Overview

• Founded in 2016 in Richmond, Virginia, as a solo operation with 1 employee
• Originated as First Ink, partnering unemployed individuals with journalists to share their stories and challenge perceptions of unemployment
• Evolved into a three-platform solution: First Ink (storytelling/petitions), First Work (job matching), and First Crowdfund (startup funding)
• Collaborates with journalists, employers, industry leaders, and academic experts to address systemic unemployment
• Developed First Work as a disruptive job portal with advanced profiling, social integration, and passion-based candidate-employer matching

Specializations

• Leveraging media partnerships through First Ink to humanize unemployment experiences via written narratives
• Crowdfunding promising startups through First Crowdfund to create stable employers and job opportunities
• Designing next-generation recruitment algorithms focusing on long-term employer-candidate alignment
• Integrating petition platforms with employment solutions to drive systemic social change

Services & Approach

• First Ink’s journalist collaboration service for amplifying personal unemployment stories
• First Ink’s petition platform for advocacy-driven employment policy reform
• First Work’s advanced job matching portal with social features and passion-based profiling
• First Crowdfund’s startup funding mechanism to transform new ventures into employers