Family-founded · Veteran-built · Northern Virginia
KinTech is a family technology company. We turn decades of experience in regulated industries, the skilled trades and education into platforms that communities and institutions license and run under their own name, to expand opportunity where they are.
Built from experience. Proven in practice. Designed to scale.
Founded in 2025 by Shanell Guardo, U.S. Air Force veteran, and Ed Guardo, U.S. Army veteran.
KinTrades at the Nationwide Day of Second Chances Job Fair, DC Dream Center, Washington, D.C. · April 2026
Our marketplace and compliance platforms help workforce organizations, educational institutions and community partners connect people to opportunity, verify results and show their impact. We build and maintain the technology, so our partners can focus on the people they serve.
KinTrades® with KinComply™
Participants and employers connect on the marketplace, and KinComply turns referrals, placements and retention into evidence a funder can check. Your staff keep their relationship with every participant.
KinTrades® Student Edition with KinComply™
Internships, projects and mentoring for students in every field, under your institution’s name. One platform can serve a whole system, with each school seeing only its own students.
Regions, industries and employer networks
The foundation behind KinTrades and Student Edition is built to be configured for new partners. If you want a marketplace in your own name, we will talk through the fit with you.
One shared foundation
Need something our platforms don’t cover? We also design workflow automation and data systems for organizations working to widen access, in workforce, education, health care and public services, and take on program-management and technology consulting.
Shanell and Ed Guardo started KinTech in 2025. Between them, they have seen the barriers to good work from every side: as workers and employers, as educators, and as family members of people the system overlooked. They built KinTech to remove those barriers.
Founder & CEO
U.S. Air Force · Medical Service Corps
Former GS-15 program manager on large federal technology modernization programs. Master of Engineering in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, MBA, PMP. Spent months in the field with workers, employers and the programs that serve them before KinTech wrote its first line of code.
Co-Founder & Director, Employer Network Development
U.S. Army · 21+ years
Served as a construction supervisor, a Military Police officer and an Assistant Professor of Military Science, with 13+ years in construction and heavy equipment. Today a Lead JROTC instructor guiding high school students toward their next step, and the person employers talk to about every hire.
With them
Program Manager, Community Partnerships
Works day to day with the programs that refer participants, from referral through hire and retention. MBA in Healthcare Administration, CPHM, CompTIA Security+.
Architecture & Technical Advisor
Retired from Microsoft after 20+ years in engineering, Azure FastTrack and enterprise architecture. Leads platform architecture and data protection.
Cybersecurity & Community Engagement
Came to KinTech through its cybersecurity engineering internship. Supports security across KinTech’s platforms and leads social media, content and community engagement. Security+, Network+, CC, CCT and SC-900, recognized by Women in Cloud. A military spouse.
Team members hold roles outside KinTech. No employer endorsement is implied.
Our mission is to expand access, remove barriers and create economic opportunity, with technology built to scale in the communities that need it most.
Word for word, from recorded sessions and interviews. We name roles, not people or organizations.
I have hired four people off of the site so far. Three are still with me.
It makes you feel like you actually have a chance of getting the job.
Everyone deserves a second chance. That’s it. Because we learn by making mistakes.
I see the value in this. I see what you guys are doing.
Every platform runs on the same foundation, and each one is available to license.
The skilled-trades career exploration and hiring platform
Workers show real work with photos and video instead of paper resumes. Employers see ranked matches before they post, with hiring incentives built in, and students explore what each trade pays and how to start.
kintrades.comBuilt for any region · Workers and employers active in VA, DC, MD and NC
Education to opportunity
Internships, projects and mentoring by video for students in every field, from nursing and engineering to business, design and the trades. Each school runs it in its own name and colors, with extra protections for students under 18.
For colleges & schoolsBuilt on the KinTrades foundation · Available to license
Evidence and outcome verification
Turns authorized referrals, employment signals and retention milestones into audit-ready evidence. Employers confirm a placement with one click, and staff stop rebuilding the story at reporting time.
kincomply.comIn production with public and private workforce programs
For schools and nonprofits
Sponsored career exploration pages and selective employer events, delivered with partners.
Ask about sponsorship
Independent nonprofit · 501(c)(3) pending
KinTech Network™ brings together KinTech, LLC and Founder Series Foundation, an independent nonprofit. The Foundation opens doors to entrepreneurship, technology education, mentorship and career exploration for people who rarely get a seat at the table. Its Build With Me course turns real decisions from building KinTech into lessons for students, new founders and veterans.
Board
Board Member
Banking · Branch manager
More than 15 years in banking, finance and leadership, helping individuals, families and businesses reach their financial goals.
Board Member
U.S. Navy · Flight surgeon
Board-certified psychiatrist and founder of Living Well Integrative Health. Spent nearly six years with the VA Women’s Clinic, leading a team serving female veterans.
Shanell Guardo is the Foundation’s founder and board chair. More board members and advisors are joining as the Foundation completes its incorporation and 501(c)(3) determination. Board members hold roles outside the Foundation; no employer endorsement is implied.
KinTech, LLC holds federal and Virginia small business certifications. Each is listed in a public directory.
U.S. Small Business Administration
Service-disabled veteran-owned, veteran-owned and women-owned small business. Approved March 31, 2026.
SBA certification directorySystem for Award Management
Active federal registrant.
UEI QAR2ZJ3MNXV7 · CAGE 188X2
Virginia SBSD · Certification No. 842886
Valid through January 15, 2031.
SBSD directoryLicensing conversations start with your program: who you serve, what you need to show, and the name you want people to see. We work with workforce programs, colleges and schools, employers, community organizations and public agencies.
“We’ve had a lot of great help from Shanell. … So they have been exceptionally good at responding and helping us get things done and get things changed around because I’m not technically savvy.”
