58,793,157
13,791,292
1 11 million learners were served by portfolio companies that exited our portfolio in 2022, resulting in a lower number of total learners served in 2023.
2 Not all portfolio companies are able to track the number of low-income learners, so this figure represents those that do have access to this information. We try to be cautious and scrupulous in our metrics. Accordingly, this number is a lower representation than actuals.
We are impact investors focused on the future of education and work.
We support mission-driven founders willing to tackle the HARD problems — challenging the status quo and transforming educational outcomes for all learners.
Our Values
Why We Do This Work
We want to help people reach their full human potential and to thrive as workers, citizens, and family members.
We want to provide new opportunities to the poor, to members of an increasingly vulnerable middle class, to the illiterate, to the imprisoned, to those who struggle with a cognitive difference like autism or ADHD, and to those who face discrimination and persecution.
Second, we want to transform learning for everyone, both rich and poor.
We believe that educational institutions, processes, and tools around the world are broken. Billions of people suffer and fail to achieve their potential because they are taught in the wrong way; our learning tools and institutions are hierarchical, rigid, and unidirectional. Abundant research demonstrates that what works is the opposite approach: people learn best through personalized, collaborative, self-paced exploration linked to their own interests and passions.
Third, we want to make our own firm, our portfolio companies, and the society they serve more humane, more just, more equitable, and more inclusive.
We practice empathy and believe that empathy is a crucial business skill for us and for the entrepreneurs we back. We believe that a strong social mission is a powerful business advantage that attracts talent and helps reduce risk.
Our view on
impact investing
The mission of Rethink Education is to help unlock the full potential of people who have been underserved or marginalized: we want to help people thrive at work, in their personal lives, and in their civic engagement. The groups we want to serve include children and adults living on low incomes, the neurodivergent and those with different physical abilities, immigrants and refugees, the justice-involved, and senior citizens. All of these groups face numerous potential roadblocks in their journey toward lives of prosperity and purpose. One could think of them as running a challenging obstacle course on a daily basis. The strategy of Rethink Education is to remove some of the systemic blockages from the paths of the people we serve. We are trying to transform complex, recalcitrant systems to create opportunity.
Early ChildhoodChildren from birth to age five are amazingly resilient and creative, and they learn at a furious pace. They are also vulnerable and delicate. In order to thrive, they need food, shelter, love, attention, conversation, play, the indulgence of their curiosity, and protection against trauma. In the United States and in most emerging markets, it is difficult for us to find strategies that benefit the most marginalized children because most childcare and early education is expensive and is paid for by parents. The operational challenges and risks in this subsector are also high. Our approach is to find niches where someone other than the parents pays the bills, and to back disciplined, principled, exceptional leaders.
Our portfolio company WonderSchool is a beautiful example of how a young startup can create systemic change. WonderSchool addresses several different blockages in the childcare system. The company helps states improve the availability of childcare by making it easier to start a new childcare business or easier to run an existing one. WonderSchool streamlines compliance, marketing, operations, and payments. WonderSchool also makes it easier for low-income families to tap into government funding for their childcare needs. And in a brilliant hack of the system, Wonderschool enables parents to open childcare businesses in their own homes and care for the children of others alongside their own children. Here is a TED video of Wonderschool’s founder, Chris Bennett, explaining how his company transforms the entire ecosystem of childcare, changing incentives and bringing in new stakeholders.
K-12 Education
Primary and secondary schools present a new set of potential barriers to flourishing. Parents need not only to shelter, feed, love, and protect their children, they also need to deliver them to school on time, buy them the required supplies, and help them with their homework. Children need to master the basic behaviors required by school: sitting still, being quiet, following instructions, waiting one’s turn, controlling impulses, paying careful attention, memorizing, persisting in the face of difficulty, tolerating boredom, managing a calendar, and eventually designing their own tasks and pathways. They must also learn to read, write, analyze, argue, and do basic math fluently. If parents or their children fail to master even a single one of these requirements, the consequences can be catastrophic. For the neurodivergent or the traumatized, these requirements are significantly harder to meet, even when they receive the therapy and supports they need.
Ignite Reading removes some of the most important barriers to success for K-12 students. Ignite’s tutors give students an excellent chance of becoming fluent readers by the fourth grade. Reading is the building block atop which most other life skills sit. If students do not learn to read fluently, no other intervention can ensure that they will lead lives of prosperity and purpose. Ignite, like Rethink Education’s other K-12 companies, changes the trajectories of people’s lives. In an inflexible system filled with potentially crippling blockages, our companies dramatically increase the chances that a child will graduate from high school, will avoid substance abuse and incarceration, and will flourish and contribute as an adult.
Higher EducationCollege presents students and their families with an additional set of challenges. College is increasingly unaffordable even for middle-class American families, and almost completely out of reach for immigrants without green cards. For students with jobs or children, it is easy to fall behind and drop out. First-generation college students have understandable difficulties mastering the intricacies of an extremely unfriendly system. In 2023, the complete failure of the Department of Education's new financial aid processing system severely exacerbated all of these secular problems. Many students from low-income families who could have succeeded in college have given up because they could not determine what kind of grants and loans they were eligible for.
Most of our higher education companies, including Mainstay, Mentor Collective, Upswing, Civitas, Stellic, Ed Machina, and Campus, are focused on ensuring that students don’t drop out of college. Students who drop out are often worse off than if they had never attended college in the first place because they continue to carry the financial burden of debt without the benefit of a degree. And schools, which are under fierce financial pressure, also suffer the consequences of their failure to engage their students adequately. When students lose their sense of connection to their schools and drift away, these companies reach out and re-engage them. Each of these companies improve the higher education system by creating feedback loops that make colleges more responsive to the needs of students.
Upskilling
Frontline workers face the same challenges as full-time students but with an extra level of distraction and financial precariousness. It is difficult for frontline workers to develop a sense of connection to their education provider and to find the time to stay on track with regular weekly assignments. Family life, work, and financial crises all get in the way.
Our companies Guild, Pathstream, Correlation One, EnGen, and Lynx Educate all have business models where the employer pays for the upskilling of the worker. Perhaps even more importantly, they all use human advisors and coaches and instructors as well as text messaging to ensure that learners feel connected to their programs. Together, these companies and their nonprofit and governmental partners are building a new ecosystem that offers frontline workers a new pathway to upward mobility—a pathway designed for the complexities of their lives.
