How We Started

We will never reach our highest potential as long as the experiences we have and the people we meet are left up to chance or privilege. Let me say that again - some of the most important relationships we will have in life come to us completely at random.

In the fall of 2017, James and I sat down for breakfast at The Hudson Cafe to talk about this problem. We shared stories about hustling our way into rooms we weren’t invited to and being scrappy to pick up odd jobs to make ends meet. Neither of us entered our careers with a built-in professional network.

I entered the job market in 2010, one of the worst years to be looking for employment just out of college. I volunteered, interned, and worked for minimum wage until I could land a full-time job as a social worker in Lynchburg, VA. Most of my college friends were able to find a job quickly through family connections, something I didn't have. Meanwhile, James was working in economic development and building a mobile oil change business in Chattanooga, TN. Sharing our stories, we came away with a shared conviction: getting a seat at the right table shouldn’t be left up to chance or a backdoor connection.

Since that day over breakfast, James and I have been building Plain Sight, a platform to connect people in physical and virtual spaces based on common goals and interests. We recruited an amazing third co-founder at the end of 2017 who serves as our Chief Product Officer. She a keen eye on the future of work and technology, something that helps us build a product that will hold up over time. As three non-technical founders, we have had to enlist the support of friends and advisors to steer us down the right software development path.

Over the course of two years, we have grown to a team of 7 and have nearly 3,000 Plain Sight users. This was hard to imagine in our earliest days, huddled around a conference room table putting together pitch decks and pro-formas. Some days building this community feels like an uphill slog through the mud. But, on most days, we get to wake up and feel proud of our people, our community, and the impact we will have on people who had to hustle like we did. Instead of hustling, we want to put them in the right place at the right time, on purpose.