跨社交媒体连接用户的技术

社交媒体承诺联系. Facebook背后的一个关键理念, LinkedIn, 推特, Instagram, 和 other platforms is that we can create rich personal 和 professional networks, 接收来自他人的更新, 建立社区. 然而，这种体验并不总是像宣传的那样. This disconnect is what a few students at The King’s College 和 teammates from other institutions sought to overcome with a new location-based social sharing app they call Rola.

King’s student Tyler Sells points to data from the Pew Research Center that indicates Americans spend 6.每周5小时 平均与3人互动.5个不同的在线社区. 鉴于“我们的世界是建立在社交媒体上的”这一现实， 销售说“为什么不做得更好呢??为了回答这个问题，他和他的朋友塞德里克·佩吉, 他是加州大学圣地亚哥分校的研究生, developed an app to simplify the user experience 和 return people to what’s important—“reorienting our use of social media back to building relationships.赛尔斯担任公司首席执行官，佩奇担任首席技术官.

当赛尔斯和佩奇在2020年7月创办罗拉时, 他们最初专注于个人用户, providing a way for individuals to “connect instantly over all of their social media platforms,正如他们在网站上描述的那样. The app aims to help people preserve relationships that would otherwise be lost by allowing them to link social media accounts, 电子邮件地址, YouTube频道, 更多的是他们的账户.

在社交媒体上联系人们的过程中, 罗拉团队发现了协会对市场的巨大吸引力, 专业组织, 和 colleges that wanted to use Rola to connect 和 engage with their members. Rola pivoted from a peer-to-peer connecting app to a “Software as a Service” platform for these organizations, 同时把建立关系作为他们的核心任务.

Rola now serves organizations that may not have the capital to build their own app. They accomplish this by aggregating multiple outside services in one place. 按销售量计算, 罗拉收集社区信息, 通过现代目录连接成员, 允许成员回复事件, 和 lets leaders send updates directly to the phones of everyone in the community instantly.”

Rola’s growth accelerated with the help of select King’s students who joined January 2021—Ben Oldham (Business ’21) is the head of operations 和 business strategy 和 serves as Sells’ “right-h和 guy” 和 Tyler Gebhart (MCA ’23) is the head of marketing. 马科斯卡布拉尔 (Business ’23) made important connections early on with Specno该公司是一家继续与罗拉合作的开发公司.

Marketing efforts initially targeted King’s students followed by Ouachita Baptist University students, with the ultimate goal of exp和ing to colleges 和 universities across the country. 今天，罗拉在 应用程序商店 和 谷歌玩 拥有超过1700名用户. 销售说, “We relentlessly pursued Rola’s product-market fit through 32 beta organizations 和 we just created a deal with a 1,纽约市500名会员的专业组织.”

罗拉最近被录取了 百仕通(Blackstone)发射台2021- 2022年冬季加速器队列. The program was founded in 2008 to make entrepreneurship more accessible while students are in school. 他们提供启动资源, 促进与导师和顾问的联系, 和 offer virtual 和 physical convening opportunities so college students can succeed in contributing to the 21st-century economy. This accelerator focuses on helping new companies to build innovative products. The Blackstone accelerator also provides cohort members with office space in 加州大学圣地亚哥分校的设计与创新大楼, 和 Sells plans to work on Rola full-time there upon his graduation from King’s this December.

另外, 2021年11月底, 罗拉从1家公司中脱颖而出，成为50家公司之一,400名申请人申请 NewChip Pre-Seed Accelerator cohort, which will provide the team support in raising capital.

当被问及King 's如何影响《欧洲杯投注》的创作和发展时, 销售说, “作为一名新生, 我选了兼职教授巴里·马歇尔的《作战原理. The class was highly conversational 和 we connected case studies with Barry’s experience in banking 和 fintech.“现在, 巴里是罗拉的正式顾问, helping the team grow their business while holding true to the principles they discussed in class.

销售持续, “马特·珀曼, 职业发展总监, has been a close friend 和 mentor during my time at King’s; the lessons I continue to learn from him help us lead the company with God’s love 和 compassion. 梅根·迪什曼向我们展示了金学院员工的支持, 将我们与金学院的创业研究员罗伯·迈尔联系起来. Dr. Kimberly Reeve has been a resource for us as we make decisions on our business model 和 strategy.他还称赞了弗兰克·都灵, 首席财务官兼财务副总裁, with helping him learn important skills during the development of a student-managed investment fund Sells originated.

Gebhart had this to say about the College’s influence on his leadership: “King’s forces you to be autonomous 和 figure things out by yourself. This is a skill set that fosters discipline 和 creativity despite obstacles. One of the reasons Rola exists today is because King’s taught us to address problems with innovative solutions.”

“There is something broken about the way people connect in modern society,奥尔德姆说, 作为基督徒, 我们被呼召去照顾那破碎. We believe the fragmented nature of social media 和 our communication has led to difficulty in connection. We know there is value in human relationships so we want to make it effortless for humans to connect, 把人们聚集在一起.”

至于罗拉的未来, 销售说, 通过天使投资人, 朋友和家人, 和加速器, 罗拉要结束我们的种子期融资. Software-as-a-service products like Rola are attractive to venture capital firms as a seed investment when they past $15,月经常性收入(MRR). 考虑到我们的目标市场是1美元.80亿年, 这是种子期前的资金, 我们的最终产品, 强大的团队, 保守的增长率是，我们预计将达到15美元,到2022年12月. Upon hitting this goal, we will seek a formal seed from venture firms to take Rola to scale.”

Featured photo: Team members working on Rola from a Brooklyn apartment. 本·奥德姆跪着, 站着(左至右)的是泰勒·塞尔斯, 马科斯卡布拉尔, 还有一个室友, 萨姆·约翰逊. 所有照片均由罗拉团队提供.