Got Skills? Career Karma’s Education Revolution Story

In light of one of our portfolio companies, Career Karma’s, $40M Series B announcement, Chingona Ventures is reflecting on why we saw their platform as a revolution in the education space.

The Story

The World Economic Forum predicts that 1 billion people will need new skills by 2030 to meet the impact that technology will have on their jobs down the road. This imminent demand for upskilling is being met by the rise of more than 9000 training programs (think bootcamps, coding schools, trade schools, and online classes) ready to upskill workers for their next gig (Source: IBIS World).

We no longer live in the one-job-for-life society that older generations before are accustomed to. Today, the average worker switches jobs every 4.1 years according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and jobs are adapting faster than ever to changes in technology. Your degree no longer defines your career trajectory so long as you have the desire and will to learn something new. We now live in a world with seemingly unlimited options for education, from traditional universities to part time bootcamps to trade schools. These options can better fit the needs and demands of many aspiring career changers and lifelong learners. From a full-time working parent to a recent college grad to a sales associate, there are training programs that can suit each person’s unique combination of needs.

However, for people looking to prepare themselves for careers in tech specifically, the options for skills training are overwhelming and the process to achieving the upskilling goal can be daunting. That’s where Career Karma comes in. Career Karma, founded in 2018 by Artur Meyster, Timur Meyster, and Ruben Harris, aims “to connect the World’s talent to their next opportunity.”

Career Karma is on a quest to “help 1 billion people navigate their careers” by:

• Helping workers choose which career path is best for them
• Discovering, evaluating, and preparing for job training programs
• Finding a job
• Connecting candidates with coaches, mentors, and a community of peers and alumni to support and give advice

At the same time, training programs are spending $4k — 8k to enroll each student, but Career Karma can find qualified candidates for a fraction of the price, making Career Karma an advantageous partner for programs looking to fill their classes. Career Karma is successfully connecting workers eager to learn with educators, filling a niche gap in the education space.

Career Karma was born after its founders struggled to switch careers into the technology world from non-traditional backgrounds: “Career Karma is the product [they] wish [they] had when breaking into tech.” The founders’ firsthand experience with the upskilling market gives them an unfair advantage in empathizing with their customers and helping them build a platform that will best suit the needs of people looking to change their career trajectory.

While Career Karma helps any and all workers gain new skills, a large majority of the platform’s users are women, people of color, and workers from non-traditional backgrounds. Career Karma works to match jobseekers to training programs based on time commitment, career interest, financial situation, and level of expertise among other considerations. This tailored approach to matching makes skills training more affordable and accessible to all. Career Karma’s product is helping to level the opportunity gap by connecting workers with the skills they need to increase “their earning potential and career security.” This business is not only lucrative from both a market need and unit economics perspective, but the do-good emphasis of helping the overlooked population of workers looking to better their futures is exactly what Chingona Ventures emphasizes. We are proud to be an early investor in Career Karma and excited for this new round of funding to accelerate their growth.