May 11, 2016
The startup for students by students got its start because of the contagious culture of entrepreneurship at UCF and in Central Florida. Schoolflow, an education technology startup company, was launched by two UCF students and one Rollins MBA student: Gabe Medina, CEO; Simon Pacheco, CTO; and Andre DeBarros, VP of Business Development.
The idea for Schoolflow grew out of an iOS app Pacheco created called ScholarBounty that rewarded students for good grades. Through the coaching and mentorship received at the technical accelerator in downtown Orlando, Starter Studio (UCF is a Platinum Partner of this program), ScholarBounty evolved into what is now known as Schoolflow.
The Schoolflow app helps college students keep track of their course work by syncing their mobile devices to the school’s learning management system (LMS). Push notifications remind students of assignments due and alert them when grades are posted. UCF students were the first to have access to Schoolflow when it launched in September 2015; and the team plans to make it available for other universities in the near future.
Future plans also include a collaborative video streaming platform for students learning remotely. This new software, licensed through the Office of Technology Transfer, will utilize multiple camera angles so students can simultaneously view the lecturer, the blackboard or whiteboard, and the classroom. As video streaming has grown into a $1 billion industry, this technology has reaches beyond the education realm.
We spoke with DeBarros, who will soon be graduating from UCF with a degree in finance, about the company’s experiences with launching a startup at UCF and as an entrepreneur. He shares insights below:
How did this process begin for you as an entrepreneur?
It was really random, actually. My dad’s an entrepreneur. He owns a few small businesses. He owns an insurance agency, used to own a restaurant, and flips houses. I guess I have the tendency from him, growing up around that.
[Regarding Schoolflow] It fell into my lap. I was at a party. I had a friend that started a wallpaper app—it was a very basic app for the new iOS. His app became one of the top 10 most downloaded apps for a month and he sold it for $500,000. I was pitching an unrelated app to him and he introduced me to Simon and that was right before we were accepted in the [technology accelerator], Starter Studio.
What UCF resources did your company use?
We are an ed tech company, so the resources that UCF can provide go way past the entrepreneurial space. We went to the Blackstone Launchpad and got counseling and mentorship there.
We received a small grant from I-COPRS at UCF, which helped in the very beginning of our company. Simon has talked extensively with the UCF Webcourses team in matters of security, and they have been helpful, giving us best practices because the data is sensitive information. A lot of instructors let us speak in their classes about the app. Help came from every aspect. You start finding out that when you’re a young entrepreneur, there’s a lot of people that really want to see you succeed, especially at a school like UCF.
How was it determined that creating a startup was the best way to get these inventions to the marketplace?
Startups, in general—their biggest trait is that they are extremely cost effective. Another key strength that a really small company has, vs. a larger company like Microsoft, is that it’s very maneuverable. I imagine Microsoft as a cruise ship: they’re big, they’re like a city, they have everything you could possibly want, and you have all the money you need to develop anything. Whereas we’re more of a little speedboat that’s circling around them. Startups are the best at finding products that fit the market because they can change on a dime.
What are three ingredients for success when it comes to launching a startup?
- Product excellence—have the best user experience.
- Scrappiness—we’re really creative when it comes to growing our app. We try to find money where we can, and other things like that. The things we do are unexpected and are based on creativity. It keeps us going because it keeps it interesting.
- Persistence—in a startup, you’re in that little speedboat, and you’re working to maneuver through a really slow process: bureaucracy plus the inexperience of the founders. Even if you’re experienced in one thing and you’re coming in as an expert, there’s still a lot of things that you don’t know. In a startup, you’ll be wearing a lot of hats. There’s always going to be a big hurdle in the way.
As a student, what do you think makes UCF unique in how it approaches entrepreneurship?
UCF is really fostering entrepreneurship and is building a culture around it. There really is a community of entrepreneurs at UCF. There are other startups that we know of and know what they’re doing. It’s a cool thing. It breeds creativity. The teams synergize and you can bounce ideas off of each other.
If there is one piece of advice that you would give a student entrepreneur, something you wish you had known before you launched a startup—what would that be?
Your network – that’s important in any job. The network is by far the most important part of being an entrepreneur. We would have never come across this opportunity without our time at Starter Studio, making connections over there, specifically [former director] Kirstie Chadwick. She introduced us to the right people at UCF’s Office of Research & Commercialization, and also the Florida Institute for the Commercialization of Public Research (FICPR) for matching grant funding. Your network is extremely powerful when it comes to launching a startup, and it really aids with that scrappiness.
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Schoolflow is one of the many startups created at UCF which has licensed university technology. To learn more about startups and how you can license technology from UCF, contact Julia Roberts.