Christopher Gray stunned investors on the US TV show Shark Tank in 2015 when he revealed he had received $1.3 million in university scholarship funding.
He has since built a small fortune after setting up Scholly, a revolutionary app to help others also get education funding.
Who is Scholly founder Christopher Gray?
Scholly founder Christopher Gray was born in 1993 and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama.
Gray and his two younger siblings were raised by a single mother who struggled for income. He was lucky to attend a good school helping to give him the foundations he would need for college.
“Although I came from a low-income background, I was able to attend a magnet high school and be in a decent environment academically despite the failing school system,” he said in an interview in 2016.
However, while in high school he became increasingly aware that his family’s financial circumstances risked jeopardising his chances of getting a university degree.
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Over a period of seven months he researched every scholarship he possibly could and started applying. With no internet at his home, he was forced to write essays on his phone and use free computers at the library to make his applications.
In the end, Gray won more than $1.3 million in scholarships. The money covered the cost of all his expenses plus his education while he studied finance and entrepreneurship at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
Describing the moment he received his first scholarship grant, which was worth $20,000, he said: “I stepped out of class to take the call. I ran back in and gave my teacher a big hug.
“That was the moment college became a reality for me.”
After graduating, Gray decided he could combine what he had learnt about being an entrepreneur and his skills in winning scholarships to found his own company: Scholly.
The businessman has credited his mother with giving him the patience it took to found his own company.
He said in an interview in 2015: “My mother gave me my persistence. My perseverance.
“Those core personality traits that drive me. The intensity. The ability to figure things out.”
What is Scholly?
Scholly is an app and web service which aims to help students find money to attend college. It describes its mission as: “Educational opportunity for all.”
The service provides customised recommendations for scholarships that students are likely to be eligible to qualify for. It uses factors such as gender, state, and race to help provide a personalised list of scholarships that users of the service should target.
Scholly on Shark Tank
Christopher Gray appeared on US investment TV show Shark Tank in an episode that aired in 2015. Filmed the previous year, he pitched the sharks for a $400,000 investment in return for a 15 per cent share of Scholly.
Gray outlined the way the app worked and his own personal story to the shark and received offers before he had even finished pitching.
Lori Greiner jumped in before having heard about the business plan for the app and offered Gray exactly what he asked for. Eager not to miss an opportunity, Daymond John quickly made the exact same offer.
The pair eventually agreed to team up, putting in $20,000 each for 7.5 per cent shares.
How many downloads has Scholly had?
Scholly has 20,392 monthly app downloads, according to Apptopia. Since 2013 it is thought to have been installed more than 850,000 times.
It makes Scholly one of the biggest education apps to have been invented.
What is Scholly’s net worth?
Scholly is thought to be valued at more than $5 million.
The company’s value has grown to be five times the $1 million it was worth when Christopher Gray appeared on Shark Tank.
It claims that during that time it has helped students in the US to claim more than $100 million in scholarship funds.