I was forwarded this article from the WSJ a few days ago.  It’s a great, but sobering read.  “Hey world, we are doing all we can to help make this problem go away” - Jeremy and Matt

To Pay Off Loans, Grads Put Off Marriage, Children - by WSJ columnist Susan Shellenbarger

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304818404577350030559887086.html

Just when I was about to write off Cleveland and its technology front I end up spending this past week meeting with some young Cleveland based tech companies who are doing great things in the education space.  Oh how this warms my heart.  Cleveland innovation is alive!  Thanks for taking the time to meet with us John and Jamie.

See for yourself.

www.decisiondesk.com

www.AdmitInsights.com

Well if we were hoping to stay hiding in the shadows that’s no longer possible.  On Wednesday we were honored to take part in a conference call with such individuals as Todd Park (Obama’s newly appointed CTO), Zakiya Smith (Senior Policy Advisor for Education at the Domestic Policy Council), and Georgia Yuan (Deputy Under Secretary, US Dept. of Ed), along with other US Dept. officials.  We were chosen, along with eleven other companies, to join in a conversation regarding some potential policy changes that the Dept. of Ed will be implementing over the next 12 months to allow for more openness and availability of a students SAR (Student Aid Report).  This group of officials wanted to pick our brains and hear our thoughts, because they consider us educational technology innovators, as to what types of things we would do if they made the SAR available to students in a machine-readable format.  Not only did we find the call incredibly interesting, but the call also opened our eyes to the fact that officials inside the Dept of Ed are already taking notice of our company.  Being on the call with the likes of Chegg, ConnectEDU, Hobsons (Naviance), Petersons, CollegeBoard, FinAid/FastWeb and Smarteys made us realize that our days of being unknown are over.  It’s now time for us to step up and carry this momentum forward.  We are primed, we are ready, now it’s time to make a difference.

It’s been quite some time since our last post - I guess you could say we were focused on actually building our business and not just talking about it.  Anyway, since our last post we have made some great strides in turning Upclique into something significant.  Over the past two months we have raised a chunk of institutional financing; we have signed on with Atomic PR so they can begin making us a household name; and most importantly we have been endorsed by the National Catholic College Admission Association.  It’s been a great 2012 so far and now we are seeing our little network grow at rate of around 5 colleges/high schools a day. 

We know the potential of Upclique and we are just waiting for that tipping point moment.  A new era of college recruiting is coming and we’re ushering it in.

When we started Upclique, neither Matt nor myself knew exactly what we were getting into.  Seemingly everyone we talked with had some horror story or another about a family member or friend who started a business and was now living in their uncle’s basement.  Most people looked at us like we were a confusing bumper-sticker; trying to read us in order to figure out why we would leave our stable jobs to pursue building an internet company.  Honestly, after a while we simply became numb to it and instead relied on each other and our closest friends to keep us fired up. 

I can’t tell you how important it is to have those closest to you support you in whatever it is you do.  My wife is the complete opposite of me when it comes to taking risks.  Quitting her job to pursue an idea…let’s just say that would never happen.  But my stable wife in all her stableness, loved me, supported me and will continue to support me because she knows its a passion of mine.  Starting a business is beyond difficult.  There are literally a zillion things to do and you typically don’t know how to do a zillion minus one of them.  So having people, like my wife, stand by me in this endeavor is absolutely critical.  The same holds true for Matt.  His parents have always encouraged him, even from a very young age, to live his life with No Regrets.  He tries to do that everyday.  Even before we started Upclique Matt had an incredible job opportunity down in San Antonio, TX.  The job was his to take and I can still remember him walking into my office just to tell me he turned it down because he didn’t want to regret not giving Upclique a shot.  You know why he could think this way and act this way?  Because he had a loving family who understood him as a person and wanted him to always pursue his dreams.  No Regrets.

So if we had to impart our first words of wisdom or lesson in business this would be it.  Surround yourself with people who genuinely care about you so that you can live your life with No Regrets.  Upclique is a No Regrets company.  Before we make any decisions we talk them over, think them over, make them and then move on.  Not all of our decisions are the best decisions, as our short history has already shown us a few times, but we don’t let ourselves regret any of them.  Regret is failures tool.  Regret keeps you from doing things you won’t regret.  Regret only leads to second-guessing, which leads to frustration, which leads to negativity, which leads to failure.  Live life and do business with No Regrets.  Remember, not doing things just because people tell you not to do them can lead to the biggest regrets you will ever have in your life (I will touch on this more in our next blog).

