I got interested in startups and what is called venture capital, which are the money and people that help startups grow.

I was fascinated by entrepreneurs and their passion, resilience, and willingness to bet on both themselves and their beliefs, despite most people saying not to.

This inspired me to “bet on myself” and create a startup to solve a problem I was passionate about.

I’ve always been passionate about education, so I started researching what people were saying about problems in education.

One of the things that kept coming up was college and the student debt burden.

So I started to look into why issues around college and the student debt burden were happening.

I then discovered a problem.

I talked to teens about how they were preparing for life after school, and how they felt.

“No one asks me these types of questions.”

Confused, I said - what do you mean?

I learned that many students lacked direction, and didn’t know where to start or how to find it.

Many were stressed and overwhelmed when thinking about their career, and felt pressured to have it “figured out.”

But they weren’t being taught “how” to “figure it out.”

Everything was mainly focused on college, not career, prep.

Meaning teens needed help getting to know who they are, and what that meant for their career - college or not.

So I created PathSpark because I thought we could do better for more teens, and also our wonderful educators.

I learned about AI, and an idea came for a huge change to PathSpark.

There was an incredible opportunity to make self-reflection, career exploration, and planning fun, interactive, and personalized.

I then built a new version and had 41 students across the U.S. demo and share feedback.

Feedback from students was incredible and validated that I was on to something, so I doubled down and used that feedback to make it even better.

In all honesty, I am crazy excited for what's next and sincerely appreciate your interest.

Best,

Bryan Besecker