The Path to Success
How do you measure success? How do you keep track of all you've achieved, while keeping future goals in mind? California-based startup Pathbrite provides next-generation solutions to mapping out what you've already accomplished, and helps you plan future successes.
Go beyond the traditional resume with Pathbrite and tell your story better than ever before. Pathbrite helps you truly stand out by delivering next-generation solutions that you collect, track and showcase a lifetime of achievement, and recommend pathways for continuous success.
Users can document, analyze and map individual achievements of all kinds against individuals’ goals and those of their peers – what’s called a Knowledge Graph. Students use Pathbrite and their performance relative to a wider Knowledge Graph to differentiate themselves to get into their preferred schools or land the jobs of their dreams. School admissions officers and employers rely on Pathbrite's Portfolio Platform to get a holistic view of candidates, and to better evaluate their readiness for and organizational fit to the opportunity at hand.
Learn more about how Pathbrite helps your put your best foot forwad in this interview from Pathbrite Founder and CEO, Heather Hiles.
What inspired you to start your company?
I was inspired to create Pathbrite because of my passion for closing the achievement gap for students and those individuals bettering themselves through continued education and employment. I was also inspired by the amazing meta-cognitive skills that can be developed through portfolio usage. I believe all students should take ownership of their learning experiences and control of their personal, academic and professional data. Pathbrite is the perfect tool to help with that.
Tell us something unique about you and your co-founder(s)?
I have had an eclectic career that has allowed me to work with former Black Panthers, Fortune 500 companies, as well as start-ups. I’ve served as a CORO Fellow, Communications Director for the Gavin Newsom for Mayor campaign in San Francisco and was appointed to the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education. Even though I’ve worn many hats, I’ve continued to pursue my passion to democratize education and create opportunities for economic prosperity. I'm also excited to announce that we recently secured our Series A round of funding!
What problem does your product or service solve?
Evidence of academic and professional accomplishments are located in disparate locations – hard drives, learning management systems, Google Docs, Dropbox, and behind the institutional firewall. With Pathbrite, students now have the power to collect and showcase formal and informal evidence of their learning, credentials and achievements and aggregate them for multiple uses. However, this is just the beginning. In time, the data captured in Pathbrite Portfolios can be leveraged to create individual, as well as institution-wide knowledge graphs.
What are your startup's three biggest challenges to growth?
Being a venture backed start-up brings about expectations around the growth of the company, viability of the business model and feasibility of the go-to-market strategy. Hiring the right people is a challenge, and I advise that start-up CEO’s take their time evaluating key hires that are not only talented but also the right cultural fit for your organization. Lastly, learning to balance the vision for the company and product, with the operational and administrative realities of execution, is an ongoing challenge.
How has the Startup America Partnership helped you overcome these challenges to growth?
There have already been a plethora of ways Startup America has helped me overcome challenges big and small. My team received copies of Steve Blank’s most recent book that has served as a bible to us in the product development process. We were also invited to attend the Clinton Global Initiative conference in Chicago, IL recently, which was an amazing opportunity to build partnerships in the area of workforce development.
What Startup America Member Benefits have you used?
We’ve participated in webinars, rubbed elbows with thought leaders at SXSW, and participated in numerous networking opportunities.
Why should startups join Startup America?
Creating a company from scratch is difficult regardless of the industry. Having a resource like Startup America is invaluable because you not only have resources and information about how to build a company from the ground up, you have a community with which your company can grow. Additionally, it helps to have more direct relationship with the Obama Administration and the important work they are doing to help us thrive.
What is the startup culture like in your City/State?
We’re located in San Francisco, CA which, when coupled with the Silicon Valley/SF Peninsula, is the mecca for start-up culture. We definitely feel lucky to be in such an innovative, supportive, and high-energy region that respects the risks and rewards involved in entrepreneurship. At any given moment we can walk outside and interact with expert engineers, angel investors, rockstar designers, of tech titan CEO’s.
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