Until then, get out and live your life with No Regrets.

I was sitting on the couch the other night watching Survivorman when an infomercial came on.  Honestly I don’t even recall what they were trying to sell, I think it was some plastic thingies to stick under your couch cushions or something, but what struck me was what I saw in the fine print at the end of the extremely long & painfully cheesy commercial.  Although as a consumer you could not only get this incredibly earth shattering product for one low payment of I believe $19.99, but if you ordered now you would get a second one for FREE!  I mean seriously, how could anyone pass up such an offer, right?  Well as this man was shouting at me from my TV set, I found myself scanning the fine print to see what the real cost was going to be, because with these offers there is always shipping & handling to pay.  As my eyes hit the number my jaw dropped - $15+ PER ITEM as each item must be shipped separately.  So in reality, as a consumer I wasn’t getting two sets of plastic thingies for $19.99, I was getting one set for $35 and second, supposed free set, for $15+.

This infomercial got me thinking about what these types of campaigns and marketing gimmicks have done to the word “free” over the years.  As a kid I remember going to the local convenience store and getting some cheap candy.  Many times the candy came with a perk, like five for a dollar or buy two, get one free.  Now these sales were legitimate.  The price of the candy was no higher than the day before the sale and as long as I followed the orders of the sale I got just what the sign told me I would get. 

Today things have changed.  Free isn’t always free anymore.  Today a lot of times free comes with a cost.  Buy one and get one free can mean buy one at a higher cost than normal and we will throw in a second one for no cost b/c we just made more on the first one than we usually do.  Or buy one and get one free can also mean buy one at regular price today and then follow this ridiculously long list of “to do” items (which usually includes cutting things off the box, stapling things together in very particular order, lining them up exactly right in the envelope, using a specific off-white colored envelope, etc.) and hope we don’t reject your thoroughness for any reason in order to receive your second “free” item in just over 6 months.  Free has become tarnished.  What was once amazing has now gone the way of our earths air and water, polluted and dirty.

Matt and I have set out on a mission to not just change the entire college process, but to resurrect the fallen free.  See Upclique isn’t just free because we say it is; it isn’t free because we think it sounds good and is a good marketing gimmick to attract users.  Upclique is free because that’s the way the MUST be.  Our site was built for everyone; it was built for every college no matter the size of their marketing budget; for every student no matter what economic class they fall into.  When don’t preach free just so we can win peoples trust in order to stick them later for hidden fees.  We preach free because we wholeheartedly believe that some things in life shouldn’t cost money.  A new car, yes.  A house, yes.  A plane ticket, of course.  Shaking someone’s hand, introducing yourself, No.  What Upclique does today, will continue to do tomorrow, and will hopefully do forever will always be free.  Of course we have specific plans for how we will generate money, we wouldn’t be a sustainable business if we didn’t.  However, our guarantee is that every user, no matter the user will always be able to sign-up, connect and build relationships with each other for no cost.  With us free really means free.

Yesterday I (Jeremy) was getting a change of clothes for my oldest daughter when I heard a loud cracking/crashing sound coming from outside her window.  I stood there trying to figure out what it was when my wife began yelling from downstairs that a tree had fallen in my neighbors yard.  As I ran outside what I saw was one of their massive four-foot round trees had literally split in half and one half now lay across their pool and deck.  It was truly a disaster.

So I did what any neighbor would do, I grabbed my saw and a pair of loppers, jumped the fence and began cutting up what I could to try and salvage the pool.  Before long I was joined by my neighbors son, her son-in-law, her brother-in-law, her daughter and several other neighbors from nearby.  Together we worked hand-in-hand cutting and hauling limbs in the pouring rain and in less than an hour we were able to move most of the fallen limbs, saving the pool. 