Similarly, we have companies building new learning ecosystems for the justice-involved (Orijin) and senior citizens and their caretakers (GetSetUp, CareAcademy, and Cinematic Health Education). We are continuously encouraged by the ingenuity of entrepreneurs in reaching communities long thought of as un-investable, and we are proud to be on the forefront of this innovation.
Each of the populations we are serving is in a state of emergency, with the majority of each group failing to get the support and resources they need to thrive and develop their full potential in their work, their private lives, and their civic engagement. We have less and less patience for point solutions and the tweaking of minor features of broken systems. We are not just undeterred; we are reinvigorated.
We are grateful for your support of our mission.
Gratefully,
Matt, Dre, Ebony, Bridget, and Monique
A Continued Commitment Towards Equity
To us, the backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives seems like the biggest story in impact investing in 2023. This backlash includes judicial, legislative, and political elements as well as an increase in apathy and fear on the part of many investors and corporate management.
The pendulum of progress for underrepresented fund managers and founders took a devastating swing in the opposite direction in 2023. In January 2023, Edward Blum filed a lawsuit against Fearless Fund, a Black female owned venture fund that invests in women of color, to prevent them from deploying $20k grants from their foundation to Black female owned businesses. This lawsuit follows the precedent set by the recent Supreme Court decision to ban affirmative action on college campuses, claiming that race-based decision making violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
These decisions seek to undo decades of progress spanning back to the Civil Rights movement and continued today through DEI initiatives. DEI initiatives recognize that BIPOC communities have been underrepresented in higher education and white collar industries and make conscious efforts to boost opportunities and resources to increase these numbers and level the playing field. The tangible threat of legal opposition has begun to thwart the commitments of highly motivated DEI proponents from corporations to limited partners and investors alike.
Job listings for DEI groups within corporations declined 5% in 2023 and then 8% in just the first two months of 2024, according to The Washington Post. Many large companies trimmed DEI roles by over 50%. And funding for Black entrepreneurs declined even faster. According to Crunchbase, in 2023 venture capital funding to Black-founded startups fell to $705 million, or 0.5% of total venture investment, down from 1.4% in 2021 and 1.1% in 2022. Approximately 14% of the US population is Black.
Rethink Education’s mission is to unlock the full human potential of people who have been marginalized or underserved. We do this by investing in early stage technology companies that increase access to knowledge and skills to increase their quality of life. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are not buzzwords that we have adopted with the hype but core to the impact we want to see in the world. People from these communities experience the most persecution regarding access to quality educational opportunities so it is no surprise that the fund has been investing in BIPOC founders since the inception in 2012. Since then, we have invested in 22% Black and Latinx founders, a number that has almost doubled since the inception of Rethink Equity, a $5mm carveout specifically for Black and Latinx founders in RTE Fund III. So, how did we do?
- Under this initiative, 24% of the founders we invested in, in Fund III, were Black and Latinx founders, and we deployed $3.9m in capital
- Companies included: Meaningful Gigs, ChargerHelp!, Mentor Spaces, LoanSense, Decagon, NotedSource, PeerTeach, UnboXt & Backpack Health
- So far, three of these companies have gone on to raise Series A rounds, which Rethink Education III followed-on from our broader pool of funding
Companies included:
Due to our advanced work in the space, we were invited by Confluence Philanthropy to join a Racial Equity working group. This included CIOs, VCs and Foundations dedicated to the advancement of these practices. We came together to write a collective white paper outlining different strategies for interested parties (family offices, HNIWs, etc) to incorporate Racial Equity Lens Investing in their portfolio. Below is a general framework that we created that emphasizes different approaches to this work. If you would like to learn more, we would be happy to share the publication series.
About the Racial Equity Compass
Rethink Equity had a tangible impact in nearly doubling our commitment to BIPOC founders and CEOs. As we wrap up investments in Fund III, we are proud to announce that the work of Rethink Equity will continue in Fund IV beyond a small carveout, and instead will be incorporated into our broader investment strategy.
A Step Towards Equity
In 2020, the buildup of political and racial unrest boiled over when a police officer, who our country trusted to protect and serve, murdered George Floyd. Within venture capital, we reflected on the inequities in funding: of venture-backed startups in the U.S., 77% of founders are white, whereas only 1.8% are Latinx and 1% are Black.
The root cause of this imbalance is complex and this past year, our team has taken action on three fronts:
Rethink Education has earmarked $5mm from Rethink Education III to invest in seed stage companies launched by underrepresented people of color helping solve some of the toughest challenges from education to workforce development.
The team has coined this initiative RETHINK EQUITY, acknowledging that venture capital is hardly distributed on a level playing field.
While this initiative is new, Rethink Education’s track record of investing in diverse founders dates back to the firm’s inception in 2012. Currently, 12.5% of Rethink Education’s portfolio is founded and/or led by Black and Latinx CEOs.
We need more diversity among VC fund managers. Venture capital is one of the least diverse asset classes as far as investor representation. Just 1% of venture capitalists are Latinx and 3% are Black. In an industry where deals are facilitated by warm introductions, diverse founders are often outside of traditional early-stage capital networks, both angel and institutional.
Our team was thrilled to help Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), a leader in innovative instruction delivery, assign part of its endowment to investing in diverse fund managers as another frontier in addressing structural inequalities. In October 2020, SNHU’s board of directors led a Socially Responsible Investing Initiative and our team’s Matt Greenfield & Ebony Brown found and vetted the fund managers that presented to the board. SNHU ultimately invested $11mm across five African-American-led VC funds.
The Board of Directors has a powerful impact on how a company serves its end users. Yet, underrepresented ethnic & racial groups make up 40% of the U.S. population but just 12.5% of board directors.
At Rethink Education, we are taking action to ensure that the boards of our portfolio companies reflect the learners served. To that end, Rick Segal, Managing Partner, recently stepped down from his Board Director seat at APDS, to be replaced by Lawrence Bartley. APDS delivers education to incarcerated learners, many of whom are black and brown men, who are disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system. Bartley is Founder & Director of “News Inside” of the Marshall Project, an award-winning, nonpartisan news organization focused on criminal justice and has direct experience with the prison system, having been incarcerated at 17 years old and then serving 27 years. Rick's decision gives voting power to a leader who not only shares the racial identity of APDS’ learners but also deeply understands the correctional system.
Supporting Founders of Color
Rethink Education has earmarked $5mm from Rethink Education III to invest in underrepresented people of color helping solve some of the toughest challenges from education to workforce development. The team has coined this initiative Rethink Equity, acknowledging that venture capital is hardly distributed on a level playing field.
