In January, local entrepreneur and founder of Enlight App, Diumerci Christel who goes by Chris, was accepted into the Techstars Austin 2021 Class, putting him into elite company as fewer than 1 percent of applicants are accepted each year.
By the time I interviewed Chris, the program was already two weeks under way and Chris was already doing a lot of learning.
“The best thing has been getting to meet all of these great people that are willing to help,” said Chris “They’re teaching me a lot of things that I thought I knew. One of the most important things I’ve learned is that it’s very important to understand your customer and the problem you’re trying to solve.”
The problem Chris is trying to solve is the all too common lack of connectivity that exists between students and their teachers.
“When you were a student in high school, you were doing other things besides just school, right? But very few teachers knew those things about you,” said Chris. “If they don’t know these things it’s very hard to make an impact with a student and that’s what most teachers got into teaching for.”
This is where the Enlight App comes in. The app will allow students to share a set number of things that they are interested in while also answering open-ended prompts like, ‘What are you passionate about?’ and ‘If you could solve any problem in your community, what would it be?’ The idea is to allow teachers to connect with students on a deeper level over a medium that is more comfortable to students. All put together, hopefully allowing for a greater impact to be made through our education systems.
For Chris, the need for this app was learned through his own experience.
“When I was a kid, I was really bored in school,” said I Chris. “Most of the time I was just chilling. But I outside of school I was DJing, doing graphic design, photography and videography. Yet, at parent-teacher conferences all we would talk about were my behavior and my grades. There was so much more to me than just those things.”
Now, the young entrepreneur has created enough momentum where hopefully there won’t be quite as many bored kids in the future.
What is Techstars?
Techstars is a global platform for investment and innovation that connects entrepreneurs, investors and corporations. Started in 2006, the total market capitalization for Techstars companies is $32.3 billion.
