ApplyKit: College Search and Application Process Enters the Tech Era

Release Date: Mon, 12/22/2014 - 08:00Author: Josh Boyle - Director of Community & Marketing, VentureFizzThumbnail: Home Page Image: Teaser: Do you remember your college application process? If you don't, your parents most certainly do. Trying to provide guidance, while figuring out what it is you want in a school at the same time narrowing the list to schools in which they could afford. Not an easy process...Do you remember your college application process? If you don't, your parents most certainly do. Trying to provide guidance, while figuring out what it is you want in a school at the same time narrowing the list to schools in which they could afford. Not an easy process. For many of us, this process was quite some time ago, but not much has changed… Until now. Bobby Touran, former Entrepreneur in Residence with Wasabi Ventures, founded ApplyKit, a mobile-first platform that helps students identify and close their academic gap, and get into their target colleges. I caught up with Bobby last week and gave ApplyKit a test run. I found myself wishing I had this app as a high school student. The biggest takeaway was its simplicity - both in performance and user experience. Once downloaded, ApplyKit prompts the user through a series of questions, collecting information about interests, academic performance, test scores, etc. As a user, you'll be asked questions about where you'd like to, or be willing to, go to school and if you want a city setting or big time sports atmospheres on the weekends. These may seem like simple questions, but I saw this very much as educational. With any new experience, one doesn't know what questions they should be asking or looking into. ApplyKit has the knowledge and informs you of what's out there. Potentially bringing to your attention things you never considered. Beyond this, ApplyKit is really easy to use and engages the student. Gone are the days of browsing overwhelming university websites scouring tab after tab seeking answers. ApplyKit has that information pulled in through IPEDs (a database of schools) and matches you with the schools that match what you're looking for. Touran, who co-founded a successful eCommerce business while a junior at McGill University in Montreal, was at Wasabi Ventures when the opportunity to capitalize on this problem hit him. Touran began attending college fairs and researching his concept. In August of 2013 he released his initial product ApplyKit Dashboard, which was more of a workflow and organizational tool for prospective students and their parents. By the end of that year 34,000 students around the world were using the platform. In January of this year, Touran was invited to the White House to participate at "Datapalooza" where he would leave with a focus for what ApplyKit is now -ApplyKit Match. The event shined a light on student retention and what the academia world could do to improve retention rates. To Touran, it was simple, "get them in the right college in the first place and they are more likely to stay." Touran and his team, which currently consists of himself, a CTO and Head of Marketing working out of the Alpha Loft in New Hampshire, plus 3 additional engineers off-shore, worked on the new vision until releasing the ApplyKit Match app 8 weeks ago. User base is into the thousands. ApplyKit has raised $250,000 to date and Touran says he plans to stretch that out, with no immediate plans to seek additional funding. Touran tells me "the future of college search, is college match." Adding the "future behind enrollment management is in building genuine, real-time relationships with students." Touran believes he and his team at ApplyKit have these solutions available today. If you or somebody you know are going through the search process now, give this local startup a shot.Josh Boyle is Director of Community & Marketing, VentureFizz. You can follow him on Twitter @jb_sid
 and keep up with his latest posts by signing up for the VentureFizz Weekly Email!