While this initiative is new, Rethink Education’s track record of investing in diverse founders dates back to the firm’s inception in 2012. Currently, 14% of Rethink Education’s portfolio is founded and/or led by Black and Latinx entrepreneurs.
Our 2022 Investment Theses
Communities of Trust and Care
Last year I wrote a blog post that discussed Rethink Education’s values, beliefs, and investment theses. Buried in the middle of that post was a sentence that I think distills our core beliefs in a helpful way. Here it is again, with slight modifications.
Matt Greenfield
2023 Impact Results
58,793,157
13,791,292
$251,634,863
39%
22%
4 11 million learners were served by portfolio companies that exited our portfolio in 2022, resulting in a lower number of total learners served in 2023.
5 Not all portfolio companies are able to track the number of low-income learners, so this figure represents those that do have access to this information. We try to be cautious and scrupulous in our metrics. Accordingly, this number is a lower representation than actuals.
6 Based on capital called and investments made as of 12/31/2023 and includes cost basis of exited positions.
7 Represents unique portfolio companies including each of the 3 unique, active companies in the StartEd 2017 accelerator in which the Seed Fund invested. Note: Rethink Education invested in some portfolio companies across multiple funds.
8 Exit transactions include the public offering of 2U; cash acquisitions of Pathbrite by Cengage, Intellus by Macmillan, General Assembly and Course Report by Adecco Group, Neverware by Google, Rethink First by K1 Investment Management, and StraighterLine by BV Investment Partners; cash and stock acquisitions of Engrade by McGraw-Hill, Smarterer by Pluralsight, MissionU by WeWork, Flocabulary by Nearpod, Trilogy Education Services by 2U and Imbellus by Roblox; stock acquisitions of Entangled by Guild Education; cash acquisition of Kenzie by SNHU; cash acquisition of Education Elements by XanEDU; cash acquisition of Operoo by SchoolStatus; cash acquisition of Ellevation by Curriculum Associations; cash acquisition of Lessonly by Seismic Software; cash & stock acquisition of Edmit by Vemo; acquisition of Clark by Noodle Pros; dissolution of Hickory, Toot, KiraKira3D, MedAux, SecondAccent, Pilanced, Edge Pathways, Prendea, Bindr, Adjacent, and Sixup; acquisition of Vidcode by Codesters; cash & stock acquisition of EverFi by Blackbaud; cash acquisition of Brightbytes by Google; acquisition of Formative by Newsela; acquisition of Hapara by Cordance; acquisition of Empowered Education by ISSA; acquisition of Student Opportunity Center by PeopleGrove.
9 Includes the investment in the StartEd 2017 accelerator cohort’s 8 companies as one investment.
Portfolio Landscape
Impact Alignment
Our portfolio companies are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, including the following goals: “Quality Education,” “Decent Work and Economic Growth,” “Gender Equality,” “Good Health and Wellbeing,” and “Reduced Inequalities.”
Our portfolio companies are also aligned with the IRIS+ framework including the following themes: “Education,” “Employment,” “Diversity and Inclusion,” and “Health.”
Things We Are Proud Of
In 2022, our portfolio companies made some major progress addressing urgent problems in education. Below are highlights from our current portfolio:
In 2023, our portfolio companies made some major progress addressing urgent problems in education and workforce training. Below are highlights from our current portfolio:
In 2023, GetSetUp significantly expanded its impact, reaching over 8 million individuals and recording more than 2 million class visits. This growth was supported by over 120 partnerships with various institutions, including Departments on Aging, Departments of Health and Human Services, Area Agencies on Aging, libraries, Medicare Advantage Plans, and other entities. These collaborations have been crucial in broadening access to GetSetUp's educational offerings and furthering its mission to enhance the lives of older adults through active learning and community engagement.
Amira is making a significant impact, reaching over 2 million students in nearly 2,000 school districts across 19 countries worldwide. In 2023, a study by the Utah State Board of Education revealed that students who consistently used Amira showed substantial improvements in their reading skills. This means that students in Utah who used Amira performed better than those who did not, highlighting the effectiveness of Amira in enhancing children's reading abilities.
In 2023, 1 in 3 Computer Science grads in the U.S. were members of the MLH community. At 48% non-male, the MLH community was 2.5x more gender diverse than the average Computer Science classroom in the U.S. and 2 of 3 MLH community members identified as people of color. Furthermore, 91% of hackers stated they were “learning skills through the MLH community they can’t learn in class.”
The graduation rate at Campus is higher than the community college national average. In 2023, more than half of its 900 students were Black or Hispanic and 70% were women; the majority were also first-generation college students. Campus wants to see every student succeed, and gives each student a laptop, along with free math and writing tutoring and a success coach. Very few institutions in the country provide this level of support.
In 2023, Pathstream saw a substantial increase in total enrollments, with particular growth amongst women and underserved populations. Despite this surge in enrollment, Pathstream maintained an impressive 98% success rate in helping learners achieve their career goals. Furthermore, learners experienced an overall average wage gain increase of 44% compared to the previous year.
In 2023, GetSetUp significantly expanded its impact, reaching over 8 million individuals and recording more than 2 million class visits. This growth was supported by over 120 partnerships with various institutions, including Departments on Aging, Departments of Health and Human Services, Area Agencies on Aging, libraries, Medicare Advantage Plans, and other entities. These collaborations have been crucial in broadening access to GetSetUp's educational offerings and furthering its mission to enhance the lives of older adults through active learning and community engagement.
Amira is making a significant impact, reaching over 2 million students in nearly 2,000 school districts across 19 countries worldwide. In 2023, a study by the Utah State Board of Education revealed that students who consistently used Amira showed substantial improvements in their reading skills. This means that students in Utah who used Amira performed better than those who did not, highlighting the effectiveness of Amira in enhancing children's reading abilities.
In 2023, 1 in 3 Computer Science grads in the U.S. were members of the MLH community. At 48% non-male, the MLH community was 2.5x more gender diverse than the average Computer Science classroom in the U.S. and 2 of 3 MLH community members identified as people of color. Furthermore, 91% of hackers stated they were “learning skills through the MLH community they can’t learn in class.”
The graduation rate at Campus is higher than the community college national average. In 2023, more than half of its 900 current students are Black or Hispanic and 70% are women; the majority are also first-generation college students. Campus wants to see every student succeed, and gives each student a laptop, along with free math and writing tutoring and a success coach. Very few institutions in the country provide this level of support.
In 2023, Pathstream saw a substantial increase in total enrollments, with particular growth amongst women and underserved populations. Despite this surge in enrollment, Pathstream maintained an impressive 98% success rate in helping learners achieve their career goals. Furthermore, learners experienced an overall average wage gain increase of 44% compared to the previous year.
