Steppingblocks - Comprehensive Analysis Report

Summary

Steppingblocks is a big data analytics company, founded in 2015, dedicated to bridging the information gap within the education and workforce ecosystem. Its mission is to empower students and job seekers with the data and insights necessary to navigate their career paths successfully, ultimately leveling the playing field in career decision-making. The company plays a significant role in its industry by providing data-driven tools that promote career readiness and institutional success for both individuals and educational institutions.

1. Strategic Focus & Objectives

Core Objectives

Steppingblocks' main business objectives include promoting career readiness for students and fostering institutional success for universities. This involves equipping individuals with the knowledge to make informed career choices and providing educational institutions with data to improve outcomes.

Specialization Areas

The company specializes in delivering insights into labor market dynamics, education outcomes, and demographic trends. Its unique value proposition lies in leveraging advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze professional career options, including detailed information on student loans and payback periods, based on specific degrees or job titles.

Target Markets

Steppingblocks primarily targets students, job seekers, educators, and employers. Its market positioning strategy focuses on offering data-driven tools that simplify education and career planning.

2. Financial Overview

Funding History

Steppingblocks has raised a total of $7 million in funding. The most recent significant funding event was a Series A round of $5.75 million on September 21, 2023. This round occurred while the company was already generating revenue. An earlier report indicated that as of June 22, 2025, Steppingblocks had raised $1.5 million across three funding rounds, which included one early-stage round and two grant rounds, with its largest prior funding round identified as a Series A in July 2017. Another source indicated $750,000 raised over one funding round. America's Seed Fund is a key institutional investor, with its first investment occurring on January 15, 2018, as part of a Grant round.

3. Product Pipeline

Key Products/Services

• Digital Career Counselor: A tool designed for career exploration. It utilizes a dataset of over 100 million real career paths, 25 million employer data profiles, and more than 21,000 job skills to help individuals explore career options. It also includes a 20-question personality assessment to match unique traits with career targets, providing a 16-page personalized report.

• Graduate Outcomes: Provides interactive reports on the success of graduates 5, 10, and 20 years after graduation. This tool aggregates public and private data sources to offer insights into alumni success.

• Graduate Explorer: This tool assists in institutional research, allowing universities to understand the career trajectories of their alumni.

• AlumLink: Designed for alumni relations, this product supports engagement and fundraising initiatives by providing data on alumni success.

These products are currently in use by educational institutions and individuals, supporting career exploration, alumni relations, institutional research, and student success initiatives.

4. Technology & Innovation

Technology Stack

Steppingblocks operates as a big data analytics company employing advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence to yield workforce and education insights.

Proprietary Developments

The company’s platform is designed to analyze various professional career paths based on degrees or job titles, also providing information on student loans and their payback periods. It aggregates both public and private data sources to deliver interactive reports on graduate outcomes, illustrating success 5, 10, and 20 years post-graduation. The Digital Career Counselor, a key tool, relies on a dataset comprising over 100 million actual career paths, 25 million employer data profiles, and more than 21,000 job skills.

Scientific Methodologies

Steppingblocks utilizes big data, machine learning, and AI to transform billions of data points into actionable insights for career exploration. A distinctive feature is a 20-question personality assessment that matches individual traits to career targets, culminating in a comprehensive 16-page personality report.

Technical Capabilities

The company boasts a patented analysis process designed to offer universities easy-to-understand metrics regarding graduate success, showcasing its robust intellectual property in data analysis.

5. Leadership & Management

Executive Team

• Rob Gannaway: Co-Founder & CEO.

• Carlo Martinez: Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer. Martinez is noted for recognizing the critical need for data-driven tools to assist college students in making informed career decisions. He is also identified as the CEO by one source.

• Jakub Kovar: Chief Technology Officer.

• Jacob Bonne, Ed. D. : Partner Success Director and a member of the support team.

• Anna-Bradley Schoenfeld, Ed. D.: Member of the support team.

Recent Leadership Changes

No specific recent leadership changes were detailed in the provided information beyond the existing team structure.

6. Talent and Growth Indicators

Hiring Trends and Workforce

Steppingblocks currently maintains a workforce of approximately 21-50 employees. The company is actively recruiting for key roles such as Partner Success Associate, which focuses on delivering exceptional partner support throughout onboarding, training, problem resolution, and renewals.

Company Growth Trajectory Indicators

The company emphasizes transforming individuals' career and educational journeys by providing insights into labor market dynamics, education outcomes, and demographic trends. Steppingblocks leverages its data and interactive visualizations to support career readiness initiatives, student success, accreditation, assessment, and enrollment management for its higher education partners across the United States. This strategic focus on higher education partnerships indicates a clear growth trajectory. The company offers competitive benefits, including medical, dental, and vision insurance with generous contributions, a flexible remote work environment with a technology stipend, continuing education stipends, a 401K, and unlimited PTO, which supports talent attraction and retention.

7. Social Media Presence and Engagement

Digital Footprint

Steppingblocks maintains an active presence across various social media channels, utilizing them to disseminate its brand messaging and engage with its audience. The company offers "Steppinghacks" to guide content creation for social media, often recommending tools like Canva.

