CareerX

Powered by NCEE and Britebound™

An Accelerator Advancing the Future of Career Pathways

NCEE dots

CareerX

Powered by NCEE and Britebound™

An Accelerator Advancing the Future of Career Pathways

NCEE dots
CareerX Britebound NCEE

CareerX is a new accelerator program advancing the next generation of solutions that prepare young people and adults for life and work. We bring together bold entrepreneurs and education leaders to test, deploy, and scale technologies that make career pathways to meaningful work more visible, navigable, and equitable.

Powered by NCEE and Britebound, CareerX is grounded in a shared conviction: preparing learners for the future of work requires durable partnerships between educators, innovators, and employers—aligned around real-world outcomes, not siloed systems.

Who We’re Looking For

We’re looking for late-seed and Series A startups developing breakthrough technologies that expand access to career pathways for young people and adults. We welcome applicants with solutions that serve educators and learners, open doors to careers, and strengthen learning across four domains essential to life and work:

Core Skills: The core academic foundation and interdisciplinary fluency to solve complex problems and apply learning in new contexts

Contemporary Skills: Skills that provide the foundation for success across a lifetime of professional and technological evolutions

Habits of Learning and Well-Being: The mindsets and practices that support life-long learning, personal fulfillment and well-being

Community Skills: Skills to engage responsibly, ethically, and empathetically in the civic and social life of communities and the world at large

Why Apply?

Better understand the school partnership decision-making process: Work directly with NCEE’s Expert Educators—superintendents, principals, and postsecondary leaders—to understand how priorities are set and how solutions are actually adopted, implemented and sustained.

De-risk and accelerate partnerships: Learn how education leaders evaluate solutions and move from pilot to systemwide adoption to build repeatable, scalable partnerships.

Access a curated peer and partner network: Learn alongside similarly staged companies from Britebound’s ecosystem and connect to a national network of education leaders aligned around future readiness.

Build trusted relationships with decisionmakers: Form early, durable relationships with education leaders actively seeking high quality, evidence informed innovations.

The CareerX Advantage

CareerX is purpose-built for relationship building with education systems. The program does not focus on fundraising, does not take equity, and does not charge participation fees. Most sessions are virtual, with two in-person convenings and optional networking opportunities. Sessions are tailored to each cohort, ensuring targeted support where it matters most.

Participants join NCEE & Britebound’s far-reaching networks of education innovators, such as district and postsecondary leaders, technology adoption decision makers, and nonprofit partners — all working to design the next era of learning.

Schedule:

Program Schedule:

San Diego: April 13 – ASU-GSV reception (optional)
Boston: April 23 – evening reception, April 24 – full day event (mandatory)
DC: June 11 – evening reception, June 12 – full day event (mandatory)
Orlando: end of June – reception at ISTE (optional)
Four virtual roundtables (~1 hour each) between April-July 2026 (mandatory)

Virtual Sessions:

Participants join several interactive virtual sessions, working directly with NCEE’s Expert Educators through roundtables, small-group discussions, and one-on-one conversations. Startups will share their solutions for educator feedback, learn how education leaders make decisions, explore implementation challenges, understand impact measurement, and navigate the policies and processes required to scale in education systems.

Two In-Person Convenings:

Two in-person Accelerator Days bring together Expert Educators, startup founders, and a broader network of school leaders and community partners. Each company will also have at least one opportunity to showcase its work at a curated networking event.

Company Selection Criteria

CareerX seeks mission-aligned companies ready to scale their impact in education.

  • Company Stage: Late seed or Series A (Nonprofits are also welcome to apply if they meet the selection criteria.)
  • Revenue: Companies with longer track records and more ARR will have a higher chance of being selected.
  • Focus Areas: Solutions that are advancing career-connected learning — building core academic skills, contemporary skills, habits of learning and well-being, community skills, and/or help young people and adults have meaningful careers. Companies whose solutions help leaders create the conditions for career-connected learning and provide career access for adults will also be considered.
  • Location: Companies may be based anywhere globally; must have at least some existing revenue earned within the United States.
  • Participation: At least one C-suite leader must commit to full participation from April – July 2026.

We are looking for companies that have achieved product-market fit, provide high-quality solutions, are generating revenue as evidence of stability, and are eager to deepen their understanding of how to scale their impact in the education ecosystem. Selected startups will benefit from direct connection with principals, superintendents, and education leaders.

Learn More

Questions? Please email Marissa Lowman.

