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07/19/12 | Uncategorized

Pathbrite CEO Heather Hiles Shares Key Attributes Of Entrepreneurs

Pathbrite raised $2.5M in Series A funding last month for the cloud-based digital portfolio platform.

By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

Serial innovator Heather Hiles is the Founder and CEO of Pathbrite, helping people collect, track, and share a lifetime of experiences to bring you closer to your dream school, internship, or career.

Last month, PathBrite raised $2.5M in Series A funding from Rethink Education with strategic investment from ACT, the college and career readiness assessment. The round brings total outside investment raised to just over $4M.

We caught up with Heather for some her advice to entrepreneurs –

Women 2.0: Congrats with the new round of funding! Can you share any tips for early-stage entrepreneurs?

Heather Hiles: I recently spoke to students participating in the SMASH science and technology program at Stanford University where I shared 6 key attributes for entrepreneurism:

  1. A big vision, worthy of going the distance for.
  2. Kaizen-style perseverance.
  3. The ability to organize and prioritize for yourself and everyone who works with you.
  4. The ability to support a team, mentally, financially, physically
  5. Continuous learning. Always more to learn.
  6. Be all in!

The determination, persistence and drive it takes to secure funding is not for the faint of heart. I received advice from advisors, angel investors and other entrepreneurs about what to expect from the fundraising process and I still was not fully prepared for what to expect. However, I knew I had what it took to be successful and I jumped in with two feet.

Raising Series A is a significant milestone for any startup. This new funding will allow us to continue our user-focused product development efforts and accelerate our user acquisition strategies.”

Pathbrite offers a highly visual portfolio (for free to consumers) that offers that allows you to store and display all types of media is ideal for students and working professionals alike.

At the recent Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner, Google Product Manager Frances Haugen spoke about the importance of keeping a portfolio of work for your career. She would tell her younger self to take screenshots of her side projects so she could look back at them and point to them as examples of her work.

In today’s non-linear career trajectory, the tech set may find it useful to set up a Pathbrite portfolio, storing different media to a portfolio in the cloud. Designers, developers and product managers have used free Pathbrite portfolios to provide hiring managers evidence of their code, links to sites and products they’ve worked on and shared photos and videos of features they’ve developed that showcase their critical thinking skills.

A digital track record is a good thing to have.

Angie Chang co-founded Women 2.0 in 2006. She currently serves as Editor-In-Chief of Women 2.0 and is working to mainstream women in high-growth, high-tech entrepreneurship. Previously, Angie held roles in product management and web UI design. In 2008, Angie launched Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, asking that guys come as the “+1” for once. Angie holds a B.A. in English and Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. Follow her on Twitter at @thisgirlangie.

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland, an intern with Women 2.0, was on the StartupBus. She studies neuroscience at Mount Holyoke College, where she is trying to merge a passion for tech and the brain into a new wave of cognition-based technology

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