Jobcase launched in April 2015 as an online community built around work issues. Founded and led by Fred Goff, a Carnegie Mellon and MIT graduate with 20 years of experience in financial services, Jobcase has elements of LinkedIn as members can post work experience and recommendations. It also has elements of Glassdoor as members can share feedback on employers. The innovation is that Jobcase is targeted at people with non-traditional work backgrounds – workers without degrees, on-rampers with employment gaps, and contractors, freelancers and other project-based workers. Another innovation is that the employer feedback gets down to the store-by-store level – i.e., not just what it’s like to work at McDonald’s, but what it’s like to work at the McDonald’s at XYZ address. Though it already boasts ~60,000 daily users, it is too early to measure Jobcase’s impact. But with LinkedIn catering to white collar, management-track careers, Jobcase is an interesting alternative to bring the advantages of networking, community, and online branding for other types of careers.
Propel simplifies the food stamp application process by streamlining the initial enrollment form, eliminating the need to submit paper documents, and providing a phone-friendly interface. Propel hopes its user-friendly process will encourage the ~15 MM Americans who qualify for food stamps but are currently not enrolled. That’s an estimated $10 Billion in unclaimed benefits. How is a food stamp technology an innovation for working people? Of the working-age population receiving food stamps (so excluding children and the elderly) many of them are employed. Working households who legitimately qualify for this benefit are leaving money on the table. I have coached experienced professionals who have run into extended unemployment or underemployment where managing household expenses became a struggle. An innovation like this, which streamlines access to additional support, could have been incredibly helpful during the down times.
SupportPay is an automated child support payment platform – see Emma Johnson’s earlier story on SupportPay. According to founder and CEO, Sheri Atwood, 39 MM parents exchange over $200 Billion in child support. If SupportPay can streamline the process, saving time and energy for the parents, that’s more time and energy for the kids (and career management). Atwood was a tech executive at Symantec before launching SupportPay. She was in marketing, not engineering, so she taught herself how to code. So aside from her company being helpful to working parents, Atwood herself is a career role model – yes, you can change career tracks; yes, you can learn new skills, even technical ones, later in life; yes, you can be female and helm a tech company and get funding.
I learned about Propel and SupportPay via the Financial Solutions Lab (“FinLab”). Co-sponsored by JPMorgan Chase and the Center for Financial Services Innovation, FinLab awarded nine companies $250,000 each and will provide additional resources to test and expand the availability of these companies’ innovations in cash flow management. A strong financial foundation is a career advantage. So while FinLab is focused on FinTech, I eagerly attended the pitch finals to learn more firsthand -- innovations in personal finance absolutely accrue to the career space as well! In addition to Prople and SupportPlay, the other FinLab winners included:
- Ascend Consumer Finance, Inc. (San Francisco, CA) - By incenting reduced consumer debt, increased savings, and limited credit card spending, Ascend reduces risk on current loans and rewards the borrower by lowering interest payments.
- Digit (San Francisco, CA) - Digit is an automated savings tool with a SMS-based UI that uses an intelligent algorithm to identify small amounts of money that can be moved into a Digit account based on spending and income.
- Even (Oakland, CA) - Even turns the inconsistent income of hourly and part-time workers into a steady salary by saving money from above average paychecks (in a separate savings account), and boosting low paychecks automatically.
- LendStreet (Sunnyvale, CA) - LendStreet is a marketplace-lending platform which helps borrowers restructure and refinance debt, and allows investors to buy the loan at a discount.
- PayGoal by Neighborhood Trust (New York, NY) - PayGoal is a workplace tool that enables financially underserved workers to improve the allocation of wages toward their principal financial goals using a simple, guided mobile experience that leverages behavioral economics principles.
- Prism (Bellevue, WA) - Prism is a comprehensive bill payment and presentation app that helps the millions of millennials across the country better manage their personal finances and pay their bills from their smartphones.
- Puddle (San Francisco, CA) - Puddle is a platform for reputation-based borrowing, currently available to anyone in the US with a debit card.
Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a career and business coach with SixFigureStart®. She has worked with executives from Amazon, American Express, Condé Nast, Gilt, Goldman Sachs, Google, McKinsey, and other leading firms. She’s also a stand-up comic, so she’s not your typical coach.
