About - KinTech Founder Series: Build With Me

Our Mission

KinTech™ Build With Me turns aspiring founders into successful entrepreneurs with hands-on guidance, technical skills, and community support to launch real products.

Too many people have great ideas but never take action. They get stuck in "tutorial hell" or build without validation and waste months. We solve both problems.

Months to Launch

Live Sessions

100%

Self-Directed

The KinTech™ Philosophy

KinTech™ is more than a program—it's a philosophy about creating opportunities and supporting people in building meaningful careers and businesses.

"Kin" reflects our belief that the best growth happens in community. You're not just a student—you're part of a family of builders who support each other through the challenges of starting something new.

We believe in:

Learning by doing – Real progress comes from building, not consuming content
Community over competition – Your fellow founders are your greatest resource
Validation before building – Talk to customers first, code second
Shipping over perfection – A launched MVP beats a perfect plan
Sustainable growth – Build a business that works for your life

Meet Your Instructor

Shanell Guardo

Founder & Lead Instructor, KinTech™, LLC

Shanell Guardo founded KinTech™, LLC with 15+ years leading platform transformation initiatives. She's led engineering teams at leading cloud providers—building systems that enable teams to deploy safely and ship faster.

Her career spans DoD (leading MHS GENESIS—the DoD's electronic health record impacting 9.6M+ beneficiaries across 1,300+ facilities), federal healthcare IT, and fintech. She understands systems thinking, complex technical programs, cloud infrastructure, and shipping software.

But this isn't about enterprise scale. It's about building smart as a solo founder.

Shanell is currently building GetWorkKin™, a platform for second-chance employment and economic mobility. She's making the same decisions you will: choosing tools, setting up workflows, deploying to cloud platforms, managing costs, shipping features.

Why this matters: She's building now, in 2025, using modern tools, navigating current pricing, solving real problems. The curriculum is based on what she's actually doing—not what worked 5 years ago.

Philosophy: Systems Create Equity

"Systems create equity. Fix the system, change the outcomes."

This drives everything at KinTech™. We build systems that remove barriers and create opportunity. GetWorkKin focuses on second-chance employment. Build With Me teaches you to build products with accessibility, inclusion, and impact baked in from day one.

Education & Credentials:

MEng, Systems Engineering - University of Virginia
MBA - East Carolina University
BS, Economics - Fayetteville State University
Project Management Professional (PMP)
U.S. Air Force Veteran, Medical Service Corps Officer

What Shanell brings:

Real-time experience building and launching GetWorkKin
20+ years technical program management and platform transformation
Expertise in cloud deployment, CI/CD pipelines, GitHub workflows, DevOps
Track record leading engineering teams across military, federal, fintech, cloud providers
Commitment to building technology that creates equity

This isn't taught by someone who built something once, years ago. This is someone building now, navigating your challenges, sharing what works.

What Founders Are Saying

Real feedback from our pilot cohort participants

"This pilot is introducing information in a guided manner that is digestible and makes me feel like I'm actually capable of understanding. It allows me to see that there are new possibilities for me on my professional journey. The course has been presented in a format that is not too overwhelming or intimidating. The founder offers feedback and guidance in a timely manner which shows that she truly cares how well you grasp the information."

💡 Key Benefit: Caring mentorship and digestible learning

"What I found most valuable was getting a clear breakdown of what an MVP actually is and how to start small instead of feeling overwhelmed by the full vision. It helped me realize that I don't have to have everything figured out to begin. This program solves the problem of not knowing where to start. One aha moment for me was understanding how my long-term goal can be broken down into a simple MVP that I can actually work on now."

💡 Key Benefit: From overwhelmed to actionable steps

"Throughout the session, I realized how accessible entrepreneurship can be with the right tools and information. Previously, I had the misconception that you had to be a genius to build something. Now, I feel like the barrier has been lowered. I highly recommend this series to students facing uncertainty in their career paths or entering a challenging job market. Founders no longer need to be tech-savvy; they can simply read the 'KinTech Manual' and watch their ideas come to life."

💡 Key Benefit: Accessibility — no tech genius required

"I appreciated the knowledge-base and patience of the facilitator, Shanell. She was open, created an environment for inquiry, and was exceptionally professional."

💡 Key Benefit: Professional, supportive learning environment

Ready to Build Your MVP?

Join the waitlist and be the first to know when the next cohort opens.

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