The secret startup that saved Healthcare.gov

The spectacular failure of Healthcare.gov at launch led to the creation of what came to be known as the Tech Surge, a group of Silicon Valley developers who rescued the website from disorganized contractors and bureaucratic mismanagement. That group gave rise to the U.S. Digital Service and, to a lesser extent, 18F, two government agencies now working to improve the state of federal technology. But the story of a group called the Marketplace Lite team has yet to be told. These are the designers and developers, mostly younger than those in the Tech Surge, who stuck around after others had left.