Matt Strauss

BIO

Co-founder and CEO. Matt left the venture capital world to pursue his passion for solving social problems. Matt discovered this passion from volunteering where he was asked to mentor a handful of young people. While trying to connect his mentees to jobs and resources, Matt ultimately met with over 1,000 public and private sector leaders across his favorite city, Chicago. He hit a moment of volunteer and activism fatigue when he realized he couldn't mentor more Chicagoans. That's when he went on to create RiseKit. RiseKit provides all job seekers access to a career path, regardless of the zip code in which they live. RiseKit’s software connects entry to mid-level job candidates to jobs, training programs, and supportive services to rise above all the barriers to employment. In return, we help nonprofits, employers, Government systems and community foundations save time in finding job candidates and measuring outcomes. Matt has learned that everyone has a powerful story. RiseKit's software works to make those stories come to life by increasing job candidates' social capital overnight to unlock their fullest potential. RiseKit's software makes it beyond easy to apply to jobs, workforce training programs, housing resources, legal counseling organizations, housing options and many more through a single-common-application. Some have called RiseKit a "Systems Change Software" as it breaks down the silos in workforce development while grabbing powerful aggregate data on how to best organize communities and cities. Matt and his team work tirelessly around the belief that the zip code in which someone is born shouldn't determine one's life trajectory.