WhereWeGo’s pitch is not about a new AI model or a slick SaaS dashboard. It is about a procurement cycle, a budget owner, and a renewal motion that is almost entirely public. The New Orleans-based public-benefit corporation sells workforce technology to city and county offices, a market where the sales cycle is long, the requirements are specific, and the measure of success is how many people find a job [MIT Solve, June 2026].
Founded in 2018 by former public high-school teachers Ben Ifshin and Leah Lykins, the company has built a portfolio of regional platforms like WorkNola.com and GNOCareerGuide.com [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. The bet is that by owning the digital bridge between education and employment for local governments, they can build a sustainable, if unglamorous, business. The company reports its platforms have engaged over four million workers across more than 40 regions [WhereWeGo, retrieved 2026].
A Wedge in Worker-First Navigation
WhereWeGo’s initial product wedge is straightforward: make local career and training pathways easier to understand. The founders, coming from education, built tools to answer the questions they saw people struggle with,what careers are available here, what training do I need, and who can help me get it [Industry Today, June 2026]. This manifests as websites that function as public utilities, funded by workforce development boards or economic development partnerships.
Their flagship, WorkNOLA, was originally launched by civic groups after Hurricane Katrina and was later acquired by GNO Inc., with WhereWeGo identified as the team behind its technology [GNO, Inc., retrieved 2026]. The platform relaunched with a redesign in June 2026, serving industries from construction to digital media [New Orleans CityBusiness, June 2026]. This model,building and operating white-label platforms for public entities,defines their B2G go-to-market.
The Consulting-to-Product Pivot
The company’s path reflects a common bootstrap trajectory in civic tech. It began by providing consulting and custom platform development services to workforce organizations [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief]. Traction from those projects, like helping over 4,000 people connect to local training programs, provided both revenue and proof of concept [MIT Solve, June 2026].
The more recent and ambitious shift is WhereWeGo Labs, an initiative launched in 2026 with the goal of building and releasing a new workforce tool every 30 days [WhereWeGo, August 2026]. The Labs effort is framed as an attempt to prove that meaningful solutions don’t require million-dollar budgets or multi-year roadmaps, and it explicitly utilizes AI and modern development stacks [WhereWeGo, retrieved 2026]. This represents a push toward productizing their expertise and potentially creating repeatable, scalable offerings beyond one-off consulting contracts.
Funding and the Road to $650k
Public funding details are sparse and point to a company still in the early stages of institutional capital. According to a June 2026 MIT Solve profile, WhereWeGo had raised $175,000 from angel investors and $75,000 from fiscal sponsorships at that point [MIT Solve, June 2026]. The same profile notes the company had begun a $650,000 raise, though no lead investor or closing date is listed.
The table below outlines the core team building the company’s platforms and services.
| Name | Role | Noted Background |
|---|---|---|
| Ben Ifshin | Co-Founder, CEO | Digital marketing for education; former teacher [MIT Solve, June 2026][Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] |
| Leah Lykins | Co-Founder, CPO | College and career readiness; former teacher [MIT Solve, June 2026][New Orleans CityBusiness, June 2026] |
| Nina Horne | Software Engineer | Over 7 years of professional experience [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] |
| David Ryan | Senior Software Engineer | Engineering leadership [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] |
| Max Davison | Database Specialist | Client solutions [MIT Solve, June 2026][LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] |
The Realistic Competitive Set
For a procurement officer at a regional workforce board, WhereWeGo does not compete with LinkedIn or Indeed. The realistic competitive set is far more niche. It includes other civic-tech consultancies that build custom portals, the internal IT departments of cities and counties that might try to build in-house, and the legacy providers of monolithic government software suites that lack modern, user-centric design. WhereWeGo’s advantage is its specific focus on the education-to-employment journey and its roots in the classroom, which ostensibly translate into tools that actual job seekers find usable. The risk is that without a clearly packaged SaaS product, each engagement remains a custom project, capping scalability and margins.
The Path to Scale and Sustainability
The company’s next twelve months will likely be defined by the success of its dual motion: closing the $650,000 round to fuel growth, and proving that the Labs initiative can generate reusable IP [MIT Solve, June 2026]. Key milestones to watch include a named enterprise customer win outside of its Louisiana home base, and the first measurable outcome from a Labs-built tool, such as user adoption or a partnership with a state agency.
The ideal customer profile is clear: a budget holder at a city, county, or state workforce development office with federal funding to spend on improving employment metrics, who is frustrated with existing clunky tools and is looking for a partner that understands both the bureaucratic constraints and the end-user experience. For them, WhereWeGo is not selling software; it is selling a pathway to better outcomes, with the platform as the vehicle. The company’s future hinges on converting that mission into a business model that can grow beyond project work, making the Labs bet the one to watch.
Sources
- [MIT Solve, June 2026] WhereWeGo | https://solve.mit.edu/solutions/34074
- [Perplexity Sonar Pro Brief] WhereWeGo About Page | https://wherewego.org/about
- [Industry Today, June 2026] Why Most Talent Marketplaces Fail After Launch | https://industrytoday.com/why-most-talent-marketplaces-fail-after-launch/
- [WhereWeGo, August 2026] WhereWeGo Launches New Initiative, Inviting Industry to Help... | https://wherewego.org/insights/wherewego-launches-labs-initiative
- [WhereWeGo, retrieved 2026] WhereWeGo Website | https://wherewego.org/
- [GNO, Inc., retrieved 2026] WorkNOLA Information | https://gnoinc.org/worknola/
- [New Orleans CityBusiness, June 2026] WorkNOLA Relaunch Article | Not available
- [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] David Ryan Profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-ryan-28a55261/
- [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Nina Horne Profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/nkhorne/
- [LinkedIn, retrieved 2026] Max Davison Profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/max-davison-07687220/