{"id":144944,"date":"2025-02-03T10:10:20","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T15:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944//?p=144944"},"modified":"2025-04-14T10:36:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T14:36:20","slug":"an-idea-thousands-of-dollars-and-3-years-later-a-breakthrough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944//an-idea-thousands-of-dollars-and-3-years-later-a-breakthrough/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944//","title":{"rendered":"An Idea, Thousands of Dollars and (3 Years Later) a Breakthrough"},"content":{"rendered":"

How/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019s this for a business lesson on bootstrapping? Two acquaintances from middle school reconnect in college /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2014 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 /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201ca little magic/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d to help companies easily integrate their software. Over the next three years, these two computer science majors with little business background survive the /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201clet/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019s quit/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d 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 artificial intelligence (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./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cA magic potion that no one else has,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d they say, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cand we created it!/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

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/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019s recollection, they/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019re the first student team to initiate a startup in 麻豆原创/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019s Blackstone Launchpad and sell it prior to graduating./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cWe took a gamble on ourselves,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d Bruckert says, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cand it/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019s safe to say we made a good return on our investment./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

Burns and Bruckert will earn their diplomas this spring and summer, respectively, yet they/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019re already looking back on their entrepreneurial steps with gratitude. None of this would have happened if Bruckert hadn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019t stored away dozens of big ideas, or if Burns had enrolled at another university, or if the two of them hadn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019t 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/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019s Student Union./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

Bruckert and Burns certainly wouldn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019t be the subject of a success story if they/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019d succumbed to repeated temptations to give up./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cEverything we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019ve accomplished traces back from 麻豆原创 to our upbringing,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d Burns says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cWe were both instilled with a mindset to focus on wins whenever we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019re down and to refuse to fail./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

The culmination of this story is OneEthos purchasing ToolCharm and hiring Bruckert and Burns to work as research and development engineers. But there/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019s 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./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cWe feel like we/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019ll be helping institutions like Bailey Building and Loans in It/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019s A Wonderful Life, Burns says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cIt fits everything we stand for./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

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./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

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/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019t want to build up a pile of debt out of state. He/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019d 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./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

Bruckert had similar reasons for choosing 麻豆原创. Growing up, he/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019d attended football games at what is now FBC Mortgage Stadium and began to hear about student-led tech clubs on campus./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cEverything about 麻豆原创 felt right /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2014 clubs, tech research, freedom to explore ideas and starting a career with no debt,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d Bruckert says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

Burns says when Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Ying Ma offered him a lab opportunity do research on reinforcement learning, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cthe brakes came off. Up until then, AI was just a hobby./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

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./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cThe idea was to create a way for people to use multiple programs without changing tabs or using separate log-ons,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d Burns says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cWe didn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019t have anything close to workable after the hackathon, but we came away thinking, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2018With a lot more work, this might be useful. Maybe we should keep working on it./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

A day later they walked into the Blackstone Launchpad where they met with experienced entrepreneurs to learn about business basics. When they weren/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019t being mentored or studying for classes, they worked tirelessly on developing ToolCharm./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cMark and Owen practically lived downstairs in our upstart space,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d says Cameron Ford, executive director of the Blackstone Launchpad, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cand Mike Pape was a great mentor for them. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201c/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

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/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019s 2022 Joust New Venture Competition. to keep moving forward. They also incorporated ToolCharm before it was a finished product./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cThere were innumerable times when we thought maybe we should stop,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d Burns says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cSomething would come out and make whatever we were working on obsolete./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

It was during those moments when they realized two entrepreneurs were stronger than one./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cOne of us would ask the other, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2018Do we get back up?/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d Bruckert says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201cThe answer was always, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2018Absolutely. We need to pivot or start from scratch if necessary./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u2019/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/144944/n