SAN DIEGO, Oct. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — College Contact, a fast-growing edtech startup based in Austin Texas, won first place in the highly competitive “Navigating Career Pathways” category at the 2024 EDTECH WEEK Shark Tanks last week. The category focused on sourcing innovative tools and tech platforms that help K-12 & higher education learners explore and succeed in their college & career journeys through mentorship, pathfinding, and skills alignment. The judges, composed of global EdTech investors from WGU Labs, JFF Ventures and EduLabs Capital Partners, selected College Contact from a pool of hundreds of promising startups in the space.
The Shark Tanks @ EDTECH WEEK event is a prestigious competition for startups and Series A companies in the EdTech space. Finalists in the 2024 category included REACH Pathways, (gamified content for HiPURS), Hellohive (talent building for companies), Prentus (AI-powered data analytics for tracking job outcomes), and GoPursue (career access platform).
College Contact’s win underscores the importance of its near-peer mentorship model, which matches high school students with upskilled undergraduate mentors for postsecondary pathway advising, offering real-time support on everything from essay writing to navigating financial aid. The platform’s ability to provide personalized, relatable, and authentic advising at scale stood out to the panel of investors, considering the startup has had extremely high student engagement and adoption metrics since its organic inception from a TikTok video.
Founded in 2019 in Sophie Smith’s college dorm room, College Contact was born out of universal frustration with the current postsecondary advising landscape. High schoolers and their parents found Sophie’s authentic content on TikTok, and joined a waitlist for support from the then 19-year old. The onslaught of original demand was driven by exorbitant costs of private college counselors and the lack of 1:1 time students receive in school due to high counselor caseloads. In an effort to democratize access to higher education for these families, Sophie threw together a duct-tape and glue solution – matching students on the waitlist to competent undergraduate students in her network.
After Sophie and her cofounder Leah Guesman graduated from the University of Virginia in 2023, the pair began exploring if their solution could be sold directly to public school counseling departments. As they entered the K-12 market, their solution caught fire for a second time.
Kyle Seipp, the Director of Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness at E3 Alliance remarked, “There are 5.5 million students in Texas, which means there are 5.5 million different college & career pathways to success in this state alone. College Contact can bring personalized 1:1 support to every student. This is a revolutionary idea to support overwhelmed counseling departments with high caseloads.”
“We are thrilled to have won this competition,” said Sophie Smith, CEO of College Contact. “It’s a powerful validation of our near-peer model and our mission to provide accessible college & career advising for every student, regardless of their background. We are especially excited about the inbound demand we have received from counseling departments, who see our solution as a valuable resource for their large student bodies.”
Leah Guesman, COO of College Contact, added, “This win is a testament to the power of mentorship. By connecting students with peers who have recently gone through critical college and career decisions, we give them both the support and confidence they need to make informed decisions about their futures. This recognition from the broader EdTech community is already helping us expand our reach and continue to scale our impact.”
Since its founding, College Contact has helped over 5,000 students gain admission to more than 150 universities, with 86% of them securing a spot at their top-choice school. Beyond their growing partnerships with districts in California, Texas and Florida, the platform is gaining attention for its affordability from individual families, offering near-peer mentorship services for as little as $60 per month—a fraction of what traditional private college counselors charge.
College Contact’s focus on providing accessible, tailored guidance to students of all backgrounds aligns with the broader movement to make higher education more equitable and attainable. Learn more at College Contact’s website here.
About College Contact
College Contact is a Texas-based, female-founded college and career readiness platform that connects high school students with near-peer mentors. With a historical 100% university acceptance rate and an 86% placement rate into students’ first-choice universities, College Contact has helped thousands of students nationwide. The platform’s innovative model, combined with comprehensive resources and personalized support, empowers students to achieve their academic and career goals, while simultaneously helping school districts scale 1:1, personalized postsecondary advising.
Media Contact:
Grayson Turley
info@yourcollegecontact.com
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SOURCE College Contact
