About Fidelis
Fidelis is a venture-funded technology company backed by Accel Partners, Novak Biddle, OATV, and Kapor Capital. The company was established and funded in 2011 to solve a complex and persistent problem: the military to civilian career transition is harder than it should be. As we write this, veteran unemployment is at 20% for vets of Iraq and Afghanistan, while underemployment for that group stands at 50%; approximately 75% of veterans who begin some kind of post-secondary education do not graduate. Fidelis was founded by a former military officer, and our employees come from the ranks of the military, both officer and enlisted, so we understand the problem more acutely than most. We believe that the military does a phenomenal job of preparing its labor force for its needs, but that soldiers need to retool in order to succeed in a civilian industrial context. We need to learn to work in networks in addition to chains of command. We need to build new skills. We need to recast our talents towards new objectives. We think that the military turns out great raw material that has qualities that the civilian industry needs: leadership, teamwork, and grit. Nevertheless, we need to reinvent ourselves for civilian industry.
Mission
To build a scalable solution to the military-to-civilian career transition in partnership with leading universities, military organizations, and great companies.
Core Beliefs
- Focus on student objectives, and all else will fall into place.
- Learning is fundamentally a social experience.
- Technology is not the sole solution to improving education; it’s a means to an end.
- Design is crucial to human connection. Connection is critical to learning.
- Talent matters. Hard work matters more.
- Diversity is essential to innovation.
- People are happiest when they’re doing worthwhile work with people they respect.
Who owns Fidelis's data?
Your data is yours and only yours. It will never be sold to any third parties, nor will it be used to suggest products or services to you without your explicit request. Fidelis is completely transparent in all aspects of our business. We only partner with top quality institutions. We focus on steering students toward resources that will be meaningful to them.
Why colleges partner with Fidelis
It comes down to technology and people. We've built a social coaching and learning platform that allows schools to surround students with resources and support that enable a truly personalized educational experience. Additionally, because we are from the military, we have a unique ability to identify and recruit military talent, provide transition coaching services, and provide the kind of supplementary and remedial education services that transitioning military folks need.
In short, Fidelis's technology and services allow our teaching partners to focus on what they do best: developing and delivering world-class courses.
Fidelis is a company. How does it earn revenue?
- There are about 11 core activities that it takes to run a college. Fidelis does between 6-8 of these activities for colleges and they pay us a portion of tuition for the service.
- Some destination colleges outsource coaching, mentoring, and placement services to Fidelis in order to serve the population better.
- Some destination companies will pay Fidelis for transition coaching services in lieu of paying placement fees.
Why is Fidelis a company rather than a non-profit 501c3?
We are a venture-backed technology company because our corporate status enables us to tap into excellent engineering and business talent. Additionally, as a corporation, we have access to capital markets. We have to invent new things to solve the challenge of military-to-civilian career transition, and the C corporation is the best form of organization for invention. The light bulb, the automobile, Google, Facebook, and the iPod were all built and commercialized by C-Corps. We aspire to build technology that is just as meaningful.
Team
Gunnar Counselman, Founder and CEO
Gunnar is a former Marine HUMINT Officer who served in Iraq, Bosnia, and the Horn of Africa before attending the Harvard Business School. While at HBS, Gunnar became fascinated with the potential of technology to lower costs and increase quality in education while performing initial research for the book Disrupting Class by Clay Christensen and Michael Horn. After HBS, Gunnar transitioned to the civilian world as a consultant with Bain and Company before starting an independent consulting practice focused on innovation and strategy in higher education.
Anoop Jayadevan, Co-Founder and CTO
Anoop is a hands-on technologist with a passion to build products that solve meaningful problems. Prior to co-founding Fidelis with Gunnar, Anoop held product management and engineering roles at Google for 8 years. His experience at Google spans search infrastructure, developer platforms and user experience design. Anoop holds a B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur, India and an MBA from Wharton with major in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management. Anoop also serves as a board member at Vidyamandir Educational Charitable Society in India. At Fidelis, Anoop heads Product Management and Engineering efforts.
