Three people in the same family. All went to college. None of them ended up where they started.
“I knew there were other options besides college, but nobody really explained them. Nobody sat me down and said here’s what this path costs, here’s what it pays, here’s what your life looks like in five years.”
Joe grew up in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. His mom was a music teacher in the Bloomsburg school district for over 20 years. His dad was a professor at Bloomsburg University for over 30. College wasn’t a question. It was just what you did.
When it came time to pick a major, his guidance counselor didn’t know him well enough to help. So he picked his favorite subject. Math. After one semester, he realized it was the worst path for him and switched to Commercial Art — not because he had a passion for art, but because he thought it would be easier.
He figured out pretty quickly that art wasn’t the right fit either. But he was already in it, so he finished the degree. After graduating, he spent the next four years working as a landscaper.
He finally decided he deserved a better future and went back to grad school, where he earned his Master’s in Instructional Technology. The degree isn’t really about technology. It’s about understanding how people learn and make decisions, then designing better experiences to help them get there. That way of thinking clicked in a way that math and art never did, and it launched a career that’s lasted nearly three decades.
Fast forward to Colorado. Joe had built a career leading technology and workforce transformation for a major financial services company. Then the company decided to close its Denver office and asked him to relocate to Texas. He chose to stay. But suddenly he was facing the same question his son was: What’s next?
So he did what he’s done his whole career. He built something.
First, he built an AI-powered career development tool for about 1,000 associates at his company who were going through the same uncertainty. It worked well enough that the company expanded it to all 16,000+ associates nationwide.
That experience opened his eyes to something that worried him. Entire job categories are being restructured around AI right now. And kids are choosing college majors for careers that might look very different by the time they graduate.
“They’re taking on $50,000 or $100,000 in debt without anyone showing them the return on that investment. Or whether the job they’re training for will even be there when they graduate.”
Meanwhile, his son Matthew was sitting at the kitchen table trying to figure out the same thing. That’s when it clicked.
“Kids are making one of the biggest decisions of their lives with almost no information,” Joe said. “I knew we could do better. I just needed to make it something a 17-year-old would actually use.”
Future Me, Answered guides students through five stages. They figure out who they are. They explore career paths matched to their strengths and values. They compare options with real salary data. They test their ideas in the real world. And then they make a decision with a concrete 30-day action plan.
Every path gets equal treatment. College, skilled trades, military, going straight to work. All side by side with the same data, the same depth.
“Nobody’s showing kids that a licensed electrician in Denver can out-earn a four-year degree holder within five years. We show that math.”
The testing stage is one Joe feels strongest about. It’s not pass or fail. It’s a way for students to evaluate a path before they commit years and money to it.
“Pivoting in high school is free. Pivoting after college costs you years and tens of thousands of dollars. I know because I lived it.”
Joe built the platform with the company’s CTO, a fellow Bloomsburg native who handles the technical infrastructure remotely. Partner Brad Geiger leads business development out of Golden, Colorado.
Matthew is at Colorado State now, studying business. And Joe is having different conversations with him than his parents ever had with him.
“I told him there’s nothing wrong with pivoting. If the path stops making sense, change it. But don’t wait four years to figure that out.”
“I spent years figuring out what nobody helped me figure out in high school. My wife went through the same thing. My daughter went through it too. I’m not going to watch my son do the same thing. And if I can help other families skip that part, then this whole thing was worth building.”