage any type of request from residents, all in one place. Gone were the days of endless phone calls and overflowing email inboxes—Hey311 was here to save the day.

But that was just the beginning. As we continued to work closely with clerks and treasurers, we discovered just how much these municipal superheroes were juggling. It became clear that our work was far from done! So, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work on one app after the other, all of them designed to make their lives easier.

Enter HeyLicense, HeyReserve, and HeyGov Pay

HeyLicense is all about taking those dusty old PDFs and paper forms and bringing them into the digital age. Need a permit? A license? An application? HeyLicense handles it all, complete with online payments and automatic fee calculations. No more manual processing—just quick, easy, and efficient.

HeyReserve tackles another common headache: paper calendars and junky online options. Whether it’s a pavilion, community center, or any other venue, HeyReserve makes it easy for residents to book and pay online. It's an online booking system with payment attached to it. All while clerks can approve bookings without ever needing to block out calendars manually or deal with checks and cash. Only 1 year after the launch of it the City of Sheboygan used the system to manage their 34 venues and thousands of booking requests. They attached their Marina on top of it too by asking us to create a solution that uniquely fits their needs.

And then there’s HeyGov Pay, an online credit card payment system, is the backbone of our online payment system. From citations to utility bills and taxes, HeyGov Pay handles it all, with a special focus on making reconciliation as painless as possible for treasurers. It’s all about making sure that every payment is accounted for, without the hassle.

The NeverEnding journey - now sprinkled with AI

But we didn’t stop there. Our latest adventure? ClerkMinutes—a cool AI Skunkworks project that’s taking the mundane out of minute-taking. What used to take an hour can now be done in just 10 minutes, giving clerks more time to focus on what really matters.

At HeyGov, we’re proud of how far we’ve come, but we know there’s always more to do. That’s why we’ll keep listening, keep learning, and keep innovating—because when clerks and treasurers win, we all win.

Stay tuned, because the best is yet to come!

Yours truly, Atanas