Script’s mission is to streamline school processes to eliminate paper and wasted time and provide data for smarter decisions and financial peace of mind. In the end, we provide a value proposition for administrators, teachers, and parents.
CEO, Aaron White
Name: Script
Location: Tampa, FL
Website: www.scriptapp.com
Product / Service Offering: Education technology to streamline school processes and field trips
Co-founder Interviewed: Aaron White, Pat Cahill
Other Key Management Team Members: Daniel McDonald
This article is part of our Business Startup Spotlight series featuring entrepreneurs and their companies. We hope that these founders’ interviews will inspire and motivate you as you undertake your own entrepreneurial journey.
Tell us a little about yourself with a focus on what motivates you.
My motivation comes from coffee and bringing innovation to the education sector. Our mission is to save every school paper, money, and time through streamlining processes and purchases.
5 Steps to Creating a Company Mission Statement
When did you establish your company and where did the idea originate?
Script was established in 2016 and generated in the classroom after working in the education sector for 8 years. I supervised many of the technology programs for schools and found a constant pain point in handling parent purchases, especially for field trips. There, I started playing with the idea and building out a prototype. I proved the MVP when I worked for Dayspring Academy.
What need or needs does your company seek to fill for its customers?
Script’s mission is to streamline school processes to eliminate paper and wasted time and provide data for smarter decisions and financial peace of mind. In the end, we provide a value proposition for administrators, teachers, and parents.
What is the one thing that sets your company apart from its competitors?
Script was built from the inside out with educators guiding the process. We also take pride in incorporating simple and fun products to make our software enjoyable. Finally, we treat our schools like family and try to provide value outside of our software through personal connections.
What was the biggest challenge you faced while getting your company up and running, and how did you overcome it?
My co-founder and I knew we had a great product, but we were still working full time jobs and married. We could not find a justification to quit our jobs. We worked on the product after hours and weekends. It was very challenging for us to do sales, but we were able to get a couple schools on board to prove our MVP had traction and that attracted investors.
6 Items to Prepare for a Pitch to Concept Stage Investors
What resources have you utilized that other founders might find compelling or useful?
Local incubators/accelerators like Tampa Bay WaVE are a great help for finding resources, perks and mentorship. We have made tons of connections and got speak with companies more advanced than Script on how to move forward.
What steps have you taken to secure funding for your company and what, if anything, would you do differently if you had to start over?
We have raised our first angel round which allowed us to quit our jobs and bring on a developer to work on additional features.
What questions have you had as an entrepreneur of a fledgling startup that you had a particularly hard time finding the answers to?
One challenge we have is finding solid development talent in Tampa Bay. We really want to build a team. We have faced challenges in finding developers who actually want to work for a startup versus a corporate firm.
Dream Team Retention Recipe – 10 Ingredients to Keep the Team Together and the Dream Alive
What challenges, if any, are you grappling with?
Catching up with development is a challenge. It seems you can never have too many cooks in the kitchen to fix up your software and add more!
What is the most helpful tip or “hack” you’ve ever learned, stumbled across, or been given?
Do not always listen to everyone. It seems like everyone is going to have an opinion and be passionate about it. When building a startup, implementing tons of ideas/features can really overwhelm you and perhaps not cater exactly to what your customers want. Be choosy when listening to feedback from mentors and experts.
Is there anything else you would like to share about your company?
Script is passionate about innovating private and public education. We believe this market deserves fun and easy-to-use software that is powerful and can create bottom line value for schools through saved time, money, paper and more. In the end, we are here to innovate the educational environment!
Are you familiar with other startups you believe should be spotlighted? If so, we would like to hear from you. Tell us about them in the comments below!
Sandra Sloan
Sandra has previous supply chain and business operations experience which she is leveraging as an author with FundingSage focused on spotlighting entrepreneurs and their startup efforts.
