Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins grew up in a small California town where her mother worked as a waitress before returning to school for a union job. Ellis-Lamkins began her career as a labor and community organiser, serving as Executive Officer of the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council, representing over 100,000 union members, and later as CEO of the environmental justice nonprofit Green For All.
She subsequently worked with musician Prince to help him reclaim ownership of his masters, before moving into technology as Head of Care at the home-care startup Honor, determined to understand from the inside how technology was reshaping labor and communities she cared about.
In 2017 she co-founded Promise, a technology company that began with alternatives to cash bail and evolved into a leading digital infrastructure provider for governments and utilities, simplifying how millions of people manage payments for services like utilities and child support.
- Co-founder and CEO of Promise, a govtech infrastructure company
- Raised one of the largest Series A rounds for a Black, women-led startup
- Former CEO of the environmental justice organisation Green For All
- Named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader
- Go into the industry you distrust to understand how to change it.. She entered tech specifically because she'd seen it harm the working communities she'd organised for.
- Build technology for the people usually left out of the pitch deck.. Promise focuses specifically on government payments for underserved communities.
- A career across labor, nonprofits, music and tech can still add up to one consistent mission.. Every role she's held has centred on justice for working people.