CJ Goldsmith, VP of Field Operations
A twenty-year U.S. Army veteran with extensive experience as a marketing executive in the defense industry as well as a professional educator, CJ is Fidelis’ point man in the military community. His personal understanding of the challenges faced by service members and their families when making the transition to the civilian sector helps our team remain focused on innovating real solutions that make sense. As our direct channel to those who use our educational and career services, he helps us remain agile and responsive in our commitment to taking care of those who serve America.
Michelle Y. Rhee, Ph.D., VP of Academic Affairs
The academic terrain is changing, and as a former Fulbright Scholar and Skidmore College professor, Michelle embraces Fidelis’s ideal of blended learning. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Literature from Harvard University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Stanford University. Michelle is thrilled to be working with institutions across the country to create an online/blended transfer curriculum that will enable soldiers to earn degrees from well-regarded selective universities and pursue post-military career paths that inspire them.
Liz Grow, MA, LPC, Director of Counseling Partnerships
Psychotherapist and consummate patriot Liz Grow joined the team to act as a liaison between the mental health community and Fidelis. An Army brat turned All-American sprinter at the University of Notre Dame, Liz’s fascination with personal growth, resilience, and happiness lead her to St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas where she earned her Master’s degree in Professional Counseling. No stranger to designing and implementing systems for positive growth and success, Liz is building the unique transition coaching program for Fidelis and feels honored to serve those men and women who have sacrificed so much for our great nation.
Heidi Hudson, Director of Placement Partnerships
With a drive to introduce smart people to game-changing solutions, Heidi has joined Fidelis to spread the word. Heidi spent the last ten years in clinical research, advising and introducing clients to software and experts to execute global phase I-IV clinical trials. The eternal teammate, Heidi played on the women's basketball team at Brown. Her drive to please and professional competitiveness (off the court) bring Heidi success in Business Development where she ensures Fidelis's academic and corporate partnerships are in good hands.
Dilraba Ibrahim, Director of Engineering
Dil is a passionate technologist who loves building, hacking and breaking things. Her Facebook mobile app was ranked top 7 when iPad was released. Prior to Fidelis, Dil worked at ArcSight (IPO 2008, aquired by HP in 2010 for $1.5B) where she was one of the early engineers. She holds a Bachelors and Masters degree in Computer Science. Dil is helping Fidelis engineering team build a modern social learning platform.
Rosemary Kendrick, Education Partnerships Manager
Ed-tech enthusiast and education industry expert, Rosemary Kendrick is committed to building a world-class educational experience for Fidelis students. After earning her MBA at Harvard Business School, Rosemary joined Fidelis to manage the development of the Fidelis Learning App platform. Prior to business school, Rosemary headed cross-sector initiatives in education entrepreneurship, policy, and innovation at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the Washington, D.C. think tank. Hailing from a family of Navy officers, Rosemary is particularly honored to be working on developing better educational solutions for those serving our country in uniform.
Brendan Duffy, Mentor Network Program Manager
UCLA Grad, former Marine NCO, and experienced education entrepreneur, Brendan is responsible for building a large and highly committed network of mentors.
Advisory Board
Fidelis has built an experienced and diverse advisory board to provide insight into building the Fidelis Experience.
Clay Christensen
Major General Mike Myatt
Senator/Governor Bob Kerrey
General Carl Fulford
David Gergen
Matt Ouimet
Sean Covey
Former Special Operations Operator John Campagna
Major General Chris Cortez
Jim Psota
Michael Horn
Careers
The combination of the surge in social web and the economic downturn has presented a unique market-turning point to align education to the needs of both the student and the economy.
At Fidelis, we are building a series of joint ventures with great universities to allow the web to finally transform the quality, personalization, and cost structure of higher education.
Complemented by tier one investors and advisers, technical ability, marketing savvy, and a network of relationships; we are now recruiting a world-class team. We want people that have a bias for action and hard work coupled with a desire to do something that matters.
Open Student Services Positions:
Transition Coach
Enrollment Screener
Open Technology Positions:
Frontend/UI Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer/Java
Site Reliability Engineer
UX Designer
