Meet KLY

Every idea is sparked with a problem. Ours was simple: finding mentors in college is hard and inefficient. It’s a lottery game. I was a student when I wanted to finally leave the finance industry and join the startup world. Considering I was at the #1 school of entrepreneurship, I figured it wouldn’t be hard to make this transition. Yet it was. It took time, applying to orgs, and a lot of cold outreach to finally feel like I had a good enough chance of interning for an early-stage startup. I asked my friends and colleagues for advice only to find out we were all in the same boat, we were amazed at how hard it was to find a quality mentor when we needed one the most.

I knew I could’ve done it without the help of a mentor, but I didn’t want to. I had experienced firsthand the results having a mentor provided when I was in the finance industry. Did you know those who have mentors are promoted 5x more often? It’s crazy — the power of mentorship is invaluable. I knew I would reach new levels of success if I had a mentor guide me through my transition, so I was frustrated to find out how difficult it was to find one.

It turns out there was a simple explanation for my frustration. I was lucky enough to have family friends in the finance industry and also be part of an exclusive finance scholar program that planned mentorship programs. This helped me when climbing the ladder of corporate finance, and so I thought it would be this easy in all industries. Then I realized, not everyone is as lucky. I was now doing what my friends had been doing forever: going through our school's outdated alumni directory, cross-referencing the individual we and their current job, and then cold outreaching through LinkedIn. It wasn’t efficient and simply took too much time. The other alternatives were paying for career coaches or micro consultants, but spare money is one of the biggest commodities students don’t have.

No other platforms existed to do this for free, I was shocked.

I knew I had to change this. And so KLY was born.

By leveraging a deep learning algorithm, KLY is a mentorship platform created to support all students and early-stage founders. We provide a trusted, data-driven solution for mentor-mentee quality connections to solve a specific need — all for free.

We believe that students and founders worthy of mentorship should receive this mentorship. By providing easier access to mentors that want to give back, we are all giving our piece to the future workforce and economy. 89% of mentees go to mentor someone themselves and contribute to a culture of learning. KLY serves as the first step towards a quality mentor-mentee relationship.

I was able to witness the impact of mentorship firsthand, and so it is now my mission, with KLY, to make sure everyone else is receiving it as well.

Join me on this mission by signing up for KLY and sharing with friends/family so everyone can feel the magic of mentorship.