Case Studies & Interviews
Highlighting achievements in outcomes this year
34% increase
A 34% increase in Massachusetts readers scoring above benchmark on DIBELS assessment
2.4 weeks
An average of 2.4 weeks of reading skills growth measured per week spent in a reading pilot program in Arkansas
The Mission
Ignite Reading is on a mission to deliver one-to-one tutoring that teaches every student the foundational reading skills they need to become a confident, fluent reader.
The Problem
Learning to read is the cornerstone of any meaningful education and of a person’s ability to participate in society. Yet, a lack of basic literacy remains one of the most urgent problems facing American K-12 education. Nationwide, some two-thirds of children can’t read fluently, and an overwhelming 40% are said to be “essentially nonreaders.” Over half of Americans between the ages of 16 and 74 read below the sixth-grade level, and would struggle to read a story to their own child. The inability to read is a plague that is carried into adulthood and passed from one generation to the next.
While illiteracy is destructive across demographics, for those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, for people of color and other historically marginalized populations, the consequences of being illiterate are exceptionally punitive. Illiteracy is directly correlated with higher rates of unemployment, poverty, and incarceration.
Without systematic and widespread literacy interventions in schools, high illiteracy rates will continue to hinder the potential of individuals, their families, and society writ large. Breaking the cycle of illiteracy in childhood, therefore, isn’t just an urgent need; it is a national imperative.
The Company
Ignite Reading provides foundational reading skills tutoring to K-12 schools through virtual, one-to-one sessions of 15 minutes per day. Starting with a baseline diagnostic assessment, Ignite Reading pairs students with dedicated tutors who deliver daily Science of Reading-based instruction that shores up every student's specific decoding gaps. By ensuring all students master the foundational skills to fluently read any word, Ignite Reading empowers them to move forward and unlock everything school and life have to offer.
The Impact
A study conducted by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in six school districts in Massachusetts showed that following 14 weeks of Ignite Reading tutoring, the percentage of students scoring at or above reading benchmark on the DIBELS test rose from 11% to 45%, with consistent results across gender, race, language, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and special need. So, what does the Ignite Reading program look like in practice, and in a state with high rates of illiteracy?
LRSD Fights for Every Kid’s Right to Read
At the Little Rock School District (LRSD) in Arkansas, Superintendent Dr. Jermall Wright was eager to improve district-wide literacy rates, as over half of LRSD’s nearly 22,000 students were reading below grade level. Wright asserted that literacy is a “civil right” and was determined that every child should leave the school district with the skills needed to navigate the world.
The pandemic had exacerbated LRSD’s learning gaps, with diminished attendance and a lack of learning continuity that did immeasurable damage to students’ long-term performance. To fix the problem, the district’s leadership decided that a serious intervention was needed. In 2023, they partnered with Ignite Reading to launch a pilot across a dozen LRSD schools, encompassing over 1,000 learners, with the goal of boosting basic literacy levels.
Initially, LRSD worked with Ignite Reading to perform a baseline assessment of the reading levels of students in the pilot program. That process yielded startling results, and confirmed what the district leaders suspected. Some 82% of first-through-fifth-graders in the pilot program had a skills gap that placed them at the kindergarten or first-grade reading level. Second-graders were an average of 1.4 grade levels behind, and the gap was even greater for older readers: third-graders were an average of 2.1 grade levels behind; fourth-graders were 3.0 levels behind, and fifth-graders were a staggering 3.9 grade levels behind. Analyzing specific skills that were lacking, Ignite Reading saw that large gaps were evident in the skills of using letter sounds, letter patterns, blends and digraphs, and multisyllabic decoding, among other important basic reading abilities.
With the pilot program’s baseline assessments complete, every student was paired with one of Ignite’s reading tutors, all of whom had completed a 110-hour Science of Reading Certification Program. The tutors met with their students daily for 15 minutes, focusing on students’ pre-identified foundational reading skills gaps. The ins and outs of each school’s tutoring sessions were refined depending on their unique needs. Some cohorts, for example, were taken by bus to their school library in order to make their sessions, while others completed them before lunch in the cafeteria, and so on. Literacy specialists were brought in to support the program and monitor progress, and Ignite Reading Champions were identified to help schools work through attendance barriers and other challenges.
More Powerful than Words
By the end of the 2023 school year, all Ignite Reading students had substantially improved their reading skills, with no achievement gaps found across ethnicities and language backgrounds. Students showed an average of 2.4 weeks of reading skills growth per week spent in the program, with fifth-graders showing the most growth. Beyond the improvement in basic literacy skills, district leaders also noted that the Ignite Reading program yielded a powerful social-emotional impact. Students had made strong connections with their tutors and were proud of their accomplishments.
“Kids were literally running down the hall to get a chance to talk to their tutors,” Wright shared.
One particular fifth-grader who had struggled with reading for years finally overcame her challenges through Ignite Reading. She expressed immense gratitude for her tutor, resulting in a powerful moment of clarity for Wright.
“It takes a lot for me to cry…We need partners like Ignite Reading to help us deliver on every child’s right to read.”
“We are choosing to expand the program based on the exciting results we’ve seen in just a short pilot. Ignite Reading has a proven strategy and approach that we can emulate alongside their tutors to reach as many students as possible.”
- Dr. Jermall Wright, Superintendent, Little Rock School District
76%
reduction in GAD-7 score, and 86% reduction in PHQ-9 score, among Backpack patients
84%
retention of Backpack clinicians, compared to 40-70% national average
Reduction of mental healthcare appointment wait time, from national average of 6 weeks, to 4.8 days
The Mission
Backpack is breaking barriers by providing inclusive and accessible services to all youth and their families regardless of their background, identity, or circumstances.
The Problem
Around 26% of American children between the ages of 5 and 17 were diagnosed with a mental health issue in 2021, and diagnoses for mental health conditions in this age group rose by 22% in the five preceding years. Additionally, nearly half of U.S. children are covered by Medicaid or CHIP, yet systemic inequities mean that Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) children, who are disproportionately on Medicaid, often experience poorer mental health outcomes and greater challenges in accessing necessary treatments. Discontinuity of treatment and poorly coordinated facets of care are major barriers for children affected by mental health conditions. In many cases, schools serve as the primary—or even the only—providers of mental health interventions for vulnerable children. Children who are in foster care or other high-risk situations often face exceptional hurdles to accessing the mental health care they need in order to enjoy a stable and mentally sound quality of life.
