It's not every day that a portfolio company hires their investor. But today is that day at Gig Wage. We are excited to announce that Ethan Austin, will join our team as Chief Strategy Officer. The Western Union - Techstars cohort proved a valuable experience all around for Gig Wage and the Gig Wage team. From forging new enterprise-level partnerships to Demo-Day, and finally the newest addition of our team, we appreciate Western Union and Techstars.
Ethan was previously a managing director at Techstars where he helped launch both the Techstars LA and Techstars Western Union (fintech) Accelerators. Prior to Techstars, Ethan pioneered the crowdfunding space as co-founder of GiveForward, the world’s first medical crowdfunding platform. After going through the Techstars program himself in 2010, GiveForward raised funding from First Round Capital, Founder Collective, Pritzker Group, Naval Ravikant, and others prior to being acquired by GoFundMe.
“After getting to know Ethan as an investor in our company, I realized a few things; Ethan is extremely thoughtful, authentic and resourceful. All things I look for when hiring talent. His prior experience and success as an entrepreneur combined with his perspective as a fintech investor will add tremendous value to our strategy going forward.”- Craig J. Lewis, Founder/CEO Gig Wage
Ethan notes one of the most important reasons for joining Gig Wage.
“When I began investing in startups, a mentor gave me some great advice: “Only invest in companies where you would want to work for the CEO.” I’m taking that advice to heart and joining, one of our portfolio companies, Gig Wage — The Future of Work, where I’ve been so incredibly inspired over the last three months by the team, the mission, and the opportunity to create meaningful change for millions of people.”
Ethan was extremely impressed and inspired by Lewis’ Demo-Day appearance. In a first of kind moment, Gig Wage CEO decided not to use his platform to pitch investors for their millions of dollars but to advocate and pay homage to the #BLACKLIVESMATTER movement and share the importance of supporting Black Founders. You can watch the pitch HERE:
At Gig Wage we are always proud to lead. To be different. To be bold.
We know that our vision, our strategy for growth, and our commitment to diversity will always attract the best talent. We are excited to have Ethan on board and look forward to what he’ll bring to Gig Wage and our customers. Keep an eye on Gig Wage. We’re about to shake things up.
