Our Investment in Guild Education: Closing the Skills Gap, EdTech Goes Mainstream
When we first stepped foot in Guild’s Denver HQ, the room was teeming with energy and passion. The lobby had handmade envelopes for student coaches to receive letters of encouragements, the conference room was full of post-it notes from a recent design and engineering session, and the cafeteria had left over decorations from a recent (double) baby shower!
In each of our internal debrief discussions we kept coming back to the same theme: “This company is really, really special.”
As market sizes go, this one is massive. Two-thirds of the adult population in the US – 64M working adults – do not have a four-year degree. Yet, by 2020 it’s estimated that some post-secondary education will be required for 65% of jobs and a four-year degree will be required for 35% of jobs.
Yet, by 2020 it’s estimated that some post-secondary education will be required for 65% of jobs and a four-year degree will be required for 35% of jobs.
Many ambitious, hard working adults working in industries such as retail, hospitality, and food service desire the additional education to set themselves up for career advancement, but lack the resources and support to complete a college degree program. Likewise, Fortune 2000 employers are usually extremely supportive of ongoing education and career advancement opportunities for their employees, but wrestle with the staff, systems, and processes to manage these programs at scale. Given our experience with other incredible teams in the Learning and HR markets, including LinkedIn, Cornerstone OnDemand, Instructure, and Glint, we believe these market conditions create the perfect storm for a smart software platform. Enter Guild.
Given our experience with other incredible teams in the Learning and HR markets, including LinkedIn, Cornerstone OnDemand, Instructure, and Glint, we believe these market conditions create the perfect storm for a smart software platform.
The Guild solution is a game changer. Through Guild’s platform and marketplace, employers like Chipotle, Taco Bell, and KFC can offer their employees hand-picked degree options from vetted university programs, apply for grants, scholarships and corporate tuition assistance plans, and track ROI on student attendance and results. For employees, Guild centralizes and helps manage the necessary paperwork needed to apply for a degree program and pairs each student with a coach and mentor, eliminating the cumbersome process that often derails program adoption and graduation rates. Guild’s seamless platform and the team’s deep expertise and background in education has enabled it to become the gold standard in offering education as a benefit. Guild has the potential to be transformative for their employer customers, the employee students, and society more broadly.
A world-class team. Rachel Carlson, the founder & CEO of Guild brings a unique combination of Stanford GSB analytics and focus, empathy and passion that she honed in the Obama administration, and an entrepreneurial edge from working with multiple startups. Along with her co-founder Britt, they’ve attracted a super star team that we’re excited to join. Thanks to Britt, Chandler, Mae, Rachel, Jessica, Kendra, Terence, Chris and Zoe, as well as the great existing investors and advisors already involved, for allowing us to share this journey with you. It’s going to be fun!
Open Innovation Lead and Facilitator from the world of Product Design and Strategy.
7 年Olga Stroilova
Information Technology
7 年Earn 12% daily just invest dollar Please click the link: goo.gl/9dXLmJ
Former Texas Instruments/Former Microsoft/Current Emerson Electronics Commodity Manager
7 年An observation: this is a good idea (education has a permanent value), but perhaps the consideration of "learning and advancement through doing" has become a thing of the past. A good example of this was seen during my tenure at Texas Instruments; I knew MANY long time employees (15+ years of employment) who had worked their way up to senior levels through experience , not education. These were people who truly knew the "brick and mortar" of the business , and in the majority of cases, commanded "earned respect" from their knowledge base, not by the number or level of degrees they possessed . Their abilities were unmistakable , much as the corporate leader "of old" who started in the mailroom . There is a true value in mentoring from leadership , experience through work ethic and practice, and "on the job training". It seems, however, that the concept of "apprenticeship", regardless of career, has been left behind in favor of "abilities endowed through degree".
Working with growers in the Pacific Northwest, California, Arizona, Texas, and Florida
7 年Ryan Biancone
Inspire the Nation 2.0 | Follow Your passion
7 年It's Indeed a great Step to solve the Gap and I believe it will Rock in the US, Just to add on I Live in INDIA where the Problem is Much Bigger just To brief you about the Problem: India is a young country - by 2020 our average age will be 29. It is called demographic dividend. The problem is that our youth is in complete disarray in terms of their Career. Their thoughts about their career are propelled by their parents, relatives, friends, and society. The trend of becoming an engineer was set by a picture of the late 90s?when Indian engineers were in high demand overseas (USA, UK, Singapore, China etc). They were very good engineers while having very decent knowledge of their domain. Today every student wants to get success by choosing a good college & becoming an engineer. ? The irony is that in our country, 80% of the bank employees are engineers, 70% of the Management colleges are filled with Engineers. Most of the colleges?lack?in engaging the students?in their curriculum to develop an interest in their fields. Colleges just push students for getting good grades. Our current curriculum?was developed in 60s-70s. No attention is given to the overall development, new technologies, Research, Training & Placement. Hence colleges have become machines producing students will 'good grades'. ?Yet companies have a lot?of complaints regarding the effectiveness of these students.? The problem is huge and is a?threat to the stability of national?as India is becoming a country with a huge population of young people while most of them are unemployed or working in a totally different field compared to the one he/she has graduated in.