Hope Street Group

What Hope Street Group does

Hope Street Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2003 in Los Angeles and now operating from Burr Ridge, Illinois, that delivers AI-powered career exploration tools to U.S. high school students and their teachers. Its core product is the Hope Street application — available on iOS, Android, and web — which uses a conversational AI system branded as "Hope AI" to engage students in interactive career quests, personalized career and education pathway recommendations, resume drafting, and informational conversations with simulated AI professionals. The platform is anchored in classroom use through an Educator Dashboard that surfaces student engagement and career-interest summaries to CTE teachers and advisors, and integrates with Google Classroom, Clever, and ClassLink for rostering and single sign-on. The organization positions the product as "human-guided AI," explicitly designed to reinforce rather than replace educator relationships, and is free for teachers indefinitely.

The technology stack is built on third-party AI and cloud infrastructure: OpenAI provides generative AI processing, Supabase handles database hosting, AWS provides infrastructure, and Vercel serves the web application. The organization has self-attested compliance with FERPA, COPPA, CCPA, and California SOPIPA, and collects data consistent with K-12 student-privacy norms. The product is complemented by the FutureMe web experience targeted specifically at CTE teachers, the Utah Teacher Fellows cohort program (80+ educators from 17 districts since 2017), and a strategic partnership with American Student Assistance to embed Hope Street's AI tools into the EvolveMe platform reaching over 2 million teens.

Hope Street Group is funded entirely through donations, grants, and charitable contributions from individuals, corporations, and major foundations including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Walmart Foundation. The organization has no disclosed revenue, no funding rounds, and no external private-equity or venture-capital ownership. The team consists of approximately 10 core members, led by CEO David Ma and CTO Will Hanson, with governance by a Board of Directors chaired by Allen Blue, co-founder and VP of Product Management at LinkedIn. Distribution is multi-channel: app stores, web self-serve, district rostering, teacher word-of-mouth referral, and a partner-integration model.

Name

Hope Street Group

Legal name

Hope Street Group

Website

https://hopestreetgroup.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Hope Street Group is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides a free, AI-powered career exploration platform for U.S. high school students and CTE teachers, delivering conversational career guidance, interactive quests, and educator dashboards built on third-party AI infrastructure.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Education Technology / Career Readiness Software

NAICS

Educational Services (611), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Student Success, Advising & Case Management (Retention) Platforms (EDAFAMAH)

akta.pro secondary industry

Internship/Apprenticeship Matching & Work-Based Learning Platforms (EDAFAMAL)

Keywords

• AI career guidance
• Education technology platform
• Career exploration platform
• CTE teacher tools
• Student career readiness

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations and Charitable Contributions: As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (EIN: 45-0497577), Hope Street Group relies on donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations. The platform is free for teachers forever, funded entirely by charitable contributions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Hope Street Group builds and operates the Hope Street AI platform, which provides AI-powered career exploration, interactive career quests, and conversational career guidance to high school students, with teacher-facing dashboards and CTE-aligned tools delivered via web, iOS, and Android. The platform is powered by the proprietary Hope AI system and is provided free to teachers and students, with the organization funded as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit through donations and grants.

Product overview

Hope Street Group operates a unified AI-native career education platform centered on three core offerings: the Hope Street mobile/web application (app), the FutureMe web platform for CTE teachers, and the Hope AI system powering both. Hope Street (app) serves as the primary student-facing product with AI-powered career quests and conversational career guidance; FutureMe complements it as a CTE-specific web experience with teacher dashboards and lesson planning tools; and Hope AI is the underlying AI engine that enables the conversational and recommendation capabilities across both products. A partnership with American Student Assistance extends these capabilities to the EvolveMe platform, reaching additional students beyond Hope Street's direct channels.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Hope Street App: An AI-powered platform for classroom use that helps students explore careers through guided AI conversations, with teacher dashboards and CTE-aligned quests.
• Hope AI
• Utah Teacher Fellows

