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Four months later these UCF 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 麻豆精品 S檚 recollection, they 麻豆精品 S檙e the first student team to initiate a startup in UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Blackstone Launchpad and sell it prior to graduating.
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Burns and Bruckert will earn their diplomas this spring and summer, respectively, yet they 麻豆精品 S檙e already looking back on their entrepreneurial steps with gratitude. None of this would have happened if Bruckert hadn 麻豆精品 S檛 stored away dozens of big ideas, or if Burns had enrolled at another university, or if the two of them hadn 麻豆精品 S檛 found each other early their freshman year at UCF, or if there were no Blackstone Launchpad conveniently located in UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Student Union.
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The culmination of this story is OneEthos purchasing ToolCharm and hiring Bruckert and Burns to work as research and development engineers. But there 麻豆精品 S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.
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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 麻豆精品 S檛 want to build up a pile of debt out of state. He 麻豆精品 S檇 taken a few Coursera-style machine learning courses online and became inspired to pursue AI because of material written by former UCF faculty member. He also heard UCF would offer the space and collaboration for curious tech-minded undergraduates like himself.
Bruckert had similar reasons for choosing UCF. Growing up, he 麻豆精品 S檇 attended football games at what is now FBC Mortgage Stadium and began to hear about student-led tech clubs on campus.
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Burns says when Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Ying Ma offered him a lab opportunity do research on reinforcement learning, 麻豆精品 S渢he brakes came off. Up until then, AI was just a hobby. 麻豆精品 S�
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.
麻豆精品 S淭he idea was to create a way for people to use multiple programs without changing tabs or using separate log-ons, 麻豆精品 S� Burns says. 麻豆精品 S淲e didn 麻豆精品 S檛 have anything close to workable after the hackathon, but we came away thinking, 麻豆精品 S榃ith a lot more work, this might be useful. Maybe we should keep working on it. 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S�
A day later they walked into the Blackstone Launchpad where they met with experienced entrepreneurs to learn about business basics. When they weren 麻豆精品 S檛 being mentored or studying for classes, they worked tirelessly on developing ToolCharm.
麻豆精品 S淢ark and Owen practically lived downstairs in our upstart space, 麻豆精品 S� says Cameron Ford, executive director of the Blackstone Launchpad, 麻豆精品 S渁nd Mike Pape was a great mentor for them. 麻豆精品 S�
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 UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 2022 Joust New Venture Competition. to keep moving forward. They also incorporated ToolCharm before it was a finished product.
麻豆精品 S淭here were innumerable times when we thought maybe we should stop, 麻豆精品 S� Burns says. 麻豆精品 S淪omething would come out and make whatever we were working on obsolete. 麻豆精品 S�
It was during those moments when they realized two entrepreneurs were stronger than one.
麻豆精品 S淥ne of us would ask the other, 麻豆精品 S楧o we get back up? 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S� Bruckert says. 麻豆精品 S淭he answer was always, 麻豆精品 S楢bsolutely. We need to pivot or start from scratch if necessary. 麻豆精品 S� 麻豆精品 S�
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 UCF Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership 麻豆精品 S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.
麻豆精品 S淚 can 麻豆精品 S檛 describe how exciting that moment was, 麻豆精品 S� Bruckert says. 麻豆精品 S淎fter three years of effort, of believing in our own hypothesis, we had it 麻豆精品 S� useful technology. 麻豆精品 S�
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.
麻豆精品 S淥neEthos took us seriously, 麻豆精品 S� Burns says. 麻豆精品 S淲hen we said we were UCF students, they said, 麻豆精品 S楪reat. You developed an incredible product. 麻豆精品 S� We worked years to hear that kind of response. 麻豆精品 S�
When Bruckert and Burns graduate in 2025, they 麻豆精品 S檒l take with them incalculable research experience, entrepreneurship knowledge and a stronger belief in the value of their work ethic.
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