Joy Schoffler is Principal of public relations firm Leverage PR, Founder of CrowdBuilder, and an active member within the crowdfunding industry. As principal of Leverage PR, Schoffler and her team regularly work with leaders within the crowdfunding, investment and fintech sectors, helping them to expand their reach through top-tier and targeted industry trade media placements. She additionally founded the recently launched publicity platform CrowdBuilder, designed to help crowdfunding and growth-phase companies secure media placements and engage with influencers in their industries.
A nationally recognized speaker, Joy has spoken at dozens of conferences, including the Growth Capital Expo, SXSW Interactive, FinCon, Kingonomics, and other crowdfunding related conferences. She has additionally worked behind-the-scenes for high-profile events including a UN impact investment summit, a Capitol Hill crowdfunding summit, Kingonomics, the financial education portion of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s March on Washington, which also included a casting call for SharkTank, as well as managed dozens of other conferences throughout the nation. An avid writer, Joy is a contributing author for the DealFlow Media, Wiley-published book, Crowdfunding: The Definitive Guide to Raising Capital on the Internet” and regularly writes for a number of outlets including Entrepreneur.com, Social Media Monthly, and MarketingProfs.
In 2014, Joy’s efforts were recognized; she became a “Forbes Stiletto Women in Business Awards” finalist in the Communications and PR Entrepreneur of the Year category, an “Austin Under 40” finalist and won the Women Communicators of Austin’s “Outstanding Austin Communicator” award.
Prior to launching Leverage PR, Joy consulted and worked with a number of growth-phase firms, including serving as Director of Acquisitions for the Inc. award-winning investment firm, The PPA Group. She has worked with clients that have been acquired, raised large amounts of capital, secured Fortune 500 accounts (at seed stage) and experienced tremendous growth through her creative messaging and dynamic media strategies.
Outside of the private sector, Joy served six years, first as an enlisted finance soldier then commissioning to become an officer in the U.S. Army Reserves as well as three years as a public relations officer for the Texas State Guard. Her service included a year on active duty for Operation Iraqi Freedom, where she led a 16-man team of finance soldiers and interned at the Pentagon. Joy sits on the board of Athletes for Change, an organization of NFL players dedicated to helping foster kids, the executive committee for CF50, a global think tank for the emerging crowdfunding industry and the board of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CfIRA), the main lobbying organization for the crowdfunding industry that works directly with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) to help establish industry standards and best practices.
From Seed Sumo:“Joy is extremely sharp and understands customer acquisition, positioning, and launch strategies that bring real results for numerous early stage startups across the nation.”