The Company
Backpack is an AI-powered virtual mental health clinic dedicated to offering therapeutic services to youth, young adults, and families. We offer virtual therapy and psychiatry services and have a residency program that introduces new and diverse therapists into the market. We work directly with government agencies (e.g. DSS & Foster Care), schools and healthcare organizations to meet kids where they are. I've attached a high-level overview.
More than 60% of Backpack’s resident clinicians are BIPOC, mirroring the pediatric population they serve. Clinicians come from exceptionally diverse backgrounds, with a wide span of healthcare interests including abuse, trauma, domestic violence, sexual assault, family conflict, depressions, autism spectrum disorder, depression, bipolar, phobias, behavioral issues and beyond. All clinicians must undergo a 24-month training program that is accredited by the National Board of Certified Counselors (NBCC). Backpack has partnered with eight universities—including Johns Hopkins University, Morgan State University, and George Mason University—in its quest to provide high-quality, accessible mental healthcare to vulnerable children.
The Impact
Backpack greatly reduces barriers to pediatric mental healthcare, and this is perhaps most evident through its ability to improve access to clinicians. Within the Backpack network, patients wait on average 4.8 days to see a clinician, compared to the 42-day national average. Such a dramatic reduction minimizes the likelihood of mental health crisis escalation—including ER visits—and ensures that treatment and therapy can begin promptly. To serve the full spectrum of patients, Backpack has also developed a digital app that harnesses bibliotherapy to help youth, young adults, and families build resilience and develop skills to process lower acuity issues.
Results are also seen in terms of patients’ mental health outcomes. Among Backpack’s pediatric patients, over three-quarters (76%) saw a reduction in GAD-7 score, which measures General Anxiety Disorder levels, and 86% of Backpack patients saw a reduction in their PHQ-9 score, which measures Depression Disorder symptoms.
Backpack clinicians are also empowered by AI tools and modern infrastructure that reduces burnout, elicits strong clinical outcomes, and allows them to practice at the top of their license. An example of this is Backpack’s Patient Treatment Plan Generator. The Generator, fueled by the 20K+ treatment plans created by Backpack clinicians, changes the role of the clinician from writer to editor when creating a tailored treatment plan while reducing the time taken from 45 to less than 5 minutes.
With Backpack, a care team provides weekly therapy sessions, and patients can communicate with their therapists in-between sessions to let them know how they are doing. Family members or guardians can stay involved in the patient’s care along the way, ensuring a comprehensive approach to treatment.
Finally, the staying power of Backpack’s clinicians is a testament to the organization’s impact; around 84% are retained year-on-year, compared to a national average in the range of 40-70%.
“Backpack has been the best decision I ever made, because I am in a way better place than when I started.”
- Olivia, Backpack patient
“I wish that I could tell every client that it is always darkest before dawn. Everyone needs the support and encouragement to know that our better days are within reach.”
- Velva, Licenced Clinical Professional Counselor, Backpack
63,000
students using Abl scheduling, of whom 45% are socioeconomically disadvantaged
92%
Graduation rate of 92%, on average, at participating schools {CONFIRM – is this at Elk Grove or across all schools}
2%
rise in overall academic intensity, year-on-year, at one participating district
The Mission
Abl is on a mission to ensure that each student is given the opportunity to maximize their potential and make informed choices between viable and meaningful next steps about their education and future
The Problem
The intensity of a student’s high school course load is a critical predictor of their success in enrolling in and completing higher education. However, countless high school students are currently underchallenged, taking courses that fail to push them to reach their full academic potential. Alarmingly, more than 50% of high school students nationwide who would benefit from advanced courses are not enrolled in them. This lack of rigorous coursework is a significant barrier to promoting postsecondary readiness and exacerbates the opportunity gap facing millions of young people. The urgent need to address this issue cannot be overstated, as it directly impacts the future prospects of an entire generation.
The Company
Abl works collaboratively with school districts, using their proprietary course-taking rigor indicator to identify patterns in course enrollment and completion, and exploring course intensity and progression pathways for various student population groups. From these insights, schools work with Abl to architect innovative, insights-driven schedules that give students much more control over their learning experiences than the historic standard schedule allows. Students in Abl-connected schools have the freedom to enroll in courses based on interests, offerings, academic intensity, and goals. Reimagining the traditional schedule also lets schools and students think beyond the classroom. With more efficient scheduling in-place, they can maximize their time to take advantage of opportunities like off-campus internships and personalized support sessions that can help them build a stronger and more intentional pathway to their postsecondary future.
The Impact
Leaders at Elk Grove Unified School District in California were well-aware of the role students’ schedules played in advancing postsecondary readiness. Yet, they knew they needed to look at a wider array of data—beyond student outcomes—to better understand why certain groups of students were not accessing or completing rigorous coursework. Enrollment patterns, course offerings, additional student support, and teacher assignments, they rightly surmised, were similarly important parts of the equation for readiness. In order to understand those trends that most strongly correlated to student success, they knew they needed clearer, algorithmically derived, insights into the key performance indicators at play in their district. Beyond a stronger data set, Elk Grove also wanted to be able to offer student-centric scheduling solutions, and the option to amend schedules based on real-time insights into what worked and what didn’t. For these specific needs, Elk Grove opted to partner with Abl.
Opportunity Gap, Unearthed
Upon auditing their data with Abl, Elk Grove’s leadership team learned that around half of their students were enrolled in intense coursework, yet just over a quarter of Black and 39% of Hispanic students were taking such coursework. Furthermore, they learned that just 29% of students were accessing intense coursework in math. Among other troubling metrics unearthed, while well over half (58%) of students were taking four years of math, just 42% of Black and 47% of Hispanic students were doing so. And, just 19% of Black and 26% of Hispanic students were taking at least one advanced math class, compared to 40% of Elk Grove students overall.
A More Powerful Way Forward
Elk Grove’s leadership was determined to use these insights to fix the opportunity gaps in their course enrollment. With Abl’s powerful data set now at their fingertips, the district was able to identify specific student groups that would benefit from greater intensity in their courses, and then evaluate requests and prioritize enrollment accordingly. School teams worked with district leaders to refine their scheduling using Abl’s Schedule Progress Report, sharing findings with other schools as they worked and defining a powerful set of district-wide best practices for driving student outcomes.
The Results? Stronger Scheduling, More Inclusive Enrollment, and More Time
After one year, nine out of ten of Elk Grove’s participating schools had successfully completed the schedule-building process with Abl, and six had set goals to increase historically underserved enrollment in advanced courses. Comparing the prior year’s cohort, the district saw a 2% increase in overall academic intensity of students’ course loads.
