Getting into the tech world can be a hard feat, yet it makes the most in-demand career path. While it is not unheard of for people of non-traditional backgrounds to break into the tech world, most don’t have the right tools or directions to do so.

At least not until Ruben Harris, and brothers Timur and Artur Meyster decided to share their experiences and motivate others to follow their tech dreams with equal passion. To do that, the brothers created their podcast - Breaking into Startups - which later turned into a full-blown platform, Career Karma.

Career Karma is online and mobile software that connects training programs for job searchers who would like a change of career. Every month, the platform provides guidance and coaching for more than 1 million workers from their database, thus enriching it with over 9,000 trade schools and boot camps!

Below, read the story of how three people redefined the career paths of thousands of visionaries worldwide.

A Life Journey Begins

Ruben Harris was born in California and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Since he was a little kid, he had the entrepreneurial spirit and made money with whatever small job he could find - from mowing lawns to selling lemonade and candy, which he’d buy for 10 cents, and later resell it for 25.

Ever since he was little, Ruben was aware that mastering finances was an important skill to have, especially since he was interested in Investment Banking. But he also realized that most people, especially those in his surrounding, didn’t know how to acquire those skills at all. Although Ruben was aware that this type of knowledge and craft l was only available to a select few, that didn’t stop him from pursuing the skills he needed - wherever he could.

To sharpen up his skillset, Ruben started exp[loring Google, which then led him to a blog called Mergers and Inquisitions. Interestingly, the blog gave him all the information that he needed to pursue a career in investment banking. The blog soon launched its own program called “Breaking Into Wall Street” which would, later on, become the inspiration for Ruben’s very own Breaking into Startups blog.

Brothers Artur and Timur Meyster had similar upbringings and aspirations in life to Ruben. Like him, they both dreamed of becoming entrepreneurs as well and even pursued careers in finance before transitioning to the tech world. After reading numerous positive reviews about the fast-paced program, Artur went on to attend Hack Reactor and even secured a job in funding, where he ended up learning yet another programming language.

Timur, on the other hand, realized very early on that his finance degree would not be of much help to launch his own business. Instead, he decided to learn to program and make his own products. While he was no stranger to the tech world - given that he worked as a scrum master - Timur didn’t actually know how to code. To learn its art, Timur attended the App Academy and ultimately acquired all necessary skills to become a promising Full-stack developer.

The Breaking into Startups Podcast

Coming from similar backgrounds, the three men wanted to change their career paths and have done so successfully. Wanting to make knowledge more accessible for everyone else, too, Ruben decided to chronicle his move to San Francisco, where he found a job within three weeks of his arrival.

The blog was such a success and it went on to become a viral sensation, with waves of people messaging and asking Ruben for advice on how to make the necessary career switch. The response ultimately got so overwhelming, that Ruben and his two friends, Timur and Artur, decided to launch an educational podcast on the topic. So, in 2016, they created Breaking into Startups.

Aside from sharing their tips and professional challenges, the trio also decided to feature other people in their podcasts, especially those who came from non-traditional backgrounds and broke into tech. This way, the team was able to motivate and encourage many others to pursue their dreams and make the career shift they would be otherwise hesitant to make. Through the podcast, not only would they educate people on possible career paths, but also give them the resources to reskill accordingly.

Some of the prominent guests featured on the show included high-profile names like Gary Vee, Alexis Ohanian, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Young Guru, and many more. The podcast was such a success that it had a social media reach of over 3 million people, 200,000+ downloads, 10,000+ website visits, and even to be contributors on TechCrunch and Black Enterprise.

With such rising popularity, launching Career Karma in 2018 was the next logical step- and Ruben, Timur, and Artur were ready for the challenge!

Career Karma is Born

Career Karma launched in 2018. The idea behind it expanded on the basis of their podcast, Breaking into Startup. It was meant to be a platform that would be a valuable resource for anyone wanting to change their career path. Not only that, but the company also offered peer-to-peer support, mentorship, and guidance from people who were a few steps ahead of their peers.

Each month, the team of three provides guidance and coaching to over 1 million staffers, helping them manage their careers accordingly.

Impressively, Career Karma has a database of over 9,000 boot camps, professional schools, and training programs included in it. Additionally, it provides over 150,000 users from different backgrounds and occupations with free coaching and mentorship.

Road Bumps on the Path to Great Success

The road to success is never an easy one, and no one knows it better than Ruben, Timur, and Artur. While they enjoyed their platform’s initial virality and subsequent success, it took a while for them to actually get down to business. From their early days, their families have struggled financially, forcing the three starry-eyed boys to dream of bringing financial stability through their entrepreneurial spirit.

Once Career Karma came around, though still in its infant stage, the team’s application earlier sent to the 2018 YCombinator was, sadly, denied. While a major bump on the road for Ruben, Artur, and Timur, instead of slowing down, they used this drawback as motivation to work even harder and reach a point where no one would ever decline their proposal. So, in 2019 they decided to apply again to the YCombinator, and this time, accepted they were.

Still, the success they enjoyed in the company’s first two years of existence was nothing compared to what would happen once the unexpected Pandemic hit in 2020. For what it’s worth, no one could have predicted that the world would be thrown into lockdown and millions of people would lose their jobs.

But, it was also during this time that Career Karma truly flourished, as millions of Americans - forcefully thrust in a horrific predicament - were desperately looking for new jobs.

In December of 2020, Career Karma raised $10 million in A-series investment. Some of the investors include the biggest respective firms in the world like Opportunity Fund, Unshackled Ventures, Emerson Collective, and led investor Initialized Capital.

Investors aside, Career Karma also managed to raise over $500,000 in conjunction with Diversity & Inclusion leaders - and ended up giving away laptops to the most impacted communities and job seekers.

Career Karma, Today

Today, Career Karma continues to collect good karma points by providing over a million people globally with the proper resources to switch to a career in tech.

They’ve launched a campaign named Reskill America in conjunction with Kapor Center which is successful in helping impacted communities, women, and people of color, find their spot under the Tech sky.

These self-dubbed “Disruptors for Good” are already named among the most impactful startups of the 2020s and if they continue to scale, they’ll change the career game for generations to come.

From where the world is standing right about now, positive career karma - pun intended - is just the breath of fresh air future professionals needed!