Extern co-founder creates access and opportunity for students and learners when the job application demands ‘experience.’

Matt Wilkerson is the CEO and co-founder of Extern, a company that provides a subscription platform for job-ready experiences called Externships. The concept for it came out of a series of experiences that were “great opportunities” for his career but never quite worked out for him as planned. They did, however, serve exceptionally well as learning steps.

Matt’s personal background and experiences shaped his motivation to start Extern. He initially wanted to pursue a career in art and film, but ultimately decided to attend MIT, where he earned a dual degree in engineering and management. “I’d gotten in off the waitlist at MIT at the last minute and looked into it and said, ‘I think I want to go there to really push myself.’” While there, an internship opportunity he’d been offered got cancelled — and this experience led him to explore careers in consulting and banking, eventually working at Morgan Stanley. However, he found the work environment unfulfilling and went on to work as an investor at a venture capital firm, which also did not fully align with his values.

Combining these experiences with impetus from a friend, he co-founded AHAlife, a luxury e-commerce platform that helped connect artisan designers with customers. “I was finally in a world where I was applying more creativity, learning what it was like to be an entrepreneur, making every mistake you can imagine.” This also helped him rediscover his passion for serving and supporting people, which eventually inspired him to start Extern.

His thought at the time was, “All right, I’ve gone through so much, seen so much that I have more confidence in taking an even bigger risk now on my own.” And this, he shares, “is what led me down the path of solving a really hard problem that we’ve made a lot of progress on — and we’re still working on — of, ‘How do you help people get, especially young people, people coming out of college, get meaningful jobs and have meaningful careers?”

Extern’s model involves a subscription-based platform where students — and “learners” who may not be actually enrolled in an educational institution — can apply for and complete “Externships,” remote work experiences with various companies.

“Hey, look,” he explains, “if you don’t happen to even go to college, you should be able to have a shot at this. So, let’s just make it affordable, $10 a month, cost of lunch, and you get to, again, try any Externship. If you don’t want to do it after two weeks, you can join a different one. No one’s going to penalize you because these are cohort-based, so we make sure there’s enough students in them. And that has really taken off. We’ve got now over 7,000 paid subscribers and we’re seeing historically 75% of Externs who complete an Externship will land a job or an internship within a year.”

The company utilizes AI to provide feedback and guidance to students but maintains a strong human element through program managers and teaching assistants. Matt’s goal — and Extern’s mission — is to serve millions of students and learners around the world by making these experiences accessible and affordable.

Matt’s background and experiences, combined with his genuine care for people, have been instrumental in shaping Extern’s people-centric approach and mission. He shares the many motivational and inspiring influences that led to its creation; click on the link below for his talk with Center’s founder, Chris Benguhe, about his values and drive to help others.