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the idea of “paying it forward” has been around forever...
…It is the simple concept of being the beneficiary of support, learning, help, kindness, or other positive things, then repaying it for the benefit of others.
This concept is not limited to physical good deeds, such as paying for the food order of the person behind you in line. There are many ways you can pay things forward in the online, digital realm.
In this vein, I want to introduce you to Amy Pearl, a socially conscious woman entrepreneur constantly paying it forward. Amy’s resume is quite deep and includes being the award-winning founder of Hatch Innovation, a social enterprise enabling people to improve communities. Another successful social endeavor involving Amy was her instrumental role in the initial launch of ComCap in 2015. ComCap is now an annual multi-day conference offering educational and networking opportunities to those working toward equitable, engaged communities, through the National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3), an advocacy group she created to boost the crowdfunding ecosystem, among other economic engines.
Amy’ talents also include influencing political change as represented by her authoring a law for Oregon’s community public offerings/crowdfunding exemption in May 2014, which previously excluded smaller startups and new businesses raising less than $250,000. The exemption Amy wrote was designed to create cost-effective pathways for Oregon’s small businesses to raise limited money directly from local residents. Local crowdfunding is important when launching small businesses and creating local jobs.
Working to increase local investing in businesses is not the only way Amy Pearl pays things forward. She is a sought-after speaker who founded Hatch Innovation in 2013 to enable people to build companies that improve communities, then the economic engine HatchOregon in 2014, HatchLab Baker in 2016, and HatchLab Corvallis in 2017. Amy believes “we need to move 50% of our strategies upstream to allow us to get in front of our accelerating challenges.” Hatch Innovation works to accelerate startups with a social mission.
Amy also participated in reinventing a portion of the payment system with her colleagues at Seedpay, a payment system designed to direct 1% of every single transaction to local charities and schools. Seedpay is a mobile payment solution that works with banking institutions and credit unions to deliver financial services guaranteed against chargebacks and fraud. It is said to be more reliable, secure, and efficient than traditional payment methods.
Amy’s dedication to expanding education, funding for startups with social missions, and building local communities is the very definition of paying it forward. She continues to take what she learns through experience and from others, technology, philanthropy, and innovation and use it all to help others achieve their goals and launch businesses, create jobs, and give to people in need. Her background of success led to her being recognized as Portland Business Journal’s 2015 Woman of Influence.
I hope you enjoyed meeting Amy.