GradGears' mission is to increase community college completion rates nationwide through a mobile platform called GradGuru that informs, motivates, and connects students to help them make better decisions to finish school faster. The platform provides students with deadlines, tasks, nudges based on evidence-based behaviors, and peer support through a social network feature. It aims to be a cost-efficient and scalable way for community colleges to improve completion rates given limited resources like advisors. The founder has outlined plans for user acquisition, product releases, revenue streams, expenses, milestones, and potential impact on completion timelines and fees saved by students.

1. GradGears’ mission is to increase completion rates among community college students
nationwide and accelerate their path to completion
Catalina Ruiz-Healy, Founder + CEO
Catalina@gradguru.org

2. Problem: 3/4 students who enter
community college drop out (NCES 2012)
Poor academic preparation
Difficult financial and personal situations
Lack of college know-how/culture
Unclear path to completion
Under-resourced institutional support
Weak peer-to-peer support mechanisms
Sources: Community College Research Center; American Association of Community Colleges; Public Agenda,
National Center on Education Statistics.

3. Solution: A Community College Advisor
in Your Pocket!
GradGuru is a student-centered interactive mobile platform that
informs, motivates, and connects students. We guide them
to make better decisions that lead to finishing school faster.
GRadGuru is a cost efficient and
scalable way to improve our
completion and success rates
--Vice President and Dean, Student Services,
Bay Area Community College

4. Information*Training*Management
Download GradGuru on iTunes!
Training:
Information: Management
Nudges delivered about positive With GradBadge, GradGuru will
Deadlines and ‘to-dos’ delivered
evidence-based behaviors and enable peer-to-peer support,
with specific instructions
stored for future reference and encouragement
sharing

5. Business Model
Key Partners Key Activities VALUE PROP Customer Relationship Customers
Expansion Bridge Platform/network Get the info you need to make better
(managing technology risk) management decisions (information+ training) Communities
12 million
Research/evidence Get out of school faster Automated personalized Community College
Community Colleges
(where our primary users are) translation messaging Students
Better experience at school
Custom messaging
Community College Support Savings on tuition, opportunity cost of Personal Assistance
Infrastructure, e.g. Chancellor’s Custom data collection being in school, books, etc
Office, student organizations, Consulting/Co-creation
American Association of Data management Build social capital (management)
Community Colleges 1132 Community College
American College Counseling Data analytics
Association Districts and Campuses
Cost efficient and scalable way
(marketing alliances) to higher completion and
Key Resources Distribution Channels
success rates
Users
Money Community colleges
(customer feedback) Better completion rates
Engineers High School partners
Customization for each school
Designer CC matriculation partners
Data enables better allocation of Student-serving nonprofits
Data analytics person resources
Student-Serving nonprofits
Sales People Data allows better evaluation
Students
Servers Low Cost way to support dwindling
Word of Mouth
resource (counselors and advisors)
Databases
Facebook
Easy implementation+No technology
risk
SEO
Sales Force
Cost Structure Revenue Streams
FREE Downloads and Messaging to Students
People (Developers, Designers, Engineers) Subscription for messaging, data collection
Marketing and Sales (focused on raising awareness/discovery) Fees for data analytics, lead generation
Licensing for console access and custom messaging/data collection ability

6. Our Special Sauce
Design and approach focused on community
college students
Proprietary research database of hundreds of
catalogued, actionable, evidence-based
“nudges” that shift behavior
Proprietary data collection system & algorithm
Scalable peer-to-peer management with social
network

7. User Acquisition
Regional Approach
Direct Marketing to Students
Community College campuses
Word-of-mouth Marketing
Facebook, Twitter, BLog
Sales Force
Community College Campuses: Deans and Vice Presidents of
Student Services; Counselors and Advisors
Community College Districts: Chancellors and Vice-
Chancellors for Student Services, Technology
Student-serving nonprofits: college success, scholarship
providers

8. Competition
Name/Product Info Training Mgmt Legal Mobile/ Info
(dates, (Nudges/ (Support/ Market
Function Status Web Delivery
deadlines) Reminders) Encouragement)
GradGears X X P2P Non- M CC only Push Mobile
profit
PersistencePlus X X C2S For Profit M Cc+4 yr Push Mobile
AcademyOne’s
X For Profit M 4 yr Static
Academic GPS
Blackboard Mobile X For Profit M Cc+4 yr Static
Myedu X P2P For Profit W Cc+4 yr Push Web
High
Collegesnaps X X For Profit M Push Web
School
P2P= Peer to peer
C2S=College to student
“Information, Training, Management” Schema borrowed from College Summit

9. Timeline & Milestones
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
USERS
# of Campuses 11 30 100 300 600
Total Cumulative Downloads 1,000 6,800 32,600 116,400 312,600
Total Cumulative Consistent Users 900 6,120 29,340 104,760 281,340
Capture Rate per Campus 2.05% 8.05% 9.06% 11.96% 18.46%
GradGuru Drop Or Not Pathway
PRODUCT RELEASES GradGuru ios Android Module Planner
GradBadge
Console
REVENUE
Fees for Messaging/Data Collection Campuses - First
Year 42,750 182,250 492,750 857,250
Assumes 15%
Messaging/Data Collection to Campuses - Subsequent
Capture rate Years 28,500 121,500 328,500
Data Analytics 75,000 225,000 450,000
Console 5,000 75,000 225,000 450,000
Sub-Total Earned Revenues - 47,750 367,170 1,049,880 1,993,170
Sub-Total Grant Contributions 40,000 220,000 240,000 180,000 200,000
TOTAL IN-FLOWS 40,000 267,750 607,170 1,229,880 2,193,170
EXPENSES
TOTAL OUT-FLOWS 38,500 253,500 566,318 1,246,775 1,940,783
Cash-On-Hand End of Year 1,500 15,750 56,602 39,707 292,094
Persons on Salary 2 7 10 14
Consistent Users 900 6,120 29,340 104,760 281,340
IMPACT Year of Impact on Completion Timeline 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Students Impacted
Number Impacted, Resulting in Completing One Year Faster (10% of users) 90 612 2,934 10,476 28,134
Cumulative Students who Save 1 Years of Study 90 702 3,636 14,112 42,246
Assumes CA Avg $1104 Total Fees Avoided (five year lag) 99,360 775,008 4,014,144 15,579,648 46,639,584
Per year Cumulative Fees Saved 99,360 874,368 4,888,512 20,468,160 67,107,744

10. Team, Board & Advisors
Team Alicia Morga, technology
entrepreneur
Catalina Ruiz-Healy, CEO +
Deborah Rappaport, Rappaport
Founder
Family Foundation
Silvino Leon, CTO
John M. Rogers, Gryphon Investors
Lili Mano, Community Manager
Jessie Ryan, Campaign for College
Opportunity
Board+Advisors
Fred Sherman, Former Vice-
Melinda Karp, Community College Chancellor for Technology, DeAnza
Research Center, Columbia Foothill
University
Kioma Valenzuela, Sweeter, Inc.
Jonathan Kevles, AECOM (former community college student)
Tina Lee, Office of Comptroller John Consuelo Valverde, Expansion Bridge
Chiang