Discussions about Hustle and Growth with Pathrise CEO and Founder Kevin Wu
In a recent interview, Pathrise CEO and founder Kevin Wu noted the need for building a “hustle” culture. In this context, he’s not talking about a side gig or working 100 hours a week but hustling to create a strategic approach to tackling business problems. It means finding pathways to success while managing limited resources. During this discussion, Mr. Wu talked about the current job market and the role Pathrise plays in getting top talent into tech industry employers.
Pathrise’s core offering combines mentorship, expert training, and advice that improves the odds for acquiring a top-tier technology job. It systematizes the job searching process, adding structure and proven techniques to improve the ways people find, interview for, and negotiate dream jobs.
Mr. Wu and the team recently secured $9 million in Series A funding to enable the firm to expand its offerings and grow its team. Finding the right investors required him to conduct research through Crunchbase and the Y Combinator database. They looked for certain investor parameters including fund size and typical portfolio, and eventually worked with Learn Capital to lead the round.
Mr. Wu developed the idea for Pathrise while participating in a Y Combinator program. He initially leaned towards another business idea with a partner but pivoted towards Pathrise to leverage his mentoring and career building experience. He paired with co-founder Derrick Mar to launch the company to reduce the randomness and occasional favoritism found in tech industry job searching. They knew some people such as minorities, international students, and those who attended state or community colleges were at a disadvantage to students from Ivy league and similar level institutions when it came to finding tech jobs. Pathrise is built to shorten this opportunity gap, and offer these groups enhanced access and preparedness for top-tier jobs.
Pathrise’s business model relies on income sharing between hired users and Pathrise that involves paying a reasonable fee during the first six months of employment. Mr. Wu says there’s a pressing need for his firm’s services, especially considering people spend 50 percent or more of their time engaged with their jobs, so finding the right company and role is tremendously important.
Author: James Daniel
photo/Gerd Altmann
