Meet Hannah Pynn | Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hannah Pynn and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hannah, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Scoutly Plans makes the dream of moving abroad easier. The new American dream… is life abroad. Over 5 million Americans already live abroad. And with the rise of remote work, younger, tech-savvy Americans want to live abroad. But before you move abroad, you have to take a scouting trip. What’s a scouting trip? It’s a test drive for your future life to find the right fit for your lifestyle, budget, and priorities.

My family took a month-long scouting trip to Portugal to explore living there. Before our trip, I spent months researching forums, books, and paying expat experts to understand visas, housing, education systems, and healthcare. It was overwhelming, expensive, and time consuming. Even with all that prep, once we arrived, we still didn’t feel fully prepared to have an effective scouting trip. Regular travel apps weren’t enough. We needed a plan to explore a new country, a new city, and find a neighborhood to call home. On our scouting trip we discovered, there are no affordable, modern tools built for people like us. So I turned to my husband who is a software engineer and said, “I’ve got an idea, let’s make a simplified tool to guide people like us. Let’s call it Scoutly Plans.”

What should our readers know about your business?
Scoutly Plans was born from personal experience. A few years ago, I started exploring the idea of raising our young kids outside the U.S., so my husband Brett and I took a scouting trip to Portugal with our toddlers. A scouting trip is a purposeful visit to a country you’re considering moving to. It is not about sightseeing, but about evaluating whether a place fits your long-term goals, budget, lifestyle, and values. While planning ours, we realized there were no real tools designed for that kind of decision. Everything was either aimed at tourists or buried in scattered forums and influencer content. So we built the tool we wished existed.

Scoutly Plans is a personalized digital platform that helps people thoughtfully plan their move abroad. With visa comparisons, cost of living worksheets, custom itineraries, packing lists, and neighborhood ranking rubrics, we provide practical tools to help people build their future life. What sets us apart is our focus on the why behind the move. Our platform is designed to help people choose a destination that fits their values, family needs, and successfully accomplish their long-term vision.

Like many startups, this journey has been filled with late nights, tight budgets, and plenty of trial and error. But I have always believed that people deserve clarity and confidence when making life-changing decisions. Especially now, as more Americans are rethinking what their future should look like, from families like ours to digital nomads and retirees looking to make the most of their next chapter, Scoutly Plans offers an empowering and grounded guide.

I am proud that this business was built from the heart. As a mom and entrepreneur, I know how overwhelming it can be to step into the unknown. Scoutly Plans is more than a product. It is a way to help people dream boldly, plan wisely, and find the right place to thrive.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This is exactly the kind of thoughtful travel we help people build with Scoutly Plans when they’re visiting somewhere new and considering it for a big life change. Arizona has been an amazing place for us to start our family and launch our tech startup, and we’ve grown to truly love our community here.

If a best friend were visiting for the week, we’d start with brunch at our neighborhood brunch favorite, Ollie Vaughn’s. The lattes are perfect, the breakfast sandwiches always hit the spot, and the key lime pie is unforgettable. For lunch, we love taking people to Tortas Paquime. Their Mexican food is fresh, flavorful, and casual, and the horchata is hands-down the best we’ve ever had.

To take in a gorgeous Arizona sunset, we’d make a reservation at Top of the Rock in Tempe. The views are breathtaking, and it’s the perfect spot for a relaxed but elevated dinner.

For daytime outings, the Desert Botanical Garden is always a favorite. It’s beautiful year-round and especially magical in the early morning or golden hour light. If there are kids in tow, the Cactus Clubhouse there is a total hidden gem. We also spend a lot of time at Hance Park, which has one of the best playgrounds in Phoenix, plenty of space for bike rides, and often hosts weekend events or concerts.

Phoenix and the surrounding valley has so much to offer. We’ve lived here since 2017 and we’re still finding new places to explore. Whether you’re here to visit or thinking about calling it home, it’s a place with real heart, hidden gems, and a surprising amount of variety.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Thanks to the team at ASU Edson E+I supporting community entrepreneurship!

Website: https://www.ScoutlyPlans.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scoutlyplans

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahpynn