When local entrepreneur Jasmine Hathaway lost her husband in 2015, she was overwhelmed by the long list of tasks on her plate.
It was during that time, in between closing accounts, changing the name on bills and legal documents, working full time and caring for their toddler, that she realized there was no service available to assist in these types of situations — but there should be.
"I remember thinking, 'This can’t be correct. I can’t be the one who is responsible for doing all of this on my own,'" she said. "To me, it was a natural 'Ah Ha!' moment that there’s a gap in the services provided to people going through difficult life events."
To help bridge that gap, Hathaway developed Compass Coordinators, a service designed to help with tasks that come after a traumatic life experience like divorce or death of a partner, child or parent.
"It’s a concierge service for families, where we help them organize, prioritize and complete the tasks on their plate," she said. "We help walk them through what they can do and what we can do to help them perform these tasks while they’re grieving."
Hathaway launched Compass Coordinators last March and has spent the last 15 months working to grow the startup. In May, she submitted her story to Ally Financial Inc.'s Daring to Disrupt pitch contest, a collaboration between the banking giant and Katie Couric that's aimed at jumpstarting women entrepreneurs.
Hathaway's submission won her first prize in the competition, along with $15,000 and ongoing mentorship opportunities. She said she'll use the money to invest in heavy marketing efforts to help spread the word about her company.
"My first priority is to make sure people know I exist, what the service is and how to use it," she said. "My future dream is to develop more of a technology platform with an intake process, but that's more of a second iteration at this point."
Hathaway was one of two first-prize winners, alongside a $30,000 grand-prize winner and seven second-prize winners out of more than 100 submissions. She said she saw an Instagram post about the competition and decided to give it a shot.
"I was pretty intrigued as a new business owner because I was really looking for opportunities to apply for grants," she said. "All it required was a 60-second video explaining the business and how we were disrupting the industry. For me, that seemed like a slam dunk as something I should go for."
