Meet Pave

In a context of financial turmoil and a student debt crisis, Pave is a new business that believes that if ambitious young people have the right direction and resources behind them, they will be happier and more successful in life.

Founded this year by Sal Lahoud, Oren Bass and Justin Mitchell Pave's pilot launches today. Wolff Olins is thrilled to have been their partner in bringing the brand to life. 

The pilot program features 8 Prospects and 24 Backers.  Prospects get funding and support to help pursue their true calling. Backers, as they are called on the platform, pay forward their own success by super-powering a career and investing in the next generation of Americans. The prospects then share in their success by rewarding those who supported them early on in their careers with a small percentage of their earnings over the next ten years.

Pave came to us this fall with the ambition of creating a start-up brand that was both democratic and credible as a serious financial product. We worked together to focus their strategy of creating a community and product that is truly for everyone. We also developed their brand identity and logotype.

Together, we created a Pave brand that is democratic, open, optimistic and active. Since Pave is reacting to a major crisis of culture and presenting a new model, it was crucial that it didn't seem generic or too machine-like, which meant a focus on people, stories, photography, and narrative – more of an editorial paradigm than a web 2.0 one.

Pave is a start-up, but in the sense of a cultural movement--not in the sense of a new app. Letting the real people who make up the community and their individuality shine through was key to our strategy.

If you've got what it takes to be a backer or prospect or have someone in mind who might, visit their website to sign up for rolling applications to the pilot program. Pave plans to launch their fully functional public site in early 2013.