Pathbrite

About Pathbrite

Pathbrite operated as a venture-backed, cloud-based e-portfolio platform headquartered in San Francisco. The company was founded by Heather Hiles, who brought over 20 years of experience in education, workforce development, and finance to the venture. Her background includes an MBA in Finance and Strategic Planning from Yale University, a BA from UC Berkeley, and leadership roles at organizations like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the San Francisco Unified School District, reflecting a deep-seated commitment to improving educational and career outcomes. Hiles established Pathbrite in 2012, aiming to move beyond traditional resumes and transcripts.

The business provided a platform for students and professionals to collect, organize, and showcase their work and accomplishments. Clients primarily consisted of K-20 educational institutions, including universities like Stanford and the University of Illinois, with the platform reaching users at over 900 institutions by 2015. The business model focused on institutional site licenses, allowing educators to create learning paths and assessment tools for students. For individual users, the service was initially priced at $10 per year while being free for faculty.

Pathbrite's platform allowed users to create multifaceted digital portfolios, importing artifacts like documents, videos, and projects from various sources including their computer or cloud storage. This enabled them to document their learning journey and demonstrate skills and competencies to potential employers or for academic requirements. A key feature was the ability for educators to create course-specific portfolio templates and manage student submissions through a dashboard. The platform also integrated with Learning Management Systems (LMS) like Pearson's LearningStudio. After raising a total of $11.8M in funding from investors such as Cengage Learning and ACT, Pathbrite was acquired by Cengage in October 2015 for an undisclosed amount, with the majority of the team joining the acquiring company.