MentionFox
Home › funding signals › Extern
Accelerator · announced

Extern (YC W17) — Professional experience Anytime, anywhere

Extern appears in Y Combinator's company directory in the Winter 2017 batch, listed 2016-11-03. Professional Experience Anytime, Anywhere..

Just raised? Share it.

Extern: Accepted into Y Combinator Winter 2017

What do you want to do with Extern?

Extern

New accelerator entry · 2016-11-03 · the record

Winter 2017
batch
30
people
Early
stage
United States of America
region
Open the record →

In their words

At Extern, we’re solving the experience gap. Extern created the remote Externship, a skill-building work experience that is easier for students to access, and easier for companies to run, than an internship. Our mission is to help anyone discover and launch their career through professional experiences available anywhere at any time. Since 2020, we’ve created and powered Externships for over 50,000 students on behalf of companies from Fortune 500s to startups. After spending $100K on average for a 4-year degree, graduates find that almost 40% of entry level jobs on Linkedin required 3+ years of work experience. Internships are how many college students get this kind of experience, but the demand for good internships outstrips the supply. Internship programs are difficult to scale, they favor students who already have social capital, and they’re time-consuming for employers to run. Externships are short, online, project-based work experiences that employers can offer to hundreds of students using less resource and employee time than it would take to support an intern. Extern makes the complex process of running an Externship completely turnkey with software and industry experts which in turn makes professional experience more accessible to more students. By making work experience more accessible, Extern is driving the rapid mobility and upskilling needed for a new economy. We envision a world where anyone can access work experience as a form of education – no matter their background, experience, or socio-economic status. Come join our movement to reshape work, education, and credentialing for future generations with the Externship. Extern was born out of a pivot from Paragon One (W17) which initially focused on providing students with a career center-as-a-service platform, connecting them with industry professionals to receive career coaching and guidance. Backed by Y Combinator, Foundation Capital, Launch Fund, University Ventures, and Learn Capital.

What the record says

BatchWinter 2017
Announced2016-11-03
StageEarly
StatusActive
Team size30
IndustryConsumer
Sub-industryConsumer -> Job and Career Services
SectorsEducation, Marketplace, eLearning, Recruiting, Remote Work
RegionsUnited States of America, America / Canada, Remote, Fully Remote
BasedSan Francisco, CA, USA; Remote
HiringNo
Sitehttp://www.extern.com
Previously known asParagon One

The full profile

Checking your access…

Is this you?

If you're behind Extern: acceptance into a YC batch is one of the few weeks a young company gets looked up by people who matter — investors, other founders, press. FoxPlug turns the commits, deploys, and releases you're already making into that story automatically, so anyone who looks finds something current. FoxChat puts a guide on your own site so the people YC's own page just sent you don't read one line and leave.

Sourced from the company's Y Combinator directory entry.

Tools for this story

Each opens in a new tab, filled in for Extern. With no account yet, you sign up free and land on the result.

Cite this page

Permanent URL: https://mentionfox.com/funding/yc-extern
Last updated 2026-09-26
Primary record: Y Combinator directory entry
Extern (YC W17) — Professional experience Anytime, anywhere. MentionFox, 2026-09-26. https://mentionfox.com/funding/yc-extern