Two friends, Emerson Walker and Will Muller, have used Kickstarter to raise more than $5,000. Their aim? To launch a company and a product, mPlanner, that interfaces with learning management systems like Schoology and Blackboard to streamline student schedules into one easy-to-use calendar.
One young founder took to the mPlanner blog to explain the history of the project. He has already won a StartupWeekend event and turned to Kickstarter to fund his idea. Now he says they are moving into a phase of testing and marketing. From the blog…
First, we need to continue our marketing activities. We’ll build a website to take pre-orders, in order to continue to fund development of the project. I’ve also been asked to be a PRO contributor on Rocket21, a website that helps kids achieve their dreams. I’m honored by that opportunity.
We now have a LOT of work ahead. We’llsoon open up a Github account, and begin building a development roadmap for each component of the project.
We will begin with a responsive HTML5 app that is integrated with Schoology, so that we can pilot the system with schools they operate within (including our school district, the Forest Hills School District in Cincinnati, Ohio).
Incredible!
The duo have received a ton of support from developers offering to write code, so they plan on open-sourcing the project and offering a paid, fully-supported version in order to monetize the product.
The campaign has two weeks left on Kickstarter. The money will be used to hire student programmers from the Cincinnati-area INTERalliance, an organization that seeks to provide young people interested in IT with opportunities to learn and grow in southwestern Ohio.
Have a crowdfunding offering you'd like to share? Submit an offering for consideration using our Submit a Tip form and we may share it on our site!