In each issue of the New Tech Newsletter we feature a Spotlight Q&A with founders, angels, New Tech alumni presenters, and other people or companies in our community we believe you’d like to learn about. Reach out if you’d like to recommend a startup, founder, angel, accelerator, or New Tech alumni presenter for us to spotlight for the PNW tech community!
In this week’s spotlight we’re highlighting a throwback Spotlight with Aaron Hurst, Chamber of Connection.
Why do you do what you do for a living? What is your passion around your career, product or company?
Aaron Hurst is an award-winning and pioneer social entrepreneur and CEO dedicated to leveraging the power of human connection to drive positive societal change. He is launching the United States Chamber of Connection to tackle the critical decline in social ties and trust that he believes threatens our communities. As the founder of the Taproot Foundation, which catalyzed the $15 billion pro bono service market in the U.S., Aaron has demonstrated how connection can enhance community resilience and collaboration. Through his venture, Board.Dev, he focuses on strengthening governance by connecting tech executives with nonprofit boards. Imperative, a venture-backed startup he founded, led to the development of employee purpose profiling technology, helping individuals find fulfillment in their work through meaningful connections at over 200 companies. While leading Imperative he partnered with leading universities and companies on the first national and global studies of purpose at work. A best-selling author, Aaron’s book The Purpose Economy catalyzed the focus on purpose in business over the last ten years. He is the recipient of the Ashoka and Draper Richard Kaplan fellowships and recognized multiple times as a Nonprofit Times Top 50 Influencer. He has written for or been featured in media outlets including the New York Times, MIT Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Newsweek, Bloomberg and Time Magazine. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he resides with his family in Seattle.
What is the problem you’re solving and why is your solution the best way to solve it?
We believe that the decline of social connection and trust is the greatest challenge of our time. Despite the urgency, no national or regional infrastructure exists to address it at scale.
To bridge this gap and reverse the decline, we need to focus on the segment of the population who are easy to reach, primed for change and will create a flywheel to impact everyone else. The 12 million people who relocate each year, needing to rebuild their social networks, are perfectly positioned to lead this transformation. With nearly a third of the U.S. population expected to relocate over the next decade, empowering newcomers to connect and thrive can create a ripple effect, reversing the decline in the next decade.
Starting in Seattle, where 60,000 new residents arrive annually, the U.S. Chamber of Connection is creating an onboarding model to welcome newcomers in their first year and activate them as change agents in their communities in every American city. Research on culture change shows it takes 3-10% of a population to change to then impact the rest of the culture. Our strategy is to build and scale a model in each city that can achieve this tipping point within a decade. For the city of Seattle, that would require serving 25,000 people.
To achieve this scale and generate income to sustain the organization, we are forging partnerships with local leaders across industries who understand the value of connection and have economic incentives to support newcomers as employees, voters, customers, and donors. By becoming the leading expert on newcomers, we will secure revenue from employers, local businesses, and organizations that benefit directly from engaging new residents.
Launching in 2025, the U.S. Chamber of Connection is founded by Aaron Hurst, a visionary social entrepreneur, and Linsey Morrison, an accomplished operator and expert in the field. As a nonprofit with the ambition and rigor of a venture-backed startup, we are committed to building a connected, resilient society—while generating sustainable revenue through partnerships that fuel our mission and support our growth.
What is one of the greatest lessons you’ve learned from being a Founder/CEO?
That so many stars have to align for something to work and that you can’t force it.
What is the one piece of advice you would share today with your younger self before you started your company?
Learn from what other people have done, not from advice.
What is something interesting and unexpected that people would be surprised to learn about you?
I have moved 11 times in my life, mostly recently to Seattle 10 years ago.
Reach out if you’d like to recommend a startup, founder, angel, accelerator, or New Tech alumni presenter for us to spotlight for the PNW tech community!
