Co-founders Lily Liu and Vincent Polidoro began to develop PublicStuff in 2009 and officially launched the service in 2010.

[7] Liu created PublicStuff after a 10-year career in urban administration positions in California, Washington D.C., and New York City.

As clients, municipalities have access to a CRM backend that allows staff to manage workflow, and make internal or public comments on resident requests.

[2] Municipalities can customize the mobile app experience by, for example, modifying the user interface or adding widgets.

[2] PublicStuff routes location-tagged photographs, written descriptions, and telephone-reported issues to relevant municipal departments and then relays status and outcome back to the user who filed the request.