In The News
With the cost of a college degree ranging from $60,000 for a state university to four times as much at some private schools, and the total student debt in the United States now topping credit card debt, student loans are familiar to most. “Tuition has increased twelve-fold in the past thirty years, average debt per graduate has tripled in twenty years, and more than fifty percent of college students are unable to find a job after graduation, with many more in jobs that don’t require the degree they paid for,” explains Adrien Fraise, founder and CEO of online career mentoring program Modern Guild. “This is unacceptable. Students and parents expect a return on their college investment. Students deserve more tangible, career-focused outcomes for themselves, and schools need to show students how to connect academics with careers.”
Five years since the financial crisis, New York City has blossomed into a startup magnet. (Please see related story, “Big Ideas in the Big Apple.”) Thanks to an influx of capital and entrepreneurial resources, the Big Apple has seen a rise of new ventures spanning a host of industries. Many have been born in the city’s accelerators and incubators. Still others have benefitted from New York’s tech-savvy labor pool. Here’s a look at some upstarts groomed in New York’s fast-paced business community.
New York City is continuing to make its mark in the startup community. In the last year, big-name companies spent $8.3 billion on mergers and acquisition deals in 100 New York-based startups, according to a recent report by PrivCo. That tally put New York right behind the heart of the tech industry, Silicon Valley, where 226 deals totaled $21.5 billion. After speaking with VCs and entrepreneurs, and scoping out AngelList, we selected 25 early stage startups that are generating a lot of buzz in the tech community.
Modern Guild offers college students and high school seniors an online career coaching program that features intensive career preparation courses taught by real-world professionals and trained coaches in online one-on-one settings. The site offers three services: (1) one-on-one mentoring from professional career coaches and industry professionals, (2) three different levels of career prep courses, and (3) an online platform over which all of the coaching and exercises take place.
modern guild, the online career coach for college and college-bound students, today announced the closing of a $500,000 seed round. This follows the modern guild's successful 100-student, 10-campus pilot program in December 2012, and the closing of its first open application period, during which it received close to 4,000 applications for just 50 available slots. modern guild addresses the fundamental disconnect between college academics and career education, one that results in students who are unprepared for life after graduation and employers who struggle to find highly engaged, perfectly suited talent for open positions.
High school students spend a lot of time trying to get into their dream schools but are often clueless about how to make the most of the college experience. Likewise, most college students don’t have a great grasp on how to parlay their education into a fitting career. Enter Modern Guild, an online mentor program that connects high school and college students with career coaches and professionals working in the real world.
In many ways, New York was ground zero for the 2008 financial crisis. Historic firms like Lehman Brothers collapsed, thousands lost jobs on Wall Street, and the city's storied stock exchange suffered a lasting downturn...And in New York City in particular, “there’s so much intellectual capital,” adds Adrien Fraise, a former consultant who founded online mentoring company Modern Guild in early 2012. “You have more and more folks with real-world experience and different backgrounds actively choosing to go the startup route.”
A 21st-century career preparation firm delivers an old and tested model in a new way. Adrien Fraise wantedto build a “better fusion between academics and career education to help students maximize their generalist education for future career success,” as he puts it. His company, modern guild, helps to bridge a chasm in the U.S. “generalist” education system: the lack of a meaningful connection between academics and career education.
modern guild, the online career coach for college and college-bound students, has announced the closing of a $500,000 seed round from a handful of angel investors, including Jawbone Co-founder Alex Asseily.. This follows the modern guild’s 100-student, 10-campus pilot program in December 2012, and the closing of its first open application period, during which it received close to 4,000 applications for just 50 available slots.
Backed by the founders of Jawbone and others in education, entrepreneurship and career readiness, New York-based Modern Guild aims to connect college students with professionals for fee-based online career readiness courses.
