What Break Through Tech does

Break Through Tech, Inc. is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, headquartered in New York, that delivers AI and machine learning workforce development programs to undergraduate students — particularly women and non-binary individuals from underrepresented backgrounds in tech. Founded in 2016 by Dr. Judith Spitz (former CIO of Verizon) as an initiative of Cornell Tech, the organization has trained 11,000+ undergraduates and built relationships with 300+ industry partners, with 75% of fellows landing a tech job within six months of graduating.

The organization's product portfolio centers on a flagship 10-month AI Program combining a Cornell University-developed ML Foundations course with team-based industry projects, alongside Sprinternships™ (paid micro-internships), AI Studio (semester-long projects for employer-defined challenges), Challenge Projects, and a Fellow Community alumni network. Technically, the curriculum trains students across modalities — text, structured data, code, computer vision, and multimodal (vision-language models) — using industry-standard tooling and frontier third-party models such as GPT-4 and Microsoft Florence-2. Break Through Tech does not develop proprietary models or platforms; its differentiation is in curriculum design, employer co-design, and a nine-year longitudinal data set on outcomes.

The business model is a philanthropic one — programs are free to qualifying students, and the organization is funded through grants, donations, and corporate sponsorships, with the Siegel Family Endowment providing $12M+ in 2025 as a major anchor. The operating model is deliberately lean (1-10 listed employees), with teaching, mentoring, and project execution sourced through Cornell faculty and volunteer industry professionals. The customer base is dual-sided: student beneficiaries and corporate employer partners across healthcare, financial services, technology, insurance, pharma, and government sectors.

Name

Break Through Tech

Legal name

Break Through Tech, Inc.

Website

https://breakthroughtech.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Break Through Tech is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that trains undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds in AI and machine learning, connecting them to paid Sprinternships™, semester-long AI Studio projects, and 300+ employer partners across the U.S. tech, healthcare, financial services, and government sectors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Tech Education and Workforce Development

NAICS

Computer Training (611420), Educational Services (611), Apprenticeship Training (611513), Professional and Management Development Training (611430)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Employment Agencies (7361)

akta.pro primary industry

AI & Machine Learning (Foundations & Applied) (EDAMACAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

Emerging Tech & Specialized Computing (IoT, Edge, AR/VR, Blockchain, HPC) (EDABAFAO), Technical & Digital Skills Training (BPACANAB), AI & Emerging Technology Literacy (EDAAAIAJ)

Keywords

• AI workforce development
• Tech education programs
• Micro-internship programs
• ML training programs
• Tech talent pipeline

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Grants and Philanthropic Funding: As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Break Through Tech is primarily funded through grants and donations. The organization received over $12 million in grants from Siegel Family Endowment to support technology, education, and infrastructure initiatives. Additional funding comes from corporate donors and individual contributors.
2. Donations and Sponsorships: The organization accepts one-time gifts, monthly recurring donations, and legacy planned gifts from individuals and organizations. Corporate sponsors also support the program. All donations are tax-deductible as the organization is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Break Through Tech is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that runs an integrated portfolio of AI and machine learning education and workforce development programs for undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds. Its core offerings include a multi-month AI Program built on a Cornell-developed ML Foundations course, short-term paid Sprinternships hosted by industry partners, semester-long AI Studio team projects, and Challenge Projects co-designed with companies. Programs are delivered free to qualifying students and connect directly to industry hiring pipelines.

Product overview

Break Through Tech is a non-profit educational organization offering an integrated portfolio of AI workforce development programs. The flagship AI Program combines a 9-week ML Foundations course from Cornell University with team-based industry projects through AI Studio and Challenge Projects, plus ongoing career readiness mentoring. Sprinternships™ provide short-term paid micro-internships with tech projects at partner companies. The Fellow Community connects program alumni for continued professional networking. Together, these programs create a pipeline from undergraduate talent to AI careers, with the organization reporting 11,000+ students trained since 2016, 300+ industry partners, and 75% of fellows landing tech jobs within six months of graduation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• AI Program: A 10-month program preparing undergraduates for AI careers through a 9-week ML course, team-based industry projects, and professional readiness support.
• Sprinternships™
• AI Studio
• Fellow Community

Products and services

• AI Program A 10-month AI workforce development program for undergraduates that combines a 9-week ML Foundations course developed with Cornell University, team-based industry AI projects, and ongoing professional readiness support including resume building, interview prep, and career coaching. Designed for undergraduate students, particularly women and non-binary individuals from underrepresented backgrounds, who lack applied AI experience and industry connections.
• Sprinternships

Quantifiable outcome

• 75% of fellows land a tech job within six months of graduating
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers22 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability13 records

Partnerships

28 partnerships are on record, tiered founding, core and supporting.

