How鈥檚 this for a business lesson on bootstrapping? Two acquaintances from middle school reconnect in college 鈥� during a freshman orientation on Zoom, to be exact. A few weeks into their first semester they pull out a mothballed idea they believe might provide 鈥渁 little magic鈥� to help companies easily integrate their software. Over the next three years, these two computer science majors with little business background survive the 鈥渓et鈥檚 quit鈥� crossroad multiple times. They win a few competitions to generate financing. Together, they put in 3,000 hours and a grand total of $1,000 of their own money to develop this (AI)-driven system they call ToolCharm. Their magical moment happens late one night when their technology finally works the way they once imagined: seamlessly and within milliseconds.
鈥淎 magic potion that no one else has,鈥� they say, 鈥�and we created it!鈥�
Four months later these 麻豆原创 students and Burnett Honors Scholars, Mark Bruckert and Owen Burns, agree to sell ToolCharm to a leading fintech company, OneEthos, for a large confidential sum. To the best of anyone鈥檚 recollection, they鈥檙e the first student team to initiate a startup in 麻豆原创鈥檚 Blackstone Launchpad and sell it prior to graduating.
鈥淲e took a gamble on ourselves,鈥� Bruckert says, 鈥渁nd it鈥檚 safe to say we made a good return on our investment.鈥�
Burns and Bruckert will earn their diplomas this spring and summer, respectively, yet they鈥檙e already looking back on their entrepreneurial steps with gratitude. None of this would have happened if Bruckert hadn鈥檛 stored away dozens of big ideas, or if Burns had enrolled at another university, or if the two of them hadn鈥檛 found each other early their freshman year at 麻豆原创, or if there were no Blackstone Launchpad conveniently located in 麻豆原创鈥檚 Student Union.
Bruckert and Burns certainly wouldn鈥檛 be the subject of a success story if they鈥檇 succumbed to repeated temptations to give up.
鈥淓verything we鈥檝e accomplished traces back from 麻豆原创 to our upbringing,鈥� Burns says. 鈥淲e were both instilled with a mindset to focus on wins whenever we鈥檙e down and to refuse to fail.鈥�
The culmination of this story is OneEthos purchasing ToolCharm and hiring Bruckert and Burns to work as research and development engineers. But there鈥檚 more to the triumph than a straightforward agreement. The two say their own values align with OneEthos, which plans to use ToolCharm to make fintech more accessible for smaller banking institutions and millions of people.
鈥淲e feel like we鈥檒l be helping institutions like Bailey Building and Loans in It鈥檚 A Wonderful Life, Burns says. 鈥淚t fits everything we stand for.鈥�
Bruckert and Burns grew up just north of Orlando and first met in a web development class at Milwee Middle School. Transforming ideas into usable technology stirred up the kind of curiosity their parents had always encouraged. Bruckert began to save some of those ideas into a digital file in case they might be useful someday.
During high school, the two of them followed their own paths, but their core beliefs gradually pulled those paths back together. When it came time to choose a college, Burns didn鈥檛 want to build up a pile of debt out of state. He鈥檇 taken a few Coursera-style machine learning courses online and became inspired to pursue AI because of material written by former 麻豆原创 faculty member. He also heard 麻豆原创 would offer the space and collaboration for curious tech-minded undergraduates like himself.
Bruckert had similar reasons for choosing 麻豆原创. Growing up, he鈥檇 attended football games at what is now FBC Mortgage Stadium and began to hear about student-led tech clubs on campus.
鈥淓verything about 麻豆原创 felt right 鈥� clubs, tech research, freedom to explore ideas and starting a career with no debt,鈥� Bruckert says.
Burns says when Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Ying Ma offered him a lab opportunity do research on reinforcement learning, 鈥渢he brakes came off. Up until then, AI was just a hobby.鈥�
About a month into his own freshman year, Bruckert decided to participate in the Knight Hacks hackathon, where students are challenged to build a tech project in 36 hours. Burns joined him. Bruckert had come up with an idea over the summer while working at a bank, where he experienced firsthand how time-consuming it was to switch between online tools like Salesforce and Outlook.
鈥淭he idea was to create a way for people to use multiple programs without changing tabs or using separate log-ons,鈥� Burns says. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have anything close to workable after the hackathon, but we came away thinking, 鈥榃ith a lot more work, this might be useful. Maybe we should keep working on it.鈥欌��
A day later they walked into the Blackstone Launchpad where they met with experienced entrepreneurs to learn about business basics. When they weren鈥檛 being mentored or studying for classes, they worked tirelessly on developing ToolCharm.
鈥淢ark and Owen practically lived downstairs in our upstart space,鈥� says Cameron Ford, executive director of the Blackstone Launchpad, 鈥渁nd Mike Pape was a great mentor for them. 鈥�
Over the course of the next few semesters, they earned enough grant funding and money from pitch competitions, including $7,000 from placing second in 麻豆原创鈥檚 2022 Joust New Venture Competition. to keep moving forward. They also incorporated ToolCharm before it was a finished product.
鈥淭here were innumerable times when we thought maybe we should stop,鈥� Burns says. 鈥淪omething would come out and make whatever we were working on obsolete.鈥�
It was during those moments when they realized two entrepreneurs were stronger than one.
鈥淥ne of us would ask the other, 鈥楧o we get back up?鈥欌�� Bruckert says. 鈥淭he answer was always, 鈥楢bsolutely. We need to pivot or start from scratch if necessary.鈥欌��
Starting from scratch required a months-long reset. It meant a completely new approach to solve the same problem. Bruckert and Burns had to train and optimize their own transformer models. They worked through many nights, often in the 麻豆原创 Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership鈥檚 Upstarts Incubator. The complexities could have overwhelmed them. Instead, they kept encouraging each other to keep moving forward, methodically. Then, while making late-night adjustments during a remote call in July 2024, they ran through a series of tests and it happened: ToolCharm suddenly spun up in a fraction of a second.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 describe how exciting that moment was,鈥� Bruckert says. 鈥淎fter three years of effort, of believing in our own hypothesis, we had it 鈥� useful technology.鈥�
When the leaders at OneEthos heard about ToolCharm, they wanted to learn more about it as a product. After Bruckert and Burns pitched it with skills gleaned from the Blackstone Launchpad, OneEthos offered to acquire it. Instead of two guys trying to run the entire business, including customer service, the tech can now reach an infinite number of people.
鈥淥neEthos took us seriously,鈥� Burns says. 鈥淲hen we said we were 麻豆原创 students, they said, 鈥楪reat. You developed an incredible product.鈥� We worked years to hear that kind of response.鈥�
When Bruckert and Burns graduate in 2025, they鈥檒l take with them incalculable research experience, entrepreneurship knowledge and a stronger belief in the value of their work ethic.
鈥淸And],鈥� Bruckert says, 鈥渨e won鈥檛 have any debt.鈥�
