So you’ve graduated from college with a liberal arts degree. Now what?

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Kristen Hamilton, CEO of Koru, in the KIRO Radio studios. (Erynn Rose photo)

That’s the challenge being tackled by Koru, a Seattle startup whose CEO, Kristen Hamilton, is our guest this week on the GeekWire radio show.

The company raised more than $4.3 million in funding last year with the mission of helping college grads get mentorship and training to succeed in top-notch jobs, while helping companies identify grads with the highest potential to do well.

“Koru is really a coach and a connector,” she explains.

Participants in the Koru programs work on specific challenges being faced by startup’s partner companies, including Zulily, REI, Smartsheet and others. They also receive help from corporate veterans who work as mentors with Koru.

Hamilton, who was a co-founder of Onvia, started Koru with Josh Harrett, who previously oversaw the higher education innovation efforts at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Koru in February announced partnerships with 13 colleges and universities in the U.S.

Listen to the show in the audio player below or via this MP3 file. The discussion with Hamilton begins in the second segment of the show, starting at the 8:15 mark.

The show starts with our weekly news roundup, including the latest on Seattle’s ridesharing rules, thoughts on Seattle ‘process’ and the implications for the region’s tech community, and Facebook’s reported interest in acquiring Titan Aerospace as a possible means of delivering Internet access via drones.

App of the Week: Dwellable for iOS.

Name that Tech Tune: The answer to last week’s challenge: Flappy Bird. Congrats to our winner, Joel, who gets two tickets to the GeekWire Bash on March 20.

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