The Boring Government Software Boom Is Finally Getting Attention

Government paperwork is becoming a serious technology target.

Lilly Chen spent about two years as a monk before becoming an engineer at Facebook and later co-founding FSH Technologies. Now the Philadelphia-based company builds software for government tasks that rarely attract Silicon Valley attention—administering school food services and managing public records.

That path began when Chen was 16 and had been repeatedly hospitalized for Graves’ disease. Her mother, frustrated with the care Chen received through Medicaid, suggested that they move to China and become monks. It is not the usual route into enterprise software, unless the enterprise in question is reality itself.

Chen was ordained in the United States before spending several months at a monastery in China, where she meditated, read, ate food grown on-site or brought by nearby villagers, and lived without internet access. She continued taking thyroid medication, and said her health became more manageable during that period.

With no nearby place to buy books, Chen reread the ones she had brought and found different places around the monastery to sit with them. Her attachment to those books led to a conversation with a fellow monk, who asked what she enjoyed about reading and where she might find more books.

The discussion turned to colleges and why Chen was not attending one. She explained her health problems; he observed that she seemed well. Chen realized she was, returned to the United States, homeschooled herself, and enrolled at Colorado College without having earned a high school diploma.

Chen turned 20 during her freshman year. She also played video games professionally before becoming an engineer at Facebook, then quit without a startup idea waiting in the wings.

What she wanted instead was work she believed in. After her brief stint at a large tech company, Chen realized she wanted to tackle the everyday problems that make people’s lives harder—even when solving them would not generate much excitement in Silicon Valley.

“What does it actually take to solve the really unsexy, boring stuff?” Chen asked herself. That question eventually led to FSH Technologies, pronounced “fish,” and its focus on the machinery behind public services.

Travel documents become an AI test case

HelloGov is taking a similar aim at another category of government friction: passports, travel visas, and other travel documents. Its AI platform is designed to simplify applications, a task that interrupts or distracts people an average of 27 times a day—about once every 39 minutes.

HelloGov recently merged with iVisa, and the combined company handles more than a million passport and visa applications a year. Its platform is trained on more than a decade of real requirements data, including the differences between a DS-64 and a DS-5525 and the situations that require both forms.

The system handles the small details that turn a simple application into a bureaucratic scavenger hunt. It completes parental consent forms when someone applies for themselves and a child, asks for supporting documents when a name has changed, and completes separate authorization for a country on the way to a final destination when that country requires it.

HelloGov says the platform understands travel and e-visa requirements for over 100 countries around the world. It checks an application during the process after questions are completed and requirements are scanned, then sends it through a final review by a human passport or visa expert.

Support runs around the clock, and real-time tracking lets applicants see where an application stands. For urgent international travel, users may need an in-person appointment at one of the State Department’s 28 passport agencies and centers; appointments can be booked online or by phone, subject to eligibility and availability.

HelloGov’s courier network is registered with the U.S. Department of State, allowing registered passport couriers to submit applications at passport agencies and collect completed passports for travelers. Some couriers offer turnaround options of two to three days, subject to eligibility, availability, and shipping time.

Distribution may matter as much as the model

HelloGov works with partners such as CLEAR and Staples to place its service in front of tens of millions of consumers. Travelers can also buy documents such as the UK’s ETA or a Brazil tourist eVisa directly on Amazon.

That distribution strategy reflects a simple problem: people often discover they need a visa or travel authorization after they start booking a flight, hotel, or rental car. HelloGov’s approach is to appear at that moment through retail and travel partners rather than wait for users to search for help.

Business formation services are already live, with vehicle registration and tag and title services planned for later this year. The company says it wants to apply the same approach across all government documents.

Following its merger with iVisa, HelloGov combines thirteen years of global visa infrastructure with an AI-assisted passport application platform across more than 100 destinations and 14 languages. Its services will be available to customers globally through retail partnerships and travel memberships, while every application receives specialist review.

HelloGov AI, Inc. is an AI-powered consumer and business platform for government documentation. It is registered with the U.S. Department of State as a hand-carry passport courier and operates a marketplace of independent registered couriers.

FSH and HelloGov are chasing the same neglected prize from different directions: software that removes friction from ordinary public processes. The glamorous demos can wait—people still need school meals, public records, passports, and forms that do not punish them for having complicated lives.

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