✨ Meet a Pearl Peep: Katy Rose
At The Pearl Works, we love spotlighting the incredible people who make our community so vibrant. This month, we sat down with Katy, CEO & President of PINS Advantage, an AI-powered risk management platform that helps industries like construction and property management streamline compliance. Beyond her impressive professional journey, Katy brings warmth, humor, and a strong sense of community to our space. In this interview, she shares her story, from building PINS from the ground up to finding belonging at The Pearl Works.
Kay: What is your profession and job title?
Katy: I am CEO & President of PINS Advantage (“PINS”) is an AI-powered, collaborative risk management software platform designed to automate and streamline the verification of insurance and compliance documents - think Certificates of Insurance (COIs), W-9s, licenses, contractors’ credentials, and more. PINS is used by a wide variety of industries but is used most often by construction, public agencies, and property management organizations.
Kay: Can you give us some more details about what you do on a day to day basis?
Katy: My job duties vary on a daily basis. The biggest value I bring to my investors, employees, and end-users is to set a vision and strategy for the company - the north stars that we should strive for each month, quarter, or year. Practically speaking this means I spend a lot of time working directly with our customers, LAX for example has been using PINS as their vendor compliance software since 2013. I meet with them and many of our customers regularly to ask what else they would like to see out of the software, what business problem can we help them solve next. I then relay those requirements to our product development and engineering teams. Building new software products into our platform is one of my favorite parts of the job. It brings value to our end-user community, challenges our internal employees to be creative in their development process, and generates healthy expansion revenue opportunities for the business at large.
Kay: Why do you do the work that you do?
Katy: Nepotism - which is not entirely a joke. My dad was an insurance agent. He sold commercial insurance to large general contractors. PINS was his idea. His clients, general contractors, had to collect insurance documents from every sub-contractor they hired. Some of my dad’s clients were hiring hundreds of subcontractors to construct large scale projects, you know build huge shopping malls or high rises in downtown LA. So his clients had this arduous task of getting tons and tons of insurance documents from each individual subcontractor they worked with. Before you know it this is just a total clerical nightmare so my dad thought to build a software to solve the problem. So when I graduated from college my dad told me about this idea he had for a software called PINS and I started building it. I took this job initially because it seemed interesting and I like building things. I do it now because I love giving the PINS customers a better way of taking what used to be an inundative mundane paper process and turning it into something streamlined and simple through software.
Kay: What brought you to The Pearl Works?
Katy: The culture. Pearl Works has a vibe and it’s great. It’s a formal work environment, you can feel productive here but also relaxed. I married a military man so I have the unique challenge of always moving. Most CEOs set up headquarters in one place and stay there forever. I get the amazing opportunity to see news places every few years but with that comes the task of finding the right fit. Pearl Works is perfect for me because it has that buzzy business vibe, people are typing away, tackling tasks, but still really friendly and want to have a few laughs throughout the work day.
Kay: How has being a member of this community benefitted you and your work?
Katy: The Pearl Works has given me a dedicated place to be productive, get my work done, and meet some really nice people along the way. My family moves regularly and resettling can take time but Pearl Works definitely accelerated that process. Right away I had some type of community and the more I engage the community the better outcome I see. I’d recommend this space to anyone.
Kay: What does success look like for you?
Katy: For me a successful life would mean having a couple kids that are happy, honest people who contribute to their community in a positive way. I’d also love to see PINS grow 50-100% year over year for the next few years and then sell it to a strategic acquirer that can help me scale it to larger markets. The company has been extremely rewarding and I think I will be one of those people that works until my last day, simply because I love working and building things. But my biggest success will be measured in how happy and healthy my family is.
Kay: How do you like to unwind after a long day?
Katy: Playing with my 3 year old daughter and the neighborhood kids in the front yard, while drinking a glass of wine (when I am not pregnant). My husband is the family chef and grill master. So every day I rush out of work at 345pm and pick my little chicken nugget up from preschool. We listen to music and drive the short drive home and talk about which neighborhood kids will be outside to play with us when we get there. We play till dinner time and it’s amazing.
Kay: What’s something you’re looking forward to in the near future?
Katy: I am looking forward to having my next baby! He is due this January and I can not wait to meet him and smooch him. For me there is nothing better in this world than a fresh new baby. Second to that I am most looking forward to Halloween because I am a Halloween freak. Mood boarding for Halloween started in July and decorating starts Sept 15th. But the best part is that my daughter is still young enough to think it’s cool to twin up customs with me, this year we are fairies. Thirdly, I’m looking forward to the release (this October!) of a new AI product the PINS team is building. It will automatically review insurance documents and help our users better defend themselves against unnecessary insurance claims.
Kay: Do you have any special skills or secret talents?
Katy: I would bet good money that I can sneeze louder and more aggressively than any NFL player today.
Kay: What helpful piece of wisdom would you share about The Pearl Works with someone who just joined?
Katy: Use your membership, come regularly. You will be so much more productive in this environment than at home. Make it part of your routine, it pays dividends.
Katy’s experience reminds us that work is about more than just the tasks we complete, it’s about connection, creativity, and finding a community that supports both our professional and personal lives. At The Pearl Works, we create the kind of environment where people like Katy can thrive: productive, collaborative, and full of meaningful connection.
💡 Curious how The Pearl Works could improve your own work and social life? Come visit us, experience the vibe for yourself, and see why so many professionals choose to call this community their home base.