Name: Christopher Gray
Cool Facts:
- Awarded 34 college scholarships totaling $1.3M
- Studied Economics at Drexel and graduated in 2015
- Appeared on the ABC show Shark Tank and received a $40,000 investment
Twitter: @scholly5
App: Scholly, Helping parents and students find scholarships to pay for college
Not many college students can say they’ve successfully pitched and received funding from an investor, but Christopher Gray already has that major notch on his belt. The recent graduate is the co-founder and CEO of Scholly, a mobile app that allows students and their parents a quick and straightforward way to find college scholarships. During his appearance on Shark Tank, Gray–then just a college student–not only made a deal, but also sparked a heated debate between the sharks about the app’s value.
Gray was inspired to create the app to help other students like himself, who struggled to afford college application fees, let alone tuition. Gray and his two business partners developed the app for both the iPhone and Android. The paid app had over 92,000 downloads before the Shark Tank exposure, which then shot it to the top of the app store charts. Although the app’s chart position has since declined, it’s still highly rated with over 498 ratings.
To learn more about Christopher and his team’s Shark Tank experience, click here.