The Wire | Issue 03

Where did all the interns go?

Author

Tony Wan
March 19th, 2025

Welcome to the Reach Wire. Each month, we deliver fresh insights into the world of learning, health, and work — combining news and data we’re tracking, perspectives from the team at Reach Capital, and updates from our portfolio. Subscribe for the latest.

Spring is in the air and so are we, criss-crossing the country to meet with founders, investors, students, and builders of all stripes. Here’s a peek at our scrapbook of memories we’re making along the way.

POW! Congratulations to our three female co-founders and general partners — Jennifer Carolan, Wayee Chu, and Shauntel Garvey — for receiving the Power of Women honor at ASU GSV Summit, which recognizes exceptional women who work tirelessly to ensure all people have equal access to education and workforce opportunities.

From the portfolio

Latest Deals

NationGraph: AI-powered public sector procurement research for B2B businesses, starting in education • Seed round from Reach Capital, XYZ, and GG1 (Blog)

Wins & News

Healthcare workforce training provider Stepful recently celebrated its 4th birthday. From its first cohort of 15 students to now serving 20,000 monthly active learners, the company’s low-cost, fast-paced programs have helped many thousands find fulfilling jobs and earn better pay.

— Shoutout from former DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee (now a Partner at EO Ventures) on Stepful’s success in accelerated healthcare training (starting at 12:30)

As an NBA reporter, Adrian Wojnarowski was famous for his insider scoops, dubbed the “Woj bomb.” Now the general manager of St. Bonaventure’s men’s basketball, Woj just dropped another bomb: being the latest to use Dropback to manage his roster.

Jonathan Haidt, renowned author of the bestselling “The Anxious Generation,” joined Cartwheel for a webinar on the impact of phones on student health, learning and connections.

Teachy Founder and CEO Pedro Siciliano was honored in Forbes’ latest 30 Under 30 list in the social impact category for his AI-powered teacher assistant, which is one of the fastest growing edtech tools across the Global South.

Sara Mauskopf, Co-Founder and CEO of Winnie, writes about how shifting consumer demand for childcare is pushing providers to double down on pedagogical quality and teacher retention.

Slacking off

Stories we’re buzzing about in the office.

Where did all the internships go?

According to Handshake’s 2025 Internships Index, postings dipped by over 15% between January 2023 and January 2025, even as applications rose. The tech sector saw the biggest year-over-year decline, while also averaging 273 applicants per opening.

That’s unfortunate. Steve Blank has chronicled how Silicon Valley was built on a “Pay-It-Forward” culture, where we’re willing to help, network and connect strangers. As a teenager, Steve Jobs spent a summer interning at HP after cold-calling Bill Hewlett for a spare part. That formative experience paved the way for Apple’s own robust program. 

Times may be tough in this labor market. But internships don’t have to be the burden that employers fear. In making the case for interns, our co-founder Jennifer Carolan offers how programs can be simply structured, deliver ROI for employers and, most importantly, nurture the next generation of builders. These formative experiences can go a long way toward fixing the “entry-level” Catch-22 that Shauntel Garvey, another Reach co-founder, has written about.

Interns bring fresh eyes and new perspectives on old problems. At Reach, they’ve revamped our onboarding and knowledge management systems, and helped on strategic projects including investment theses. They’ve since started companies and joined other VC funds. One day, we may report to them.

At a time when Gen Z is lonely, craves community, and reports more mental health challenges than any other age group, let’s pay it forward.

The data room

If you’re building solutions to move the needle on these figures, or in other areas across learning, health, and work, we’d love to hear from you!

Health

What’s up, doc? When it comes to trust, just 53% of those in Gallup’s annual survey of professions gave a high or very high rating to doctors, down from 67% in 2021. It’s the biggest drop among the 23 professions, notes the Wall Street Journal, which suggests that overwhelming workloads can lead to poor patient communication.

AI AMA: Usage of AI among physicians nearly doubled, from 38% in 2023 to 66% last year, according to the American Medical Association. Many view reducing administrative burdens, such as visit documentation and discharge summaries, as the biggest area of opportunity.

Digital care double click: Most Gen Z and Millennials used virtual care in the past year, but also the least willing to share data with their healthcare providers. For older generations, it’s vice versa. More generational trend breakdowns in RockHealth’s latest survey.

Learning

Present and well: In the average U.S. district, 17% of students are chronically absent. But that rate doubles (34%) in districts that don’t provide in-house mental and behavioral health support. The new survey from Frontline Education also finds persistent teacher shortages, with special educators, substitutes, and paraprofessionals the hardest roles to fill.

Learning prerequisites: 59% of U.S. college students experience at least one form of basic needs insecurity, including food (41%) and housing (48%).

Hooked on phonics tablets? Forty percent of toddlers have their own tablet device by the time they are 2 years old, according to a new report from Common Sense Media. Nearly 1 in 4 have a personal cell phone by age 8.

Work

Kid expenses: The costs of child care now outpace college tuition in 38 states, and exceeds rent in 17 states and the District of Columbia. Among adults aged 18-39, cost is a factor in their decision to not have children.

People matters: HR leaders and staff don’t always see eye to eye on things, but both agree that leadership and manager development is important. Yet only 42% of U.S. workers felt their workplaces were effective at this, according to SHRM’s 2025 State of Workplace report. Even fewer HR professionals (37%) agreed.

AI chops: Nearly 1 in 4 U.S. tech jobs posted so far this year are seeking employees with AI chops. It’s not just Big Tech: employers are looking to use AI for drug research, assess wildfire risk, and improve store layouts.

Partner Perspectives

In Search For… For the next video in our series, James Kim (now a father of three) wishes for contextualized AI agents that can be his parenting sidekick. Our resident night-owl writer Tony Wan wants to see AI writing tools that really help to push — but not replace — human thinking and creativity.

Oh, the places we’ll go

Aspen Institute Project Play Summit

Mar. 24-25 | Berkeley, CA

ASU GSV Summit 

Apr 6-9 | San Diego, CA

Langchain AI Agent Conference 

May 13-14 | San Francisco, CA

Next Moves

Big moves start with bold clicks. Where will you go next?

Cartwheel

Trusted mental health partner to schools.

Cometa

Fintech operating platform for Latin American schools.

Stepful

Providing accessible pathways to healthcare careers.

Stepful: Empowering communities with accessible pathways to healthcare careers.

There are 450 job openings across the Reach portfolio. Check them out here.