• Cornell TechfoundingStrategic or Co-development PartnerBreak Through Tech was founded in 2016 as an initiative of Cornell Tech at a pivotal moment in New York's growth as a technology hub. Cornell Tech provides academic infrastructure and credibility. The AI Program curriculum is developed in partnership with Cornell University.
• Google / KagglecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGoogle volunteers support Break Through Tech programs through Kaggle platform competitions. Nearly 500 students participate in Kaggle datathons. Sarah (Hendo) Rosenberg, Senior Program Manager of Tech Education Outreach at Google, leads volunteer engagement. Google software engineers serve as mentors and advisors.
• New York Botanical GardencoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration combining botanical research expertise with ML student capabilities. Students work on classifying plant specimens from 7.8 million herbarium specimens. Jennifer Bernstein, CEO of NYBG, and Dr. Emily Sessa, Director of the Steere Herbarium, are key contacts.
• MIT Schwarzman College of ComputingsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerMIT partners on AI education initiatives. Professor Dr. Sara Beery, Assistant Professor of AI and Decision Making at MIT and Biodiversity Lead for Climate Change AI, participated in panel discussions.
• UCLA Samueli School of EngineeringsupportingStrategic or Co-development PartnerUCLA partners on AI education. Dr. Aditya Grover, UCLA Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Machine Intelligence Group lead, participates in program activities.
• AccenturecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAccenture hosts AI Challenge Projects. Fellows built technology news monitoring and summarization engine using AI tools. Hritika Chaturvedi's team built logistic regression model to predict ideal office locations for Accenture.
• CVS HealthcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCVS Health hosts Sprinternships and AI projects. Kathleen Kadziola, Vice President of Technology, provided testimonial about the program. After one Sprinternship cohort, students presented to 65+ IT leaders.
• VerizoncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerVerizon hosts Challenge Projects including Pascale Michaud's 5-month ML project on 5G network rollout priority zones. Mariia Nikitash worked as Data Science Intern on real-time computer vision models.
• PfizercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPfizer hosted Challenge Project where Farha Ferdous and team built model for early detection of heart disease. Data Scientists from Pfizer guided students through bias detection and mitigation.
• AlkermescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAlkermes partnered with AI Fellows to explore how modeling and informatics can support critical stages of research, target identification, compound nomination, and drug discovery.
• CoherecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCohere worked with fellows to create a system collecting and storing product reviews, then using AI to uncover actionable insights for smarter business growth.
• AskMargotcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAI Fellows reimagined how nurses connect with opportunities, replacing generic job boards with intelligent, tailored recommendations for the travel nursing platform.
• QualcommcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerQualcomm hosts AI Challenge Projects including Vision Language Model work with Tanvi Ladha's team and weapon detection project with Parnian Ghapandarkashani's team using LoRA fine-tuning techniques.
• ABT GlobalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerABT Global, a communications and marketing firm dedicated to social impact, partnered on developing AI methodologies to identify, analyze, and reduce bias in crime prediction models.
• RelativitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRelativity hosted Challenge Project for Alisha Bose investigating bias in generative AI—work deeply aligned with her values around ethics and inclusivity.
• AssurantcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAssurant partnered with Immanuella Akumabor to build AI-powered application for first-time homebuyers, combining ML models with GenAI feedback loops to simulate financial scenarios.
• DirecTVcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerDirecTV hosted AI Studio Project where Ava Gonick analyzed Yelp reviews to identify factors influencing restaurant ratings using natural language processing.
• GuidehousecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGuidehouse, a data and analytics consulting firm, hosted Iman Shah's 5-month AI Studio Project analyzing population-in-need demographics in Ukraine for humanitarian aid forecasting.
• Brightside HealthcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBrightside Health, a telemental health company, hosted AI Studio Project where Linn Khant Thuya developed tool using GPT-4 and PyVis for mental health treatment decisions.
• AllstatecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAllstate hosted Navya Gangrade for apprenticeship on wildfire incidence and property insurance analysis using comprehensive data exploration and machine learning algorithms.
• BarclayscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBarclays hosted Muhsanat Chowdhury as Risk Finance and Treasury Engineering Intern, developing reporting engine for capital analysis and risk visualization.
• Miami-Dade Information Technology DepartmentcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMiami-Dade IT Department hosted Carlos Mejia's Sprinternship, where he helped redesign customer service website to reduce Help Desk call volume.
• ExigercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerExiger hosted Lauren Lipinski for Sprinternship where she worked on AI technologies and agile collaboration, earning a return offer for Software Development Intern role.
• GooglecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGoogle hosted Farha Ferdous for Sprinternship focused on Prompt Engineering for Gen AI models. Google volunteers also support Kaggle competitions and serve as technical advisors.
• UNICCcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerUNICC (United Nations International Computing Centre) hosted Farha Ferdous for Sprinternship focused on Cyber Threat Landscape Reports and data analysis.
• MobalyticscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMobalytics hosted Muhsanat Chowdhury in extern role analyzing key player behaviors, motivations and strategies in gaming industry for business strategy.
• STEM AdvantagesupportingOthersSTEM Advantage is a nonprofit that refers students to Break Through Tech and promotes diversity and inclusion in STEM fields. Mariia Nikitash discovered the program through STEM Advantage.
• Women in Computing (CSULB)supportingOthersCampus organization that referred Cristina Le to Break Through Tech. Nhu Nguyen, former club president, encouraged Cristina to apply after her own positive experience.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Year Up: Year Up is a workforce development nonprofit providing training and corporate internships to young adults from underrepresented backgrounds. It is a direct peer in the tech-workforce-pipeline-for-underrepresented-youth category, with similar employer-partnership model and outcomes-focused mission.
• Black Girls CODE: Black Girls CODE is a nonprofit that introduces girls of color to technology and computer science through workshops, hackathons, and workforce programs. It is a direct peer in targeting underrepresented students in tech with educational programming and similar nonprofit funding model.
• Code.org: Code.org is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science education, particularly for women and underrepresented minorities. It is a direct peer in mission, target audience, and nonprofit educational model, though it leans K-12 while Break Through Tech focuses on undergraduates.
• Generation (by McKinsey): Generation is a nonprofit that prepares young people for careers through tuition-free workforce training programs, with strong emphasis on technology and tech-adjacent roles. It is a direct peer in the workforce-training-for-underrepresented-populations category with employer-partnership-driven model.
• NPower: NPower is a nonprofit that provides tech training and job placement services for veterans and young adults from underserved communities. It is a direct peer in free tech-training programs for underrepresented groups with employer hiring partnerships.
• AnitaB.org: AnitaB.org (formerly the Anita Borg Institute) is a nonprofit focused on advancing women in technology through programs like Top Companies for Women Technologists and the Grace Hopper Celebration. It is a direct peer given shared focus on women in tech, workforce advancement, and participation in the same Grace Hopper conference ecosystem.
• Per Scholas: Per Scholas is a nonprofit providing tuition-free technology training and career advancement for adults from underrepresented communities. It is a direct peer in the tech-workforce-development-for-underrepresented-populations space, with similar employer-hiring partnerships and free-program model.
• Kode With Klossy: Kode With Klossy is a nonprofit that empowers young women and gender-expansive individuals aged 13-22 to learn code through free summer coding camps. It is a direct peer in free tech education for women and underrepresented genders, with comparable community-building mission.
• Girls Who Code: Girls Who Code is a nonprofit focused on closing the gender gap in technology through education and workforce programs for girls and non-binary students. It is a direct peer to Break Through Tech in targeting underrepresented students for tech career pathways, with comparable college-program and alumni-network offerings.

Regional players

• Cornell Tech (parent institution): Cornell Tech is the academic research institution from which Break Through Tech originated and with which it co-designs curriculum (ML Foundations). It is a regional/ecosystem peer that provides academic infrastructure and AI education, with overlap in AI talent development but as an academic graduate institution.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks1 record

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/break-through-tech
• Xx.com/BrkThroughTech

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Break Through Tech