#StartupsEverywhere Profile: Michael Simpson, Founder and CEO, PAIRIN
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Making Education and Workforce Development More Equitable
PAIRIN, a startup based in the Mile-High City, is using the power of entrepreneurship to help people across the U.S. who have been displaced by the economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. The startup’s platform, which utilizes AI and personal soft skills assessments, helps users connect with workforce development and educational opportunities that they need to enhance their lives—inside and outside the workplace. We recently spoke with Michael Simpson, Founder and CEO of PAIRIN, to find out how he is leveraging his background in technology and coaching to harness the power of workforce development, government, and education to maximize every person’s potential.
Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your background?
My background is rather diverse. I grew up in rather simple circumstances and had some struggles in my past. But that background defines what PAIRIN does.
I had to drop out of college so my brother could continue his education, and I ended up working four jobs. In the early days of the computer industry, I started to build up my credentials. I ended up running a company by the age of 25, and then I was recruited by one of the largest software companies in the world and eventually ran the product marketing department for a billion dollar product. I was fortunate enough to work with some incredible people like Eric Schmidt before he went to run Google. I created new businesses inside the very large business.
I went on to run strategy and marketing for another company, but we sold that company and then I moved to Russia for seven years. I changed course because I really wanted to make an impact. I got connected with some people over there, and I began coaching adult children of alcoholics on how to be successful in business. And once I came back to the U.S., I started PAIRIN to converge all of the aspects of my life. I really wanted to focus on my background in skill development, and I wanted to implement my background in software development and coaching.
Tell us more about PAIRIN and the work that you’re doing.
At PAIRIN, we’re really focused on the ABC’s of the talent pipeline. If you think about all three of our markets—workforce development, government, and education—they all have a piece to play in a person’s journey.
We have a platform called My Journey that’s focused on personalizing career exploration, professional development, and connecting to education and jobs. Because of COVID, some people want any job they can find because they may have just lost their job. Usually when you want any job, you may be in need of some support services. So we’re trying to help people address their concerns through the platform. And if someone wants a better job—in the same industry or otherwise—then the My Journey platform can also help connect them with training. It provides a framework to help guide people towards the professional outcomes that they desire, and it helps automate the entire process. The “C” is for young students or adult career changers that are looking for a “career job”. That requires identifying interests and also skills that transfer across occupations in more than one industry.
Our platform allows us to identify the needs and desires of people that come to us by having them answer some simple questions, and then channeling that through the use of artificial intelligence. Then we can make recommendations for them based on a series of possible outcomes.
How have you worked to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on your clients and users?
Our clients and platform users are often very different entities. For example, a client of ours is the Commonwealth of Virginia. They use our platform to help identify what services Virginians (the platform users) needed the most access to in order to meet their basic needs. Pre-COVID, we were in three regions. During the pandemic, Virginia had us accelerate our rollout and create content specifically designed for people who had been displaced from their jobs.
Within a couple of weeks, we were able to roll out the platform throughout the entire state and create content specifically for those job seekers. So our COVID-related content lets us help people who have lost their jobs by looking at the entire package of issues people deal with when they are displaced from work.
No one who’s looking for a job right now really knows what their next steps are. It’s not straightforward to apply for unemployment, or even know what services are available—including mental health resources to help people self-process. So PAIRIN builds all that into a single workflow, and customizes it for anyone that comes to the state’s site.
How has PAIRIN been affected by the coronavirus pandemic?
As a company, we are in a high-growth stage of development. When things first started to shut down, we were in the midst of fundraising. Because of the pandemic, we had two investors that put on the brakes because they didn't know what was going to happen.
Initially, we put things like hiring on hold. As we moved into the second quarter, people started to see the value in our tool, and it was the best quarter we’ve ever had. We had 174 percent year-to-year growth from Q2 2019. That was a surprise. We had a lot of stuff come our way after people started to catch their breath.
Access to capital is the number one concern right now for entrepreneurs, how was your experience in obtaining relief from COVID-19 relief packages such as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)?
I don't think PPP could have moved faster. They were building the plane while it was flying and frankly, I was impressed. We got our final form on Friday, we filed Saturday morning, and our application was processed on Tuesday. That was critical to us in that quarter because we faced several pitfalls including delays in clients paying us, and outside funding that was delayed. Those funds helped us keep employees.
I was impressed by their speed. As an entrepreneur, you can choose either speed or quality. The government chose speed, which meant they didn’t put in enough checks and balances to make sure that large companies and universities did not wrongfully take advantage of it. I can’t fault the government because they had to choose one, but they need to fix that now.
What startup issues should receive more attention from state and federal policymakers?
There needs to be a change in the procurement process. They say that they favor small businesses and minority and women-owned businesses, but the contracts are almost exclusively written for large businesses. That forces out the smaller innovative companies. They also don’t allow vendor consortiums. At a local level, individual states need to encourage consortiums. It’s a lot of empty rhetoric. A lot of businesses don’t understand the procurement process until they get into it and realize that they can’t compete.
When we talk about what can government do to support all small businesses, a lot of people focus on tax breaks. However, a lot of small, new, and innovative businesses make hardly any money in their early stages, so they aren't paying too much by way of taxes. I think there should be a focus on innovation grants, which are incredibly helpful. For example, Colorado has a grant program set up that helps push innovative companies over the top. I would like to see more states adopt similar resources and substantially fund them. State’s should look at these grant programs as an investment in both the community and specific industries.
Most states don’t do this well, and at the federal level, there is “code” of sorts that needs to be cracked in order to win those grants. That process needs to be changed so it’s easier to structure your applications.
What is your goal for PAIRIN moving forward?
We are doubling in size every year, and we want to keep that going. But really, we want to impact as many people as possible. We think the best way to do this is by working with large workforce networks. We work with everybody from rescue missions to Goodwill to state workforce networks. So our objective is to partner with as many organizations as possible that share a common mission of enabling people to define their futures and not have it defined for them.
We also want to take government workforce programs that are traditionally slow moving, and turn them into innovative, fast moving, valuable assets. It's the best way to help people who have been slowed down or displaced by the pandemic or otherwise.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email edward@engine.is.
