College and career facts
To make smart, informed decisions about their future, students need the truth on what it takes to succeed today and which schools, majors, and paths align with their goals.
About Backrs
About us
We're a collection of business and educational leaders, community builders, researchers, engineers, and creators who are devoted to student success.
Our Mission
We're closing the education-to-employment gap
Backrs was created to ensure every young person across the country has what they need to succeed in school, work, and life:
A personalized plan
With clarified goals and direction, students can focus their energy on the actions they need to take to make their aspirations a reality.
Insight into their trajectory
Students can be agents of their own success story when they know whether they're on track to reach their career and life goals, why or why not, and what they can do to change that.
Expert coaching
Every student deserves access to the personalized coaching they need to turn their aspirations into plans and their plans into actions, habits, and results they're excited about.
Social capital
The single biggest predictor of economic mobility is social capital. We support students in building and expanding strong, multifaceted networks that will help them succeed.
Marginal cash
We give qualifying students in our Scholars program Flourish Fund stipends to enable them to buy textbooks, pay extracurricular dues, and persist in college.
Our Principles
A new north star: Life readiness
The education-to-employment system is failing students, especially those who are under-resourced
3%
Only 3% of high-performing, under-resourced students end up in jobs that position them for upward mobility.
52%
52% of college grads end up in jobs that don't require a college degree.
25%
Nearly a quarter of bachelor's degree programs have a negative ROI.
88%
88% of employers say college graduates from the last three years are less prepared for the workforce than in years prior.
To empower students to achieve their aspirations in today's economy, we need to focus on helping them become life ready:
Aspirations
Build each student's college and career plan backwards from the life they want in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.
Options
Keep doors open for students by focusing on career tracks first, then career paths. What are career tracks?
Outcomes
Evaluate schools, majors, programs, and paths by the outcomes they actually produce: earnings, mobility, and job placement.
Whole-Person
Provide support across all four unlocks of success: academic excellence, life-ready skills, real-world experience, and relationships.
The education-to-employment system is failing students, especially those who are under-resourced
To empower students to achieve their aspirations in today's economy, we need to focus on helping them become life ready:
3%
Only 3% of high-performing, under-resourced students end up in jobs that position them for upward mobility.
Aspirations
Build each student's college and career plan backwards from the life they want in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.
52%
52% of college grads end up in jobs that don't require a college degree.
Options
Keep doors open for students by focusing on career tracks first, then career paths. What are career tracks?
25%
Nearly a quarter of bachelor's degree programs have a negative ROI.
Outcomes
Evaluate schools, majors, programs, and paths by the outcomes they actually produce: earnings, mobility, and job placement.
88%
88% of employers say college graduates from the last three years are less prepared for the workforce than in years prior.
Whole-Person
Provide support across all four unlocks of success: academic excellence, life-ready skills, real-world experience, and relationships.
Advisors
Meet our advisors
Taylor McLemore
- Led workforce development at Techstars
- Human Potential Summit Creator
- COO at Tilt
Jerome Guillen
- Multiple CXO positions at Tesla during rapid growth
- Scaled Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y production
- Investor and entrepreneur across industries and technologies
Julia Freeland Fisher
- Director of Education at Christensen Institute
- World-class expert and researcher in social capital
- Author of "Who You Know: Unlocking Innovations That Expand Students'"
Tim Welsh
- Former Vice Chair, Consumer and Business Banking (CBB), at U.S. Bank
- Former Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company and member of Board of Directors
- Co-founder Itasca Project, an employer-led civic alliance
Our Team
Meet the team
Tom Latkovic
Co-Founder and Co-CEO
Molly Wallace
Design Leader
Andy Bobowski
Co-Founder and Co-CEO
Storm O'Bryant
Engineering
Steve Latkovic
Co-founder, Chief Backr – Finance
Andrew Richards
Engineering Leader
Gabriella Stroplos
Community Leader
Shelene Baiyee
Community Manager
Benjamin Maldonado
Chief Operating Officer
Zach Gousseau
Staff Software Engineer
Courtney Kelly
Marketing Lead
Aron Racho
Contributor – Engineering
Dustin Herboldshimer
Contributor – Engineering
Adam Smith
Success Coach
Yasmin Abdulhadi
Success Coach
Annie Lux
Success Coach
Ariana Moore
Success Coach
Xavier Nonez
Success Coach
Faithful Oluwakuyide
Success Coach
Gia Tejeda
Success Coach
Jordan Fessehaie
Success Coach
Joshua Quaye
Success Coach
Kate Mazurek
Success Coach
Kristina Zhang
Success Coach
London Leonard
Success Coach
Posi Oluwakuyide
Success Coach
Ryan Everett
Success Coach
Waseem Thabata
Success Coach
Dwayne Morgan
Success Coach
Xavier Shackelford
Success Coach
Alexandria Parris
Success Coach