Products and services

• Hope Street App A mobile and web application that enables high school students to explore careers through interactive AI-powered quests and guided conversations with AI career professionals, with educator dashboards and CTE-aligned content designed for classroom use with no prep required.
• FutureMe An AI-powered career exploration web platform marketed specifically for CTE (Career and Technical Education) teachers, featuring teacher dashboards, CTE-aligned quests, and free lesson plans; designed to fit real teaching and advising workflows with no prep required.
• Hope AI Hope AI is a proprietary human-guided AI system that blends cutting-edge technology with a humanist philosophy, designed to be safe, inspiring, human-centered, and engaging; it powers the AI career advisor, resume builder, and AI professional persona features across the Hope Street and FutureMe experiences.
• Utah Teacher Fellows A cohort program that equips Utah educators to lead from the classroom through facilitation practice, peer insights, and regular meetings with state and district leaders; the program has empowered 80+ educators from 17 districts and informs the organization's AI Innovation Network.

Quantifiable outcome

• 94% of students understand what steps to take next after using Hope Street
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• American Student Assistance (ASA)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 October 2025Partnership to integrate Hope Street's AI-powered career guidance tools into ASA's EvolveMe career readiness platform. Aims to engage over 2 million teens in career exploration activities. FutureMe supports classroom use with teacher dashboards while EvolveMe expands exploration beyond school.
• Urban InstituteminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 October 2025Contributed an interactive apprenticeship game to the EvolveMe platform as part of the American Student Assistance partnership expansion.
• Aspen Institute's Economic Opportunities ProgramminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerMember organization for Retail Opportunity Network that exchanged practices to improve advancement and job quality for frontline workers.
• Opportunity@WorkminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerContinuation partner for Health Career Pathways work. Byron Auguste, Co-Founder and CEO of Opportunity@Work, serves on Hope Street Group's Board of Directors.
• Innovate+EducateminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerRegional employer partner for Sync Our Signals program that analyzed job postings, credentials, and progression to create shared competency maps.
• Markle FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPeer ecosystem collaborator for Sync Our Signals program. Used competency framework to align programs to real hiring needs.

Scale indicators9 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• CareerVillage.org: Nonprofit delivering free AI-powered career guidance ('Coach') to students, mirroring Hope Street's mission-driven, AI-native, no-cost model for career exploration.
• Xello: K-12 college and career readiness platform used by districts for career exploration and pathway planning, directly overlapping Hope Street's student-facing use case.
• MajorClarity (Paper): CTE-focused career exploration and pathway planning platform for high schools, targeting the same CTE teacher and student segment as FutureMe.
• YouScience: Aptitude-based career discovery and readiness platform for high schoolers connecting interests to careers and credentials, competing on career exploration outcomes.
• SchooLinks: College and career readiness platform for districts with student pathway tools and educator dashboards, closely aligned with Hope Street's district and CTE positioning.
• Pathful: Career readiness and work-based learning platform for K-12, offering career exploration and CTE-aligned tools comparable to Hope Street's offering.

Broad incumbents

• Naviance (PowerSchool): Established, widely adopted college and career readiness suite embedded in district workflows; overlaps Hope Street's category as part of a larger K-12 portfolio.

Others

• American Student Assistance: Nonprofit operating the EvolveMe career-readiness platform; a strategic partner and adjacent player reaching the same teen audience for career exploration.

Emerging players

• Transeo: Platform tracking work-based learning and career pathways for schools, overlapping Hope Street's work-based learning and CTE focus for a similar buyer.
• Scoir: College and career planning platform serving high school students and counselors, addressing an adjacent college/career decision-making need.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/hopestreetgroup
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@HopeStreetGroup
• Facebookfacebook.com/hopestreetgroup
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hope-street-group
• Instagraminstagram.com/hopestreetgroup

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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 Hope Street Group