Rachel Angel started her professional career as a pharmacist.
Today, the 33-year-old Cleveland native is prescribing work for young adults through her free online platform, Peerro.
Peerro offers entry level employment opportunities to teenagers while guiding them to full-time positions that pay a living wage, according to Angel, who expanded the service to Cincinnati in August.
“We’ve all heard the story of someone who started as a cashier in a grocery store and worked their way up to CEO,” she said. “That’s our goal.”
So far, Peerro has placed about 150 students with local employers in Columbus and Cleveland, where Angel initially launched the service in 2018.
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Angel said she’s still working to establish relationships with corporate clients in the Cincinnati area but is making progress with some of the area’s largest employers, whom she expects to come online soon.
CincyTech, a Cincinnati-based seed stage startup investor, added Peerro to its portfolio of more than 30 companies in July.
For the approximately 30 large and small employers that already use Peerro, the service helps reduce hiring time and acquisition costs by allowing them to interview qualified candidates directly from the platform, Angel said.
Users can also access the Peerro platform by downloading the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store to get instant access to open positions along with information on the education, training and certification needed to land a higher paying position.
In many cases, qualified job seekers will be offered interviews right away, Angel said, adding: “We want to provide that immediate opportunity. We know if we can get a young person into the system as early as possible, we can put them on the pathway to the next level.”
Angel speaks from experience.
She said she’s been working since she was 14 and living on her own since she was 16, when she decided to stay behind in Cleveland after her mother moved to North Carolina.
Her parents had divorced, and Angel said her home life was never stable.
“I try not to crucify my parents for the things that happened when I was a child, but they weren’t the most responsible parents,” she said. “It was just easier for me to be by myself.”
Angel said she supported herself by working as a care associate at a nearby assisted living facility while living in the home she grew up in, which her mother had deeded to her, but was in foreclosure.
Still, hers is not a sob story.
Angel said living on her own taught her the importance of a strong work ethic and gave her the grit and determination to rise above her circumstances – character traits she hopes to impart to the youth using her service.
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