The reason I wanted to share this story wasn’t to talk about a natural disaster, it was to highlight the unity that my neighborhood showed as many of us rallied together to help my next-door-neighbor who was in need.  It seems like today people and businesses are too focused on taking care of number one, instead of the people around them or the customers they are serving.  Why has it become okay to not hold a door open for someone, or drive past a stalled car in need of a push?  Why is it okay for businesses to slap on hidden costs/penalties, or provide terrible customer service?  Why are these things looked at as normal, as if that’s just the way the world works?  Have we just become too lazy or too afraid to call them out on it or is it that we just consider ourselves or our business more important than anyone or anything else?

Matt and I struggle with certain aspects of our business from time to time.  We are still rookies trying to find our way in this crazy business world.  Amidst our struggles, however, one thing has always remained true with us - we want to create something that brings real value to this world we live in.  We don’t just want to create another business; we don’t just want to carve out our little piece of the pie and retire on a sandy beach somewhere.  We want to make a difference.  We want to leave this world a little bit better than it was while we were here.  Our goal at Upclique is to do something now one has ever done or tried to do in the college realm - we want to make college recruiting completely free for everyone.  We want to take the billions of dollars spent annually by colleges and allow them to spend it in more meaningful ways, like putting it back into academics.  We firmly believe that it shouldn’t cost colleges so much money to simply shake prospective students hands and introduce themselves.  We have been told over and over that we shouldn’t give something away for free if people are willing to pay for it, but to us that is exactly the type of thinking that we want to fight against.  Sure from a monetary aspect it doesn’t make sense to create a completely free academic networking platform.  We aren’t looking at it from a monetary aspect though.  We are looking at it from a “bettering-the-world” aspect.  We want Upclique to truly be about the people involved in the college process and not about the process itself.  We want it to be for EVERY student, EVERY parent, EVERY school counselor and EVERY college.  In order to do this we MUST give it away for free.

In essence, what we are trying to do is be like my neighborhood yesterday.  Put our personal desires aside to rally together in order to do good for someone in need.  Right now that “someone” that is in need is the entire college process.  We are here to fix it and allow students to find their perfect fit college and colleges to find their perfect fit students for no cost whatsoever.  That’s the type of mentality our forefathers had when they founded this great country and that’s they type of mentality we are trying to bring back to American business.

Welcome to our blog.  This is the place where we will reflect, discuss, encourage, dream and sometimes ramble about our personal journeys surrounding our passion, Upclique.

Today it’s hard to really know how to feel.  In one sense, we are beyond excited to see Upclique officially launched.  It’s been twelve months of dedicated work.  Twelve months of planning, refining, focusing, refocusing, redefining, designing, tweaking, correcting, updating and non-stop discussing every single aspect that would get us to this very day.  Well this day is here and although we feel beyond excited and proud of what we have built, there is still a TON of work to be done. 

It’s as if our grand dream has been to sail around the world and today is simply the day our finished vessel is set to be launched.  What lies ahead we cannot comprehend or even imagine; rough waters, smooth sailing, relentless storms…we don’t know.  Yet we are excited.  The butterflies-in-the-stomach kind of excited.  The getting in the car and driving off to college kind of excited.  We know what we have in Upclique.  Our confidence is high.  Upclique is not just a product, it’s the right way for the college process/college recruiting to be done.  So we aren’t worried about what lies ahead.  We can’t control the waters, we can only steer the boat.

To us, Upclique is more than an idea, more than a business; Upclique is a dream, a new way of thinking.  We want to revolutionize an entire industry; an industry that needs exactly what we provide.  The journey is going to be unimaginably challenging; but it’s a journey worth taking.  The past twelve months have been the most meaningful months of our business careers.  We have taught ourselves how to filter out the noise and the b.s. and to stick true to the vision we had for Upclique.  We have grown to respect difference between idea and implementation, and the immense work required to get from one to the other.

So today we feel grateful to have this opportunity.  We are honored to be able to share it with our family, friends and ultimately the world.  We love Upclique.  We love every single detail about it, from its ultimate vision to the alignment of each check box.  We can truly say that our fingerprints are on everything and that makes us proud.  So go visit our site.  Use it, recommend it, share it, give us your feedback on it and be a part of it.  Progress and change can’t be made on its own; it needs all of us to take part.  So help us make the Upclique dream a reality.