Tons of questions pop up when you’re embarking on your college career. When is FAFSA due? What time is college orientation? What kind of scholarships am I qualified for?
While many of these questions can be answered by digging through your university’s website, wouldn’t it be easier if they could just be answered via text?
That’s the idea behind AdmitHub, a Boston-based edtech startup that’s using conversational artificial intelligence (AI) to help guide students through college.
After years spent working in various roles in academia, Kirk Daulerio and Andrew Magliozzi co-founded the startup in 2014 with the goal of offering free, expert admissions advising applicants and college students everywhere.
“We started talking about starting a company that used innovative technology to scale college advising to provide open access to students everywhere,” Daulerio said. “But what we found in the early years was surprising. The only way students would engage with us was not over email, but over text.”
But, texting students on a human-to-human scale is not a very sustainable model, Daulerio said.
Oli, the company’s main chatbot, operates 24/7 via text and Facebook messenger to answer general inquiries from students, ranging from admission exams to financial aid and tuition.
AdmitHub also partners with campuses directly to create institution-specific chatbots that help students with questions tailored to a particular college. Instead of Oli, the bot is personified by the school’s mascot. At Georgia State, for example, students interact with a bot named after the school’s blue panther Pounce.
AdmitHub pulled in over $2.95 million in seed funding this month to grow its team, develop Oli and other campus-specific chatbots and to expand its services across the U.S. and to international institutions.
The round was led by Relay Ventures and Reach Capital, with participation from University Ventures, and followed a previous $800,000 the company raised after graduating from the 2015 Techstars accelerator program. In total, AdmitHub has raised nearly $3 million in seed funding.
Through machine learning and artificial intelligence, Admithub allows institutions to eliminate repetitive tasks, free up their call centers and develop deeper relationships with prospective and current students who are less likely to utilize email or phone calls.
“We’ll also connect students to appropriate staff members if they need more personalized support,” Daulerio said.
For example, if a student texted Oli, “I’m not sure I can afford your tuition,” the technology realizes that question should be fielded by a person and will put the student in contact with an appropriate person from the university.
“This helps universities scale their support and communication efforts so they can focus on the one percent of students who need the most personalized support,” Daulerio added.
In 2017, AdmitHub is focused on ensuring success with their current university partners including Georgia State, Cooper Union, Allegheny College and others, and to expand its reach to new institutions.
If working in edtech appeals to you, Daulerio said AdmitHub is expanding its team this year and looking specifically for top engineering talent.
“[We want] folks who think at a higher level to help AI technology get smarter on a day-to-day basis,” Daulerio said.
He added that AdmitHub especially looks for people who will employ the company’s mantra of “Be joyful.”
“We’re an edtech company so we’re working with students,” Daulerio said. “Everyone involved with the company has the higher mission of helping a generation of students along the path to and through college and using tech as a way to do that. We all care very deeply about education, but while we enjoy building products for universities, we want to delight our users who are students.”
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