What does your company do?

Leap Fund founder and CEO Karen Schoellkopf: Workers face a “benefits cliff,” when public benefits phase down or out faster than income rises, leaving families worse off than before. Leap Fund offers solutions to identify benefits cliffs, avoid benefits cliffs, and ultimately, eliminate benefits cliffs altogether, all while creating pathways towards self-sufficiency and financial independence.

A question we love to ask every founder: why New York?

KS: Because New York is the best! I’ve lived in NYC for more than 20 years, and I joined my first tech startup in 2009. NYC’s tech industry has grown immensely due to the city’s multiple-industry expertise, talent, and local government’s prioritization of the sector. The people, companies, and ideas have had lasting effects in shaping the city, from early NYC startups like Etsy, Meetup, and Foursquare (to name just a few) to the ongoing FAANG company investments in their NYC campuses. It’s energizing to create tools as a part of a local tech community that is also contributing to a global conversation.

Increasing wages isn't the problem, right? If that’s true, what exactly is putting workers in the “benefits cliff” bind? Did federal or local aid due to COVID-19 create even more challenges? 

KS: Great question! Increasing wages is optimal for financial health, full stop. Increased pandemic aid didn’t create more challenges, it simply brought more attention to systems that were functioning poorly.

The problem is that public benefits policy is the real culprit here. Flawed public benefits policy has not kept pace with self-sufficiency standards, and it’s not flexible enough to respond to the market, the cost of living, or changes in the way we live. Plus, many benefits recipients don't know they’ll hit a benefits cliff until after it’s already happened to them.

In the wake of COVID-19, more working families are facing increased financial instability and reliance on public benefits. Sadly, COVID-19 has created a quick and dramatic upskilling of understanding that benefits are actual compensation (especially with unemployment benefits use) and employers are seeing up close and personal how workers are weighing their options. They’re often utilizing public benefits as they re-enter the workforce, and with 2.4 million women having exited the workforce during the pandemic, employers have become more interested in looking at what may be impacting their recruiting efforts.

How are you working on the issue specifically from the employer perspective?

KS: Interestingly, it may become clear that employer-provided benefits don’t meet the needs of workers earning low wages, and employers may be offering benefits that are not actually accessible or relevant to them. We also encourage managers and senior leadership to create space for open conversation with workers. Benefits cliffs are a tricky area to navigate, as both the employer and the worker may have their own reasons for avoiding the conversation. Strong workforces, however, build and grow trust and open dialogue throughout a worker’s career. 

Leap Fund’s employer offerings bring transparency and real on-the-ground solutions, so employers have more transparency about how promotions and more hours may impact their workforce earning low wages. Our Workforce Assessment tool helps employers understand how public benefits are impacting their own workers’ decisions and ambitions, and our Employee Program is an employee benefit that allows workers to keep their benefits as they move ahead in their career (accept a new job, more hours, a raise), with a pathway to get up and over the benefits cliff.

What’s an idea or piece of advice you got during the NYC Recovery Challenge program you’re most excited to implement?

KS: One of our fellow cohort members, Live XYZ, gave a presentation about their own experience in navigating local government projects and contracts. It was generous of them to share their own hard-won learnings from those processes and the relationship building required. I feel like I have a better perspective on what the process could entail, setting the groundwork for exploring this landscape further in the future.

What’s one top growth goal you hope to achieve by the end of 2022?

KS: One of our primary goals is to expand our Benefit Cliff Coaching Program, which is currently running with 40 partners across the country. The program trains coaches on how to facilitate benefits cliff conversations with clients, and use Leap Fund’s tools and resources as they go. We’re currently onboarding a Senior Program Lead to head up this expansion, and we’ll be putting a lot of the NYC Recovery Challenge programming covering value proposition, go-to-market strategy, and storytelling into action as we proceed.

Okay, three rapid fire questions.  First: where do you get your favorite pizza slice?

KS: Obviously I can't pick just one, NYC is a city of options. Screamers Pizza is great for a non-dairy slice, Barboncino is a delight for whole pies, and Impasto is a wonderful thick slice.

What’s the best place in New York for a coffee or lunch meeting (remember in-person meetings)?

KS: The Highline can be a great spot to meet. There’s coffee shops along entrance paths with plenty of outdoor tables. This makes it ideal for both seated  or “walk and talk” options with beautiful NYC vistas as your backdrop.

What’s your favorite remote work or productivity hack?

KS: Blocking a day of the week as a “no meeting” day. Whether we’re remote or not, we need to defend the team’s time to be able to focus and do deep thinking work, and that can be a great way to do it.