The Company That Botched the Iowa Caucus Was Formed Only Months Ago

It’s all fun and games until someone’s app messes up the Democratic Iowa caucus.

Before yesterday’s debacle, “Shadow” was merely a playful name. A small team of political technologists had given it to their company when it launched early last year, largely as a reference to their primary product: Lightrail, which is supposed to make moving data among different campaign tools easier. Light and Shadow, get it?

That might have been clever in a conference room. But now the name seems sinister. After problems with an app made by Shadow,...