A secondary benefit of Elk Grove’s partnership with Abl? Educators regaining time to focus on their mission.
“Having the majority of student schedules finalized in June meant that when our counselors returned in August, they didn’t need to spend two weeks cleaning up schedules,” explained Sue Hubbard, Director of College and Career Connections at Elk Grove Unified School District. “Instead they were able to spend time checking in with students and providing social emotional support. Our counselors were ecstatic to regain the time to do what they love in service of our students.”
The Mission
Acadeum powers networks of colleges, universities and corporate partners to quickly expand academic portfolios with in-demand certifications, courses, programs, and degrees to attract and retain learners along the education-career continuum. Today, Acadeum powers over 700 networks across more than 480 higher ed institutions and workforce partners to offer in-demand courses and credentials they need to keep learners on track, and bolster existing or offer new programs. Institutions improve retention and completion rates, and offer workforce-aligned and stackable certifications, while also unlocking new revenue to increase financial sustainability.
The Problem
With a substantial, multi-year enrollment decline already impacting U.S. colleges and universities, and an even steeper decline of 15% predicted to be on the horizon in the next decade, the race is on to attract prospective students to a reimagined version of higher education. Today, only over a third of Americans have a high level of confidence in higher education—a drop from 57% in 2015. Why? Generational stories of attendees accruing profoundly high debt only to find academic failure abound. But also, for many of today’s prospective students, the four-year, on-campus experience is no longer optimal or even viable. Today’s necessary postsecondary experience is flexible, affordable, and often online. It’s a learning journey that can meet students’ specific educational needs and life circumstances no matter where they are, while giving them the skills employers need. Institutions that can offer this at scale—extending flexible, just-in-time educational products that best position students for academic success—will inevitably win the enrollment race. Doing so requires higher education leaders to challenge entrenched norms and standards around their higher education brands, breaking down walls and becoming more adept at strategic alliances and resource-sharing, including course-sharing, in the process.
The Company
Acadeum facilitates course-sharing across higher education institutions, allowing some 480 colleges and universities to extend their reach, fill seats in infrequently offered courses, and expand access to popular course offerings or new majors. Through strategic course-sharing, institutions make their course offerings more efficient and available to a wider demographic of students. Institutions that are members of the Acadeum network can remove transfer-related hurdles for students while breaking down barriers to completion and giving them opportunities to maintain or regain their academic standing.
The Impact
Small School, Big Results
Goldley-Beacom College (GBC) is a small, private higher education institution in Wilmington, Delaware that needed a cost-effective way to strengthen their online offerings while improving retention and completion rates.
Leaders at GBC opted to join the Acadeum Course Sharing network in 2019, opening up a greater array of accredited, fully online and often FAFSA-eligible courses for their students with easy transfer of course credits back to GBC. In doing so, they gave their students a stronger chance at academic success and, ultimately, degree completion. More available course options meant students could readily balance their personal, professional, and educational lives while staying on-track for graduation.
“We’ve had strong demand for online learning, so it’s been great to have a partner and leverage those instances where we can offer online options and find a match through another partner institution,” explained Joel Worden, Assistant Vice President and Associate Provost for Academic Programs at GBC. “It keeps our students on-track and on the path to graduation. We are retaining them in the short- and the long-term, and seeing them cross the stage.”
Since joining the Acadeum network, GBC has connected more than 300 students to the courses they needed in order to maintain academic standing, while recovering some $275,000 in tuition revenue. In addition, nearly all (95%) of students enrolled in courses through the Acadeum network were retained, and GBC realized its highest first-year student retention rate in two decades.
A Rural School Expands its Reach
Rural community colleges have faced unique challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, some 18% fewer rural students were planning to attend college than the prior year, a number gleaned from the alarming drop in financial aid application forms submitted in rural areas.
Western Texas College (WTC), a public community college in the rural community of Snyder, Texas, was acutely feeling the effects of the post-pandemic enrollment cliff. In 2020, WTC chose to take action and joined the Acadeum network to increase their online enrollment numbers. In doing so, they expanded their reach to serve more students in different geographical locations. They also ensured that their own enrolled students had access to a broader array of in-demand courses, and in particular to high-quality STEM courses and online labs that are not widely available at many community colleges. They further boosted their capabilities by opening up their courses for dual enrollment programs at participating high schools.
Since joining the Acadeum network, WTC has provided more than 2,000 students with access to the courses they needed to maintain academic standing and stay on track for graduation. They have also served more than 800 students in dual enrollment partnerships with high schools not just in Texas, but around the country.
The Mission
Guild is on a mission to unlock opportunity for America’s workforce.
The Problem
Two thirds of global leaders have experienced a labor shortage in the past 12 months. In the U.S, there were 1.5 unfilled jobs per unemployed person in 2023, indicative of a staggering labor force gap. It is a gap that threatens to become even more pervasive as AI and emerging technology increasingly require workers to possess evolved skill-sets in order to remain competitive in their own careers. In some sectors, the ramifications of labor and skills shortages are more dire than others.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world watched as nurses, doctors, and other essential healthcare workers quit in droves; many were burned out and exasperated by growing demands placed on their shoulders and a perceived lack of support. As in other sectors, there were simply not enough skilled workers in the field to manage such a complex and pervasive crisis.
While the pandemic is over, the staffing shortages facing healthcare occupations have not been resolved. Resignations among healthcare workers stood at 400,000 per-month in 2020; that number rose to 600,000 per-month in May of 2023. With the health landscape and the medical needs of Americans shifting, it is abundantly clear that healthcare systems need more people, with more and more targeted training, in order to manage their ‘business-as-usual,’ let alone to manage a healthcare crisis of any magnitude.
The Company
Since 2015, Guild has been helping working adults obtain the skills they need to advance in their careers, at little or no cost. Guild does this by providing employers with a curated marketplace of traditional education programs, as well as, vetted, skill-oriented short-form courses and certification programs that enable workers to learn new skills for their job, sharpen their existing tools for a raise or promotion, or reskill to pursue another occupation altogether. Beyond this, Guild partners with academic institutions, enabling employers to give their people access to degree-bearing academic programs at low- or no-cost, and without the need to leave employment.
The Impact
Future-proofing Medical Professionals
Bon Secours Mercy Health (BSMH) is one of the nation’s largest healthcare systems, employing 60,000 people across thousands of care points. In 2021, BSMH entered into a partnership with Guild. Their goals were to bolster the BSMH workforce against sector-wide shortages, while ensuring their associates were able to essentially future-proof their careers and thrive professionally despite rapid, technological evolutions in their sector.
