Areahub CEO, Pound Ridge
Writing by Cathy Deutsch
Alison Gregory is an executive with both business and legal backgrounds who received her law degree from Stanford University and has worked in the financial services sector as an attorney, asset manager and a launching partner for various companies. In the early 2000s, she launched and managed a fast-growing data services startup called GlobeOp Financial Services, which expanded internationally. She’s lived in northern Westchester for over 25 years and moved to Pound Ridge in 2021.
Please give us a brief overview of your career.
I’ve worked in asset management firms, serving in various roles. My previous start-up was formed with five colleagues, and it provided services to asset managers.
When and why did you start AreaHub?
I was raised on a farm in Maryland that had a stream running through it. Being in nature has always been important to me, and it’s the reason we now live in this area with its beautiful woods and natural waters.
While working as an asset manager, I found myself thinking about how little I really knew about the actual environment I was living in. I sat up at night searching for data on any hazards, such as pollution, climate and other topics that might have an impact on my family’s health and the value of my property. It was this experience and the difficulty finding answers that gave me the idea to form a platform that would help individuals and businesses efficiently find this information.
How did this idea turn into a business?
After several late nights searching for data, I approached a few friends who found the idea interesting as a business, and it spoke to our shared values of transparency, risk management and concern for the environment. We incorporated the company in 2019.
Bill Pence, one of our early co-founders, was the former CTO of Napster, WebMD and AOL. He was a dear friend who had a huge impact on the company and its mission. Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago, but his inspiration and vitality remains in our hearts and continues to guide us.
We had a minimum viable product (MVP) launch in 2021, and Fast Company interviewed me. It was a great launch, and we got traction from their coverage.” We released our mature business offering earlier this year.
What does AreaHub do today?
Our mission is to provide environmental data that could impact a business or homeowner; the information is easily accessible and nuanced, and the platform is constantly updating to reflect all occurrences past and present in the area searched.
For instance, we contracted with a cattle owner in Texas who wrote, “Extreme weather and climate challenges are increasing in our area. AreaHub provides a helpful picture to think about the challenging risk profile of our area, plus peace of mind that we are getting notifications about issues as they arise. Since the health of our cattle is very important to us (we feed our cattle naturally with grasses we do not fertilize), we are thankful that AreaHub has pollution alerts.”
Individuals benefit from our ability to search for various types of hazards in any location in the U.S. They’ve commented on how much they appreciate our fire map to check on families in California or how they wish they’d known about AreaHub before their parents moved to a high fracking area.
How does your website work?
Our intention, which we have successfully executed, is to make data easy to access, read and interact with. It’s divided into tabs for businesses and individuals. There are multiple topics you can click on based on the information you require, and multiple categories you can engage with.
Individuals can search for hazards, such as wildfires or flooding, in their area or anywhere in the U.S. It’s updated 24/7.
On the business end, most of our impact is dedicated to multiple concerns, including risk mitigation, insurance, climate analysis, pollution exposure, etc., so businesses can protect their assets while getting data on good environmental practices.
What personal qualities do you think are essential for a successful entrepreneur?
Broad vision, working with phenomenal people, patience and open-mindedness so that one can pivot when the need arises.
What’s your dream?
I want everyone to have the opportunity to access information that’s important to their investments and to the health and safety of the people they care about or the people in their organizations’ buildings, no matter what part of the country. We should all have the clarity needed to make better decisions as environments are rapidly changing.
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This article was published in the September/October 2024 edition of Connect to Northern Westchester.
Cathy Deutsch
Cathy Deutsch is a resident of South Salem and a former local shopkeeper in Katonah and Mount Kisco. She previously wrote a restaurant column for The Country Shopper and is currently a contributor to several local publications. Additionally, Cathy’s personal essays have been published on noted on-line platforms including Dorothy Parker’s Ashes. “Writing has always been my passion, and I’m very excited to be writing for Connect to Northern Westchester,'' she says.