In 2009, the founder Jennifer Pahlka had a conversation with Andrew Greenhill, the Mayor's Chief of Staff of the City of Tucson, in that conversation sparked the initial idea for Code for America, and the two began discussing plans for a program that eventually became Code for Mexico, "a one-year fellowship recruiting developers to work for city government".
In 2009, the founder Jennifer Pahlka was working with O'Reilly Media at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington, DC. A conversation with Andrew Greenhill, the Mayor's Chief of Staff of the City of Tucson, sparked the initial idea for Code for America, when he said "You need to pay attention to the local level, because cities are in major crisis. The two began discussing plans for a program that eventually became Code for America, "a one-year fellowship recruiting developers to work for city government". 
