Our Story
How Empower has pursued its mission to even the playing field.
Purpose-driven work
Life is short. After building technology in multiple industries, we wanted to create something positive in the world. Something that would help people. In 2018, we starting thinking seriously about this. One thing was clear: All people have intelligence and motivation. But not all people have the same opportunities.
An idea
We researched ideas for a full year. We read about income inequality, wealth inequality, poverty, child poverty, etc. We thought long and hard about these big issues (constantly frustrated - what could we do?).
We knew money & employment were a central component in these issues. We considered how technology could teach financial & job-readiness concepts to low-to-moderate-income (LMI) folks. We also felt we could use technology to support those already working in this area.
We got excited. There was a lot that could be done!
Someone liked it … let’s go!
We threw out some ideas to youth-employment programs. One program got back to us … and to our surprise … they were enthusiastic!
We started building, delivered a basic app to the program, and have been improving the app ever since.
There’s a huge amount that can be done! After talking with many programs, we’ve realized this technology is actually NECESSARY to support these programs and further their cause. The programs don’t have the resources to assign a person (coach) to each student. And … more than that …
It's an amazing opportunity to be teaching at the same moment that someone is experiencing the scenario! The student’s real-world situation is used to illustrate concepts. For example, the students own, earned money is used to describe savings and budgets. By embedding the teaching into the student’s phone (something that is very close to the student), we can capitalize on this opportunity. It’s very exciting!