The new partnership yielded a two-pronged educational initiative that is made available to all full- and part-time BSHM associates from their first day of employment. Associates are encouraged to take advantage of the many available academic programs, which have 100% tuition coverage, along with career pathways designed to facilitate professional growth.
When selecting an academic program, a BSMH associate may choose from over 120 clinical certifications, undergraduate, graduate, and nursing degrees at 15 accredited, highly regarded universities and institutions. Personalized coaching support is available, and flexible learning modalities mean associates need not choose between studying and working.
In a career pathway, a BSMH associate is guided along a clearly defined skill-building track designed to facilitate internal mobility. Career pathways are defined and built according to the results of a long-range analysis of the jobs and skills deemed to be most critical to healthcare, as well as an examination of data showing the most in-demand career paths. Associates are prompted to take a psychometric assessment to determine their suitability for a variety of roles and career areas and to help match them to the appropriate career pathway.
Within just weeks of launch, more than 2,000 associates had enrolled in academic programs and career pathways. Guild program engagement metrics showed that among those pursuing clinical programs and nursing degrees were: 260 medical assistants; 132 phlebotomy technicians; 50 medical assistant specialists; 213 registered nurses; and 34 pharmacists.
Correlation One helps enterprises and government organizations develop talent and close critical gaps in data, digital, and technology skills with training solutions focused on job and business outcomes.
Q: Can you share a bit about your journey and what inspired you to start Correlation One?
A: When we started the company in 2015, we felt the AI and Data Science talent market was being overlooked. At the time, Data Science had not yet become a buzzword even though the conversation around Big Data and AI was heating up.
A few years prior, the broader software industry had undergone a swift institutionalization. By then, ample tools and resources were available for effective hiring of software engineers. However, this was not the case for data scientists. The market was still emerging, and resources to facilitate their hiring were scarce.
Our initiative was born out of direct interactions with companies struggling to quickly secure top-tier data science talent. We repeatedly encountered critical questions that revealed significant gaps in the market: What defines a skilled data scientist? How do we identify and remedy skills gaps within our teams? What strategies should we employ to leverage analytics for increased revenue? And critically, how can we enhance data literacy among our staff?
We built Correlation One to establish standards in Data Science, where previously there were none. Against those standards, we have rolled out assessment tools, training solutions, and have built a global Data Science community in the process. Over the past three years, we have taken the same approach to other adjacent verticals, such as Cybersecurity.
Q: So, what does Correlation One do?
A: In today's world, where generic courses are everywhere, the real value of learning is in creating customized solutions that fit seamlessly into team workflows and meet specific business needs. At Correlation One, our focus is on tailoring our curriculum to tackle each organization's unique and most urgent business challenges. This involves integrating new technologies and developing skills for hard-to-fill roles.
We enable companies to attract, assess, and train the people they need to execute crucial data initiatives. We’ve built relationships with the field’s top experts, more than 500 of the world’s leading universities, and 100,000+ data professionals to form a strong global community.
We base our learning on real company projects and career tracks, which lead to cost savings, revenue growth, and better career development. We're committed to helping our enterprise clients stay at the cutting edge of innovation and digital skills, helping individuals bridge essential skills gaps, and providing employers with access to the right talent and career mobility solutions.
Q: Can you elaborate on Correlation One's initiatives in the Middle East and how they align with your mission to drive positive social impact?
A: Correlation One has a number of initiatives it has launched in partnership with the USAID, the Jordanian Government and other regional stakeholders. As the demand for data and analytical skills surges, there is an emerging opportunity to tap into the rich yet under-leveraged talent pool in countries such as Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian Territories, Lebanon, Tunisia, and the broader MENA region. In contrast to traditional tech talent hotspots India and Poland, where the cost of talent is increasingly becoming prohibitive for global enterprises, countries in the Middle East offer a highly compelling value proposition: an abundance of highly educated STEM talent in countries with more affordable wages for tech & data talent.
Our programs in the MENA region are designed to develop local data talent ecosystems, empower women and refugee populations with new skills, and contribute to the tech and economic development of the region. This aligns with Correlation One's mission of driving positive social impact by democratizing access to data skills education while driving economic value for employers who need job-ready talent.
Q: Could you discuss how Correlation One supports government organizations, highlighting any key initiatives?
A: Correlation One has been actively engaged in supporting government organizations by leveraging our expertise in AI and data science training to bridge the skills gaps in the workforce. One of our key initiatives, in collaboration with USAID and MIT’s Poverty Action Lab, focuses on empowering Jordanian youth and women. This initiative aims to train 2,000 individuals and connect them with global employers for jobs.
What sets this program apart is its use of a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) to assess and evaluate the training-to-employment pathway thoroughly. This independent RCT is designed to provide concrete, evidence-based insights into the training program's most effective components. The findings from the RCT will enable USAID and other funders in the international development industry to understand which elements of the program can be scaled up globally with confidence.
This initiative exemplifies Correlation One's belief that simply providing skills does not necessarily solve the employment access problem. By integrating rigorous, evidence-led evaluation through RCTs, we aim to help governmental agencies, developmental organizations, and the higher education ecosystem make data-driven decisions about efficiently allocating resources to maximize employment outcomes and drive scalable social impact.
Q: In assessing impact, which specific key performance indicators (KPIs) does Correlation One emphasize, and how do these metrics inform the enhancement of your upskilling programs over time?
A: We focus on three KPIs:
Job placements or promotions are the North Star. We target 75% placement/promotion rates in 12 months. Whether it’s an Amazon Frontline worker or an unemployed Jordanian youth, this goal remains consistent. People acquire new skills to get better jobs. We keep this priority front and center of everything we do.
Completion Rates. We target 90% completion rates. Content for upskilling programs has to be not only engaging but directly relevant to our learners' everyday jobs. Learners need to be able to apply what they learn immediately to their jobs to get value out of their education.
Diversity of our learners. At least 50% of our graduates are women or members of historically underrepresented communities. We believe that we all have to go out of our way to make sure that we do not perpetuate the opportunity gap that has existed for these groups when it comes to the jobs of tomorrow.
Q: In light of changing dynamics, what novel strategies or delivery frameworks has Correlation One ventured into to enhance the efficiency and impact of its upskilling initiatives?
