In just a moment, you’ll meet Ben Congleton —  Founder of Olark, a live chat software and data tool that serves colleges and universities of all shapes and sizes. Growing up, Ben wanted to be a professor like his father before him.  And while he completed both a bachelors and masters degree from Virginia Tech and started his PhD at the University of Michigan, Ben ultimately realized that he was a bit more interested in business than in higher education. So he decided to pursue one of the many business ideals he had noodled on for a few years. After starting a webhosting company, Ben realized that there was a dearth of great website chat tools – and he had this vision of making chat software that was as easily to install on a website as Google Analytics. And it was this idea that granted access to Olark (which was called Habla at the time) to Y Combinator, the most famous and prestigious of startup accelerators. So, he and his founding team moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and that’s where things really started to take off. Tune in to hear the story of how Ben ended up living in Elon Musk’s house next door to an apartment that Mark Zuckerburg had rented and ultimately bootstrapped the company to success.

In just a moment, you’ll meet Cooper Jones — Co-Founder of RahRah, a Community Engagement System that provides a simple solution to give students the inclusive and supportive experience they need to thrive while on campus. When Cooper was 5 years old, he came back from Sunday school one afternoon and proclaimed to his parents that he wanted to be a preacher and a motocross driver. And while these dreams shifted a bit as he grew up, he does have a passion for community building and Iron Man racing — so, hey, there’s some consistency here! After studying finance at Oklahoma State, Cooper went to work in consulting at Accenture. And it was there that he was placed on a project serving a higher education client. Working with this university opened Cooper’s eyes to the incredible challenges that today’s institutions face…and before too long, ideas for how he might build technology to help address these challenges began to percolate. Tune in to hear the story behind how and why Cooper started RahRah.

Recognized as one of Columbus' 30 most influential women by Business First, Bev continues to be engaged in the community, particularly helping aspiring women leaders become successful, and providing opportunities for young people to learn about the creative industry. Tune into the exciting story of how Bev built and scaled one of the country’s most respected higher education branding and marketing agencies – working with brands like Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Purdue, just to name a few!

In this episode, you’ll get to know Teresa Valerio Parrot, Founder and Principal of TVP Communications, a premier higher education communications firm.

Meet Eric Drymer, Co-Founder and CEO of Takeoff, a brand new social learning app that pays Gen Z to learn within the context of a virtual study hall.

Learn what led Robert Rosenbloom to founding Platform Q Education, one of the leading developers of virtual experiences in higher ed.

In the second installment of a two-part series, hear Clayton and Brian talk about pivotal moments in their respective journeys as entrepreneurs and get a behind-the-scenes look into the Circa Interactive/Archer Education merger.

In the first installment of a two-part series, hear how Clayton and Joe grew the Circa Interactive team from 4 to 50 and why they decided to join forces with Archer Education.

Learn how Ardis Kadiu went from tinkerer, to engineer, to businessman, to entrepreneur, to founder of one of higher ed’s most powerful CRMs, Element451.

Hear how Justin Rotman's penchant for critical thinking & creative problem-solving led him to cofound an exciting ed tech company.

Elizabeth Johnson is the Co-Founder & Chairman at SimpsonScarborough. Tune in to hear how a life-changing phone call led Elizabeth down a fortuitous path.

Meet TK Gondo — Co-Founder and CEO of Polygon Students. Listen in to hear how TK overcame a variety of obstacles and later built one of the most exciting new startups in the edtech space today.

Hear how Rebecca De Beukelaer built Unisalad & how she successfully pivoted after COVID-19 forced students back home and her app usage all but disappeared.

Tune in to hear the inspiring story of how the demise of one agency led to the birth of one of the most respected consultancies in the education marketing and branding space.

Tune in to hear the story of how Nick Freud and his college buddy, Rob Carroll, built the largest repository of college student user-generated content, featuring more than 17,000 videos created by students at 355 colleges and universities.

Tune in to hear the origin story of the company that just might disrupt the Blackboards of the world and become the premier digital space where every college student comes to learn, network, and collaborate.

From foreign service goals to co-founding a social community, Adam Metcalf has had a lot of twists in his journey. Tune in to hear what he learned through it all.

In high school, Liz wanted to be a youth pastor. Find out how she pivoted to become one of the most trustworthy voices in higher education today.