If you are an education leader who is interested in joining this work as an Expert Educator to mentor and collaborate with the career-connected learning companies in CareerX, please email Leah Moschella to learn more.

Program Alumni

Expert Educators 2024-25

California

Sehrish Anjum
Senior Program Specialist
California Collaborative for Educational Excellence

Dr. Gudiel Crosthwaite
Superintendent
Sunnyvale School District

Josh Way
Principal
Carlsbad Unified School District

Jerry Almendarez
Former Superintendent
Santa Ana Unified School District

Florida

Dr. Michael George
Principal
Duval County Public Schools

Mississippi

Chris Chism
Superintendent
Pearl Public School District

Glen East
Superintendent
Gulf Port School District

John Ferrell
Chief of School and District Transformation
Mississippi Department of Education

Nevada

Jhone M. Ebert
Superintendent
Clark County School District

Dr. Adam Young
Superintendent
White Pine County School District

Massachusetts

Evelyn Larose
Science Program Director
Boston Public Schools

New York

Stephanie Powell
Instructional Coach: ENL Districtwide
Suffern Central School District

North Dakota

Dr. Cory Steiner
Superintendent, Fargo Public Schools – North Dakota
Former Superintendent, Northern Cass School District

Texas

Dr. Gilbert Hicks
Former Deputy Superintendent
Austin Independent School District

Slide: We are NCEE

“Being part of NCEE’s first cohort of edtech companies has been game-changing. Our goal as edtech innovators is to create solutions that are impactful for learners and that make teachers’ lives easier. The NCEE program helped us connect directly with district leaders, better understand their challenges, and shape our offerings to be more impactful. Our partnership with NCEE has opened doors to valuable feedback, authentic conversations, and real opportunities to grow.”

—Dora Palfi, Founder of imagi

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Frequently Asked Questions

The purpose of CareerX is to accelerate growth for career pathways startups with some traction and revenue by connecting them to a curated group of Expert Educators. Startups will build strong relationships with educators who have decision making power (i.e. school principals, superintendents, community college leaders, etc.). The program also offers the opportunity to learn from other founders at a similar growth stage. The program does not focus on fundraising or take equity.

The program is powered by NCEE and Britebound.

NCEE is a “think and do tank” that works with partners to design future-forward education and workforce development systems. We work deeply in states — bringing stakeholders across perspectives, geographies, sectors, and roles to design and enact forward-learning policies, in career pathways related to AI, K-12 career connected learning, educator professional development, and more. We then connect state policy work with district and school change to impact students – through our National Institute for School Leadership program, district/school co-design efforts, and Educurious curriculum.

Britebound is a national nonprofit dedicated to changing how young people see themselves and their futures through access to career-focused information, resources, and experiences. We inspire young people to explore their passions, experiment with career pathways, and navigate a path to a meaningful and rewarding future. Every learner deserves early access to experiences that make education and career decisions more informed and empowering. We believe career exploration and skill-building should begin in middle school and be integrated throughout their journey—not siloed at the end.

The program runs from April through July 2026. There are 2 mandatory in-person events: April 23 (reception only)-April 24 (all day) in Boston and June 11 (reception only)-June 12 (all day) in Washington, DC. There are also ~4 virtual roundtables that founders are required to attend as well (~1 hour each). In addition, there will be several optional networking opportunities with a larger community of educators and ecosystem players, including a reception at ASU-GSV on April 13.

The program will be focused on customer and partnership development. It will include a mix of guest speakers (including Jason Palmer, Senior Advisor), peer learning sessions, and in-depth discussions and interactions with Expert Educators who have decisionmaking power within their school or district. 

Expert Educators are state and district leaders, as well as community college leaders with decision making power. They will come from all over the US and represent some of the largest districts in the US, including CA and TX. 

At least one founder or C-suite person at each company is required to attend all of the events listed above. There are no additional time commitments beyond providing quarterly impact metrics twice. We will train the founders on how to collect impact metrics.

We do not take equity or charge founders to participate. Founders are required to pay for their own travel expenses to the two in-person events in DC and Boston and any optional networking events they choose to participate in. We will provide breakfast and lunch for the full-day events. 

We will select around 12 companies to participate in the cohort. Some of the companies will be from Britebound’s portfolio.

Yes, non-profits are welcome to apply as long as they meet the revenue requirements. Note: for non-profits, this could be grant funding raised in lieu of revenue.

Yes, international companies are welcome to apply, but they must already have at least some traction in the United States.

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