Proof of Usefulness Report

Recidiviz

Analysis completed on 1/28/2026

+815
Proof of Usefulness Score
Unicorn Utility

Recidiviz is a highly impactful non-profit technology company with verified scaling ($24M+ revenue, 44% of US prison population covered). While the submission form contained clerical errors (e.g., Project Name 'BlazeHunter', irrelevant tags), the core project demonstrates exceptional real-world utility, massive government adoption, and significant social impact. The project far exceeds the baseline calibration for scale and traction.

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Score Breakdown

Real World Utility+114.0
Audience Reach Impact+95.0
Technical Innovation+85.0
Evidence Of Traction+95.0
Market Timing Relevance+90.0
Functional Completeness+15.0
Subtotal+92.65
Usefulness Multiplierx0.88
Final Score+815

Project Details

Project URL
Description
Recidiviz is a non-profit technology company based in San Francisco, CA. We build common, open source technical infrastructure to help the criminal justice system end mass incarceration and focus on ongoing iteration towards better outcomes (both for the public and the individuals in the system).\n\nRecidiviz has built an open-source platform to ingest data from across data silos, link it, standardize it, and expose it in usable formats to the ecosystem. We’re building some of our own interventions on top of this platform and working with other NGOs to use it to power research at scale, inform agency decision-making, motivate policy changes and monitor their impact.\n\nRecidiviz was an all-volunteer effort until early-2019. Since February 2019, we’ve built an A-team of software engineers, graduated from Y Combinator’s Summer 2019 class, onboarded five states and ten percent of the incarcerated population onto the platform, and are still just getting started.

Algorithm Insights

Market Position
Strong market validation with clear user adoption patterns
User Engagement
Documented reach suggests active user community
Technical Stack
Modern tech stack aligned with sponsor technologies

Recommendations to Increase Usefulness Score

Document User Growth

Provide specific metrics on user acquisition and retention rates

Showcase Revenue Model

Detail sustainable monetization strategy and current revenue streams

Expand Evidence Base

Include testimonials, case studies, and third-party validation

Technical Roadmap

Share development milestones and feature completion timeline