About KinTrades
Four entry points. One paved path. From exploring the trades to working in them.
KinTrades™ is where people explore the skilled trades, show what they can actually do, and get connected to employers hiring near them. A student starts by looking around. A worker with ten years on the job starts by showing the work. Different front doors — the same path, and the same destination.
Why We Built KinTrades
Plenty of platforms list skilled trades jobs. Almost none are built for the workers our communities count on. Those workers have real skills. The systems most platforms run on filter them out before an employer ever sees them.
Ed is a CTE teacher. He watches his students every year try to find a pathway into the trades — and most of them don't have one. Shanell spent months in the field listening to trades workers and employers describe the same gap from the other side. And together, as people who hire trades workers for our own properties, we knew this wasn't a problem we were observing. It was one we lived.
So we built KinTrades — a platform where workers show what they can do with photos and videos of real work, and the employers, training programs, and community partners around them can finally see them for it.
One Paved Path
Our goal isn’t to replace what’s already working — it’s to connect it. People reach the trades through four different front doors. Once they’re through one of them, the path is the same.
- Explore
- Prepare
- Train
- Demonstrate
- Connect
- Work
- Advance
Our partners deliver the training — trade schools, apprenticeship programs, and workforce training providers. KinTrades connects people to it, and shows employers what it produced.
Communities We Prioritize
Inclusive hiring isn’t a feature we tacked on — it’s the reason we exist. These are the four communities we intentionally design access for, each with a different route in and a different set of strengths.
Students
From first look to first job. Young people exploring what the trades actually pay and what a day on the job looks like — then moving into training, an apprenticeship, or a direct hire. Exploration is where most of them start, so it’s where we start too.
Second chance
Returning citizens and justice-impacted adults with real skills and the determination to use them. Employer signals like Federal Bonding eligibility and a Second Chance Friendly indicator help employers say yes with confidence.
Veterans
Heavy equipment, electrical, welding, mechanical — military service builds real trades skills. KinTrades helps transitioning service members show that work to civilian employers in language those employers recognize.
Residents receiving public benefits
TANF participants, WIOA enrollees, and graduates of community training programs, referred by the agencies and providers already working with them. Placement and retention are tracked back to the programs that funded the work.
Across all four, the same thing is true: years of on-the-job experience rarely fit on a resume. Photos and videos of real work speak for themselves.
How the Platform Works
Built for the whole path — from first look at a trade to a job offer.
Trade Exploration
Day-in-the-life pages for every trade, with federal wage data and the rungs of each career ladder — before anyone commits to a path.
Skills-First Profiles
Workers create Skill Profiles with photos, videos, and work experience.
Smart Matching
Our matching algorithm scores every match on skill fit and suitability.
Reliability Scoring
A general readiness score visible to employers.
Hiring Benefits
Auto-identifies Federal Bonding and WIOA OJT eligibility when offers are extended, with filing deadline reminders. WOTC tracking and pre-filled IRS Form 8850 + ETA 9061 activate automatically if Congress reauthorizes the program.
53 Trades · 12 Families
From construction, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC to welding, heavy equipment, transportation, and energy — every major skilled trade family.
Who KinTrades Is For
Two sides use the platform directly. A third connects people to it — and gets the evidence back.
Employers
Post jobs, browse worker profiles with skill photos and videos, and access built-in hiring benefits — bonding, training reimbursement, and tax credits. Our match algorithm surfaces the best candidates first.
Workers
Build your profile in minutes. Instead of a resume, show what you can do with photos and videos of your actual work. Get matched with employers hiring in your trade and area. Skills-first — your skills speak for themselves, regardless of your background.
Partners
Workforce boards, training programs, community colleges, reentry programs, and veterans organizations. No account needed — partners share one link, join us on hiring initiatives, and get back verified outcomes through KinComply: placements, retention, and the effort behind them, each traceable to its source.
In the Community
KinTrades partnered with Anacostia River Church to support the Nationwide Day of Second Chances Job Fair at the DC Dream Center in Washington, D.C. (April 2026). Employers posted open roles on KinTrades and connected with skilled trades workers rebuilding their careers.
Meet the Team
KinTrades is built by a senior team with roots in the communities it connects — skilled trades, workforce programs, military service, career and technical education, and the engineering behind the platform.