A: In contrast to traditional higher ed institutions or MOOCs, which typically develop standardized methodologies—ranging from content creation to leveraging existing certifications and varying delivery formats—Correlation One adopts a fundamentally different approach. We prioritize an employer-centric strategy, tailoring our solutions not by imposing predefined frameworks but by meticulously aligning with the specific needs of each employer.
Our process begins with an in-depth exploration of an employer's operational environment. This involves more than routine discussions with Learning and Development (L&D) leaders or perusal of job descriptions. Instead, we commit significant resources to thoroughly understand the complete suite of technological tools utilized by the employer, the data they leverage, and the most effective methods to impart necessary skills to their workforce.
This bespoke approach not only ensures our training programs are precisely attuned to the employer's needs but also fosters deeper, more enduring partnerships. Employers are more inclined to engage in multi-year commitments when they recognize the solutions are specifically crafted for their context. This tailored, results-driven strategy has enabled us to not only establish but also significantly expand our footprint across numerous enterprise accounts, demonstrating a proven track record of impactful and sustainable engagement.
Q: What long term impact would you like to see Correlation One make in the world?
A: A profound transformation is happening at the center of the global economy right now. Enterprises are increasingly recognizing that their most valuable asset is their data. This realization is rapidly accelerating digital transformation processes worldwide as enterprises and countries are scrambling not to be left behind in the new data-driven economy.
At Correlation One, we want to be a catalyst in the global economy where every individual has access to the skills that can help them thrive in the digital economy and where every enterprise can leverage data to its fullest potential to foster innovation and drive growth. This transformation will not only elevate the economic prospects of individuals and nations but will also contribute to a more equitable distribution of technology's benefits.
Empowering people to build their careers, on their terms.
Q: Drawing from your tenure at WeWork, how has that experience shaped the vision and direction of Teal?
A: The genesis of Teal stemmed from my growing discomfort with the disconnect between executives' strategic decisions and employees' lack of insight into the implications for their careers. This realization struck me during my tenure at WeWork, where I witnessed firsthand the disparity in information and resources between management and staff. Recognizing the need to democratize access to career knowledge and empower individuals to manage their careers, I embarked on the journey to create Teal. This discrepancy underscored the urgency to develop a platform that would provide individuals with the tools and insights to navigate their careers with confidence and agency.
Q: So, what does Teal do?
A: Teal empowers people to make career decisions with confidence. It is a CRM that helps users manage the job search process from end to end. Teal allows users to manage the search in one place, offering guidance for every step of the journey including bookmarking jobs, suggesting people who work at the company to connect with,email templates for outreach/thank you, resume customization, and more. Teal has grown incredibly quickly which can be seen through the company’s 14x revenue growth in the last 14 months and over 1 million Teal members.
Teal has grown incredibly quickly which can be seen through the company’s 14x revenue growth in the last 14 months and over 1 million Teal members.
Q: Can you elaborate on how Teal supports its users after they have secured a job? How does Teal assist individuals throughout their career journey?
A: Teal is committed to supporting individuals not only in securing employment but also in thriving within their roles and advancing their careers. Our platform facilitates continuous feedback and performance tracking, enabling users to align their efforts with organizational expectations and goals. By leveraging data analytics and personalized insights, we empower individuals to take ownership of their career development and proactively pursue opportunities for growth and advancement. Our focus extends beyond job acquisition to encompass ongoing skill development, professional networking, and strategic career planning, ensuring that users are equipped with the tools and resources to navigate their career journeys successfully.
Q: Considering shifting demographics, how has Teal observed changes in job-seeking behaviors over recent years?
A: The evolving landscape of job-seeking behaviors reflects broader societal shifts towards greater autonomy, flexibility, and digital connectivity. Traditionally, job seekers relied on conventional channels such as resumes and interviews to secure employment. However, with the advent of technology and the proliferation of online platforms, job seekers are increasingly leveraging digital tools to enhance their visibility, network with industry professionals, and showcase their skills and accomplishments. Furthermore, demographic changes, including increased workforce mobility and diverse career trajectories, have contributed to a more dynamic and competitive job market. As a result, individuals are adopting more proactive and strategic approaches to career advancement, leveraging technology to access new opportunities and navigate evolving job market dynamics.
Q: In what ways does Teal prioritize the needs of workers in its product design compared to conventional solutions?
A: Teal's product design philosophy is rooted in a long-term perspective that prioritizes user empowerment and career sustainability. Unlike conventional solutions that may offer quick fixes or generic templates, Teal is committed to fostering long-term career success through personalized guidance, skill development, and strategic planning. Our platform emphasizes process-oriented learning, habit formation, and self-advocacy, equipping users with the tools and knowledge to navigate their careers with confidence and resilience. Furthermore, our weekly pricing model and subscription options are unique and aligned with users' needs and circumstances, ensuring accessibility and affordability for all individuals seeking to invest in their professional growth and development.
Q: Could you provide insights into the demographic makeup of Teal's user base?
A: Teal's user base encompasses a diverse range of individuals from various backgrounds and professions, reflecting the platform's inclusive and accessible nature. Our users span knowledge workers, transitioning professionals, military veterans, educators, and parents re-entering the workforce, among others. Additionally, our platform's focus on skill development and career advancement appeals to individuals at various career stages, from recent graduates to seasoned professionals seeking new opportunities for growth and fulfillment.
Q: What long term impact do you want to see Teal make on the world?
A: Teal aspires to foster a world where individuals are empowered to pursue meaningful and fulfilling careers aligned with their passions, values, and aspirations. We envision a future where every individual has the knowledge, resources, and support to navigate their career journey with confidence, agency, and purpose. By democratizing access to career guidance, skill development, and professional networking, we aim to create a more equitable and inclusive labor market where talent is recognized and rewarded based on merit and potential. Ultimately, our goal is to empower individuals to realize their full potential, contribute meaningfully to society, and lead fulfilling lives enriched by purposeful work and continuous growth.
Join Our Mission
We are always curious and always learning.
If you are a founder, investor, or someone interested in
collaborating or exchanging ideas in education & workforce:
DOWNLOAD THE FULL
2023
REPORT
This material is for general informational purposes only and is not intended as legal, tax or investment advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation, or sponsorship of any company, security, advisory service, or product. This information should not be used as the sole basis for investment decisions. Certain of the summaries and statistics contained herein have been obtained from third-party sources that we believe to be reliable, but we do not assume responsibility for their accuracy or completeness. All content is presented as of the date published or indicated only, and may be superseded by subsequent market events or for other reasons. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Investing involves risk including the loss of principal and fluctuation of value.
