The Beginning of YouScheduler

July 26th, 2019 | 8 min
By:  Jessie DeLouis Jessie DeLouis profile  

In early October of 2017, at 1 A.M. on a Friday, Francesco Milkulis-Borsoi called his friend, Kristian Comer, fuming about the course scheduling process at the University of New Hampshire. Francesco had his academic advising meeting in a few hours and amongst all his classwork he also had to research and select classes for the coming semester. After hours of surfing the course catalog for electives, specific professors, class times, and major courses, creating countless jigsaw puzzles schedules in Excel, Francesco expressed that there had to be a more efficient solution. The University of New Hampshire is filled with over fourteen thousand undergraduate students facing the same scheduling challenge and yet there was no supportive resource. Through innovation, knowledge, skills, and creativity, Kristian and Francesco sought to develop a more efficient solution for course scheduling. As two computer science majors, software engineering is one of their core passions. They utilized skills acquired from their curriculum and research to build a scheduling application just prior to course registration in Fall of 2017. They sent the alpha version to friends and a few computer science and information technology classmates for feedback, suggestions, and testing. Soon after the service was open to a small demographic in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, students in other colleges wondered why they were not exposed to the service as well. UNH students were actively spreading the word of the scheduling service without any prompts! When alpha testing and registration period passed, both Kristian and Francesco heard from classmates across campus expressing interest in using the application in the coming spring semester. With their peers in mind and still no suitable solution from the administration for the university system, Kristian and Francesco continued development of the application to share its benefits across the campus. As they entered 2018, Kristian and Francesco consolidated the name YouScheduler. For full-time students also developing a software service, the early development of YouScheduler moved rather slowly. Academics were Kristian and Francesco’s priority for the spring semester of 2018. When there was a free moment, they worked on customer discovery for YouScheduler. While juggling classes and further development of YouScheduler, they decided in April to enter the URC (Undergraduate Research Conference) in the field of Computer Science Applications at UNH. The first-place win was a pivotal stepping stone for Kristian and Francesco’s service. Kristian and Francesco arrived at a crossroads and could not decide YouScheduler’s next steps. They only developed and launched the beta, leaving the question if it was worth the time, effort, and energy to further develop the suite. Their problem was further exacerbated by a complete lack of funding to continue the progression of YouScheduler. Fortunately, they entered the Paul J. Holloway Prize Competition at the University of New Hampshire which is awarded New Hampshire's best start-up competition almost every year. The Holloway competition recognizes student entrepreneurs and is awarded to the individual or team with the most compelling business venture that is set to bring their product to market. Among many talented finalists, Kristian and Francesco were thrilled to achieve first place and were awarded a cash prize to continue developing their business. Winning the Holloway Competition was a stepping stone for Kristian and Francesco. They now had financial backing, resources, and support to move forward with YouScheduler. When classes concluded in the Spring, Kristian and Francesco paused YouScheduler for the summer to pursue internships at Dell EMC and Envio 360 respectively. After a summer of experience learning new technologies and skills, Kristian and Francesco regrouped in August and officially established and launched YouScheduler LLC. It was now time to pursue their first customer; the University of New Hampshire. After months of discussion, UNH and YouScheduler began their professional relationship with a three-year contract on October 10th, 2018. Immediately they spread the word throughout the campus and released the first production version of YouScheduler. YouScheduler’s progression did not stop there. In January of 2019, YouScheduler moved to an office in the Entrepreneur Center at UNH. The spring semester was busier than ever between balancing academics, competing in competitions like E-Fest and the New Hampshire Regional Economic Development Center: Granite State Growth Competition. YouScheduler had its first profession review, a due diligence report, from the UNH Rines Angel fund in April. Fast forward to the end of the semester with classes coming to a close and Summer approaching, Kristian and Francesco chose this summer to focus on YouScheduler. They thought it was time to grow the YouScheduler Team, and with the help of the UNH Entrepreneur Center, they hired Jessie DeLouis as a Financial and Digital Marketing Manager. Quickly followed by a Software Development Intern, Caleb Peffer. With co-founder Francesco headed out west for an internship with Apple Inc, co-founder Kristian Comer and the team prepared for a summer at home working to continue the expansion of YouScheduler. Co-founders Kristian and Francesco have come a long way in just two years. To think a phone call led the pair from full-time students to entrepreneurs founding and managing a startup company. Although the road ahead is unknown and filled with long hours, coffee breaks, and probably more late-night phone calls; the pair looks forward to future expansion, development, and endeavors for YouScheduler.


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