KeyVoid / FORGE Startup Residency
A founder story around purpose-driven career clarity, student support, venture building, funding, and the roots of Advisor AI / PathWise.
- ↗ Built KeyVoid around purpose, career exploration, study-abroad support, and interview readiness
- ↗ Participated in FORGE startup residency, venture workshops, pitch critiques, and customer discovery
- ↗ Used startup work to evolve toward Advisor AI and PathWise
- ↗ Kept broader funding-total language conservative until all public figures are reconciled
Overview
KeyVoid is the founder journey that shaped much of my later work. It began with a broad mission around purpose, student support, study-abroad guidance, and interview readiness. Over time, the strongest direction became clearer: helping students make better career and academic decisions.
That evolution eventually led toward Advisor AI and PathWise.
The problem
Many students are asked to make major life decisions before they have enough clarity. They face pressure around majors, careers, study abroad, visas, interviews, and personal direction, but often lack a system that connects who they are with what they can do next.
My role
As CEO and co-founder, I worked across product strategy, customer discovery, content, startup programming, hiring experiments, pitch preparation, and early product development.
FORGE and venture development
Through Startup Wildcats / FORGE, I worked on problem discovery, business model development, MVP planning, pitch critique, and founder roundtables. That environment helped turn a broad idea into sharper product experiments.
Shark Pit and Advisor AI
At the SME Tucson Shark Pit Innovation Pitch Competition, I pitched Advisor AI as a career and major recommender for students, especially in mining and STEM pathways. The pitch placed 2nd and received $4,000 in prize funding.
What I learned
A startup can begin with a big mission, but it only becomes real when it finds a painful, specific problem. KeyVoid taught me how to move from inspiration to product direction, and from “purpose” as a slogan to purpose as a system that can guide decisions.
PM / APM interview story
Situation: Students needed better support navigating career, major, and life-direction decisions.
Task: Build a startup direction around career clarity, purpose, and AI-supported guidance.
Action: I developed the KeyVoid concept, participated in FORGE startup programming, built early product strategy, pitched Advisor AI, and refined the direction toward PathWise.
Result: The journey produced early venture traction, a Shark Pit award, and the foundation for a more focused AI advising product.
Note on funding language
Some internal/resume materials reference broader funding totals across KeyVoid/FORGE-related milestones. This public case study uses the clearly stated $4,000 Shark Pit award until the full combined amount is verified and documented consistently.