Leadership & Operations
Shanell Guardo
Founder & CEO
Shanell Guardo is the founder and CEO of KinTrades. She spent months conducting field research with trades workers and employers across Virginia, North Carolina, D.C., and Maryland — and found the same pattern everywhere: real opportunity in the trades, real demand from employers, and disconnected systems in between. KinTrades was built to close that distance — a paved path from career exploration for students and anyone exploring the trades, through to real jobs with employers in the communities we serve.
Shanell holds a Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, an MBA, and a PMP certification. She is a veteran of the United States Air Force, where she served in the Medical Service Corps, and has served as a GS-15 Program Manager supporting large-scale federal technology modernization programs. She currently serves as a Principal Product Management Engineer in the technology industry and leads KinTrades in parallel.
Edward Guardo
Co-Founder & Director, Employer Network Development
Ed Guardo is Co-Founder of KinTrades and Director of Employer Network Development, leading skilled-trades employer recruiting and placement verification. He brings 13+ years of direct industry experience in engineering, construction, and heavy equipment operations — the exact sectors KinTrades targets for worker placement. During his U.S. Army service he worked as a construction supervisor and heavy equipment operator, and later served as a commissioned Military Police officer and as Assistant Professor of Military Science at Gonzaga University.
Ed holds a Master of Science in Business and Security Management from Webster University, a bachelor’s degree in History from Drury University, and a post-master’s teaching certification from the University of Virginia. He currently works in career and technical education as a Lead JROTC Instructor, supporting high school students as they explore post-graduation pathways into the skilled trades. That day-to-day visibility into what graduating workers actually need informs KinTrades’ product design.
Constance Garcia
Program Manager, Community Partnerships
Constance leads program management across KinTrades’ community partnerships — the workforce programs, training providers, and public agencies that refer workers to the platform. She runs onboarding and coordination for each one, tracks how referred workers progress into hiring, and owns the reporting that holds every program to the outcomes it set out to reach. She is the day-to-day point of contact for the organizations we work alongside.
Constance holds an MBA in Healthcare Administration from Fayetteville State University, a Certified Professional in Healthcare Management (CPHM) certification, and CompTIA Security+. Her background spans federal contracting and government program management, in training and program-management roles across compliance-driven federal program environments.
Engineering
Alex Morales
Architecture & Technical Advisor
Alex leads platform architecture and technical advisory across KinTech — cloud infrastructure and identity design, security automation, and the engineering standards the platform is built to. He advises on architecture decisions and on the safeguards that keep worker and employer data protected end to end.
A Principal Software Engineer specializing in agentic systems and applied AI, Alex retired from Microsoft after 20+ years in engineering, Azure FastTrack, and enterprise architecture — where he led an Americas-wide application development team and built the high-throughput, low-latency infrastructure behind large-scale AI workloads.
Social Media & Content
Bessie Mullins
Social Media & Content Manager
Bessie leads social media and content for KinTrades — the posts, stories, and campaigns that put the platform and the trades in front of the people who need them, and the interview and video work that shows real tradespeople at work.
Bessie came to KinTech through its cybersecurity engineering internship and still holds the credentials from it: Certified Cybersecurity Technician (CCT), CompTIA Security+, Network+, and CC, and Microsoft SC-900. She is a military spouse, recognized by Women in Cloud for her contributions to cybersecurity.
Intern Contributors
Video editing, skilled-trades interviews, content production, storytelling
Our interns are local high school students and Howard University students. They produce the interviews and short-form video that put real tradespeople in front of the people hiring them — capturing the work, the craft, and the stories behind both.
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Xavier
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Benjamin
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Suleila
Shanell and Ed also own and operate rental properties — Ed handles much of the hands-on trade work, and both of them regularly hire and engage skilled trades workers.
Team members hold roles outside KinTrades. KinTrades is an independent company; no employer endorsement is implied.
About KinTech
KinTrades is a product of KinTech, LLC — an impact-driven technology company that builds and incubates platforms across workforce, defense, healthcare, financial services, and public-sector technology.
KinTech brings together product thinking, technical execution, and community-centered design to build systems that create durable opportunity across industries.
Two platforms do the work: KinTrades makes the connection, and KinComply proves it worked.
Certifications
Federal
KinTech, LLC holds the following federal certifications and registrations:
SAM.gov registration is required to conduct business with the U.S. federal government and to receive federal grants and contracts.
State — Virginia SBSD
KinTech, LLC is also certified by the Virginia Department of Small Business and Supplier Diversity (SBSD):
These certifications may help your organization meet diversity procurement goals or access funding reserved for certified partners.