Ad Hoc is a digital services company that helps the federal government better serve people. Our team of experts from across commercial industry and government brings the modern skills necessary to help agencies transform public services into digital services. Our work enables agencies to meet the needs of their users while closing the gap between consumer expectations and government.

In October 2013, before Ad Hoc the company existed, future co-founders Greg Gershman and Paul Smith were part of a half-dozen technologists from outside government assembled by the White House to join the contractors and government staff working on HealthCare.gov. We were a small group among many players, and we needed to be mindful of how we presented ourselves.

Early on, we found ourselves in a meeting with the top executives of the various stakeholders. As we went around doing introductions, the room’s attention came to our team. Any of us could have said, “I’m so-and-so, from the White House,” but we needed to develop trust, not have someone put a rosy spin on problems because they thought the president had sent us.

When the time came, the first of us said, “I’m from the ad hoc team”, and it was immediately right. We had been assembled, dictionary-definition-wise, for a particular purpose, for this rescue effort. It went by without any comment in the moment, and we all adopted it from there on out. Most people interpreted it as the uppercase “the Ad Hoc team,” and we chose to continue that spirit of collaboration when we founded Ad Hoc the company.