As a student I often found myself aspiring to be a doctor on instant and a finance grad at the next. It was often quite conflicting to pick the course or a career path that was right for me. Unfortunately, I found my passion and a rightful career choice after numerous pivots that did cost me some valuable time.
Well the good news is that students no longer have to deal with such dilemmas as MajorClarity is here to guide them. This is the new platform in town that helps students’ find their right major or career path. With MajorClarity, users do not have to worry about losing out on precious time and resources again.
Meet The Power Team Behind It All!
Conceptualized and co-founded by Joe Belsterling and Evan Beck, MajorClarity is here to help students figure out their path to a successful career or right major.
As a college student, Joe saw firsthand the need for bridging the gap between learning and doing/applying. Classrooms were great at conceptual and theoretical learning, and internships and other opportunities allowed for application, but too rarely were both learning and application integrated. Thus, he teamed up with Evan who had very complementary experiences to his, specifically with experience in academic advising. Together, they set out to solve this problem.
“We went through several iterations/pivots, until we realized it was most feasible to start with bridging learning and doing so to help students figure out what major or career path to pursue. Eventually, we hope to do that for students at every step of their education, but you have to start somewhere”, adds Joe.
Know MajorClarity Better!
The startup is about helping students figure out the right path for them by creating easy, accessible, exploratory, yet immersive learning environments. Too often education is over laden with pressures or about the outcome or result, rather than the process. By creating pressure-free, non-result based learning environments; this platform is facilitating truly exploratory learning for students. For the duo, helping students find the right path in an exploratory fashion is just the start.
On The Problem It Is Solving!
The more students’ change majors, the lower graduation and retention rates are, the higher student debt is, and the less fulfilling their college experience is. Additionally, secondary institutions are also now being tracked on their students’ future college success and persistence. Exploration is good, but too much indecision among students is leading to severe consequences.
This problem mainly arises from the fact that when it comes to helping students find the right major or career path, there is a void for students. Well MajorClarity is here to bridge this gap and guide students into making sound decision about their future.
The Inspiration!
“I saw the need for something similar to this firsthand as a student whose traditional education wasn’t completely fulfilling. I used experiences outside the classroom to supplement and enhance my education. After extensive prototyping, we arrived at where we are now”, says the team.
On The Hurdles Faced & Competitors!
Limited resources were the biggest challenge faced by the team. However, fortunately the 4.0 Schools believed in them as early on as they did, which was even before they had really even arrived at what MajorClarity is right now. They saw something in them, and took a chance and that gave the duo the runway they needed to prototype, develop, and try to turn this into a legitimate enterprise.
In terms of competition, Modern Guild, MyMajors, Focus 2 and Naviance pose as potential competitors. They all help do something similar for students, but have different focuses and thus different applications. Modern Guild is an incredible company and process, but the team feels it’s more for students who have already narrowed options down and are fairly sure they know what they’d like to pursue extensively. The other platforms aren’t nearly as immersive or experiential and thus rely only on theoretical fits to help students find the right path for them.
On Expansion Plans & Intended Users!
At the moment, the team is lining up pilot customers, and then they plan on raising a full seed round to take this to the next level.
“There are countless opportunities to scale distribution and market penetration through partnerships. Several of my mentors and people I get advice from have successfully leveraged partnerships with academic focused groups and associations to do exactly that, and we’re hoping to follow a similar path. We already almost had a partnership lined up with the PA School Board Association several months back, but we were a little bit too early on to be ready for that kind of scale. This and other similar partnerships will be pursued to help us scale and expand”, says the team.
Presently, MajorClarity is mainly targeted at schools, both at the secondary and postsecondary level. Also, organizations that work with students at these levels and organizations that work with schools and school districts can also benefit from this platform.
Monetizing Model!
“We’re adopting an enterprise business model. Since we’re very focused on the students and creating safe, exploratory learning environments, we don’t want students to pay for our platform. Anytime something has a direct cost to users (in this case students or their families), it attaches a pressure to maximize what you “get” out of it and makes it more about the result or the outcome. To keep this truly exploratory, we feel that the enterprise model fits our vision and mission better”, says the team.
Thus, they sell it to schools and organizations that work with students, on an annual contract basis that allows all of their students to have access to the platform.
To sum up everything perfectly, if you work at a school or with students, and are interested in what we’re doing, please visit MajorClarity.com to schedule a demo!
Special Offer!
The team of MajorClarity is knocking off 10% of the first year for anyone who finds out about them through this interview. Just mention the Startup Dope interview when you reach out to them, and they will give you the discount (on top of the discounts already in place for the next several schools they sign up as pilot customers).
For more information, do visit: www.MajorClarity.com
