#StartupsEverywhere: Dave Becker, Co-founder, CampusESP
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Empowering students, parents, and the workplace
Obtaining an American college degree can be challenging to navigate. Strenuous curriculums and a ballooning financial burden make student retention a growing concern. CampusESP is advancing student success by streamlining academic and financial communications with parents and families. We sat down with their co-founder and CEO, Dave Becker, to discuss his startup, the targeting of hiring initiatives like diversity, equity and inclusion, and more.
Tell us about your background. What led you to CampusESP?
I previously worked at a large tech company that focused on student engagement. But nine years ago I wanted to create my own entrepreneurial path, and did so by using what I learned from my time there to research different problems to solve. Student retention was an obvious place to start. CampusESP helps colleges engage with parents and families to support enrollment and student success. We’ve since been able to correlate alerting parents about student financial aid and student holds with a 6% increase in student retention.
What is the work you all are doing at CampusESP?
Our mission at CampusESP is to support student success by facilitating the engagement of their parents and families. Parents are generally very involved in post-secondary education, from helping their children decide where they go to school to advising them through their college experience. CampusESP provides information through the colleges to parents and families to better support their students through the ups and downs of this journey
For enrolled students, parents continue to play a significant role in student success, graduation, and retention rates. CampusESP’s Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) management tools help facilitate the sharing of protected information that can help even further improve those rates.
The social impact of this work is notable because the American student body is increasingly first-generation students, and first-generation families often require additional support. We’ve also seen differences with the expectations and needs of Black and Latino families and their White counterparts, and that extra support drives success.
How does CampusESP prioritize diversity in the workplace? What do you think of diversity initiatives like DEI in general?
The current attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is frustrating, head-scratching, and misplaced. At CampusESP, over 50% of our team are women. Over 50% of our exec team are women. We are working to empower the next generation of tech leaders. We’re very proud of those stats and our work, because the percentage of women in tech leadership is only around 20 percent. From a racial and ethnic perspective, about 30 percent of our leadership team is non-White. This is an area where I know we can do better, but I’m proud that we’re still significantly ahead of other tech companies (usually between 0% - 18%).
What makes America special is different for everybody. For me, it's diversity. Ignoring DEI initiatives is a mistake. Policymakers should highlight the reasons why diversity helps businesses. Diversity helped us grow CampusESP and better support our customers.
Have you faced any hiring struggles due to state or federal policies?
It’s a great time to start and grow a company in America. Startups like CampusESP are really important; we create good, high-paying jobs. We're based in Philadelphia, and about one-fifth of our company has moved here to join our team. Funding from the federal government helped us get through COVID, and state resources from Pennsylvania, including tax credits to encourage job growth and R&D, have been terrific.
There are still opportunities to streamline the legal complexities of remote work. For example, running payroll and deciding to have remote employees in different states is an enormous undertaking; you have to create a payroll nexus for each state your employees work and live in. Determining nexus on a state-by-state basis is complicated and onerous for small companies like ours, and it feels like a ‘gotcha’ waiting to happen in some cases. We avoid hiring people living in certain states because it’s too much of an administrative burden.
What are your goals for CampusESP moving forward? Do you have an exit strategy?
The original goal was to build something we could be proud of and just to…survive. That's the reality of most startups. Now that we're past that, three things are on our horizon.
First, our software is being used in 450 schools. We want to get to around 1200 schools in the next couple of years. We want to create better, modern standards for parent and family engagement. I think we're on a great path to do that.
Second, it’s important to develop others. Now that we’re successful, we want to help make others successful. That means promoting more people into leadership roles. That means mentoring people with the potential to grow. The best way to improve diversity in tech is to train the next generation of leaders. I’m confident that CampusESP is playing a positive role here, and the impact will be felt for years to come.
Third, we may look for a partner at some point to help us grow. I wouldn’t say it drives our strategy. But it could unlock future growth, not only for me, but for the leadership team and our fantastic employees - and our customers. Ultimately, we’re providing a growth experience for our team, which will help them to start and grow the next generation of startups.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email advocacy@engine.is.