Community Engagement Strategies

Social media is leveraged for hyper-focused, automated messaging in campaigns, particularly for alumni engagement and fundraising. Steppingblocks’ communication strategy highlights its commitment to providing data-driven insights through educational content such as the "DataU Podcast," case studies, interviews, blog stories, tools, guides, and eBooks.

8. Recognition and Awards

Industry Recognition

The provided information does not detail any specific awards or accolades received by Steppingblocks.

9. Competitive Analysis

Major Competitors

Steppingblocks competes within the education technology and IT services sectors. Key competitors and alternative solutions include:

• IT Services/Analytics Platforms: Big Nerd Ranch, Rural Sourcing, Gather Technologies, Microsoft Power BI, Google Analytics 360, Tableau, Zoho Analytics, Domo, XLSTAT, ATLAS.ti, Displayr, Pulsar, Grow, Reportei, Vesper, NewsData.io, Hermix, and TrackBee.

• Career Center Software: PeopleGrove, Handshake for Educational Providers, Board Infinity, Anthology Encompass, Interfolio Dossier, Ellucian Banner, Hivebrite, Cynaptx, and Outcome Campus Connect.

• Specialized Workforce Data: Public Insight, which also focuses on job market data and talent analytics.

10. Market Analysis

Market Overview

The market for education technology and workforce analytics is experiencing significant growth, driven by an increasing demand for data-driven career guidance and heightened institutional effectiveness. Steppingblocks addresses a crucial market gap: only 11% of employers express strong Agreement that graduates are adequately prepared for the workforce, citing a widening skills gap, lack of collaboration, and knowledge deficit.

Growth Potential

Universities are increasingly prioritizing student success and career outcomes, fostering a rising demand for tools that can pinpoint talent gaps, support skills development, and enhance student engagement. The market also places importance on demonstrating the return on investment for education and connecting academic programs directly to tangible employment opportunities.

Key Market Trends

Accreditation bodies and state agencies are increasingly mandating that universities strengthen their data and reporting capabilities. This shift moves beyond traditional first-destination surveys to a requirement for comprehensive graduate insights. This trend fuels the demand for platforms capable of generating data on program and institutional outcomes, meeting performance funding metrics, and facilitating skills-based reporting.

Market Challenges and Opportunities

The primary challenge is the persistent skills gap and the perceived lack of workforce preparedness among graduates. This creates an opportunity for Steppingblocks to provide solutions that bridge this gap by offering robust data linking academic programs to labor market demands, ultimately enhancing student career readiness and institutional accountability.

11. Strategic Partnerships

Steppingblocks leverages significant partnerships with numerous universities and educational institutions to implement its data-driven tools.

• University Collaborations: Partners include the University of Maryland Global Campus, Georgia State University, Florida International University, The University of Memphis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Kennesaw State University, Clemson University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Columbus State University, Virginia Tech, Northern Illinois University, Georgia Highlands College, The University of Alabama, and Marshall University. These institutions utilize Steppingblocks' platforms for diverse purposes, such as career readiness initiatives, student success, curriculum adjustments, program assessment, and alumni engagement.

• Institute for Research on Innovation and Science (IRIS): Steppingblocks collaborated with IRIS to quantify the impact of research spending by extracting insights from education and workforce data.

• National Institute for Student Success (NISS): In collaboration with NISS, Steppingblocks released an ebook providing guidance on launching successful Student Success programs at universities.

12. Operational Insights

Steppingblocks distinguishes itself from competitors through its comprehensive data and analytics engine, which provides workforce and educational outcome insights on over 100 million individuals in the United States. Its platforms, including the Digital Career Counselor and Graduate Outcomes, are tailored for various campus roles such as Career Services, Institutional Research, and Advancement. The company effectively assists universities in tackling challenges like student workforce preparedness, the existing skills gap, and the imperative for robust data for accreditation and reporting purposes. By integrating data-driven insights into academic and career planning, Steppingblocks secures a competitive advantage in a market that increasingly demands real-world outcomes and accountability. Its capability to generate granular data on alumni earnings, employer trends, and in-demand skills enables partner institutions to make informed strategic decisions and adapt their offerings to meet market needs.

13. Future Outlook

Strategic Roadmap

Steppingblocks' strategic roadmap is firmly centered on continuous innovation in data analytics for education and career development. The company aims to empower both individuals and institutions by continuously expanding its suite of data-driven tools and insights.

Growth Strategies

Significant opportunities for expansion lie in deepening its integration with universities to support a broader range of campus initiatives, spanning from student recruitment and retention to alumni fundraising and program development. By continuously refining its machine learning and AI capabilities, Steppingblocks can further enhance the accuracy and scope of its career and workforce insights.

Expansion Opportunities

Future directions include further assisting universities in making data-informed adjustments to curriculum to address skills gaps and align graduates more effectively with local and national employer needs.

Future Challenges and Mitigation Strategies

A key challenge will be keeping pace with the rapidly evolving labor market and educational landscape to ensure the relevance and accuracy of its data and insights. Mitigation will involve continuous investment in its proprietary technologies and maintaining strong partnerships with both educational institutions and industry to stay ahead of emerging trends and skill requirements. The company’s commitment to providing actionable graduate outcomes data aims to prove and improve the value of a degree, positioning it as a key partner for institutions striving for student and institutional success in a dynamic labor market.