Derrius Quarles, CEO and co-founder of the start-up company Million Dollar Scholar, narrowly escaped a path of crime growing up in the foster care system on the South Side of Chicago.
However, a biology teacher saw potential in him and helped to change his trajectory. Ultimately, he was able to earn more than $1.1 million in scholarships and financial aid to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta. Now his company’s product, a financial-aid search software, hopes to help parents do the same for their college students.
On June 18, the nonprofit Arch Grants announced that Quarles’ ed-tech company would receive $50,000 through the 2015 Global Startup Competition.
Million Dollar Scholar was one of 11 startup companies to receive an Arch Grant. The organization provides $50,000 in equity-free grants and pro bono support services to entrepreneurs willing to locate or retain their early-stage businesses in St. Louis.
Ras Asan, the company’s COO and co-founder, said both he and Quarles are “millennial age” black men.
“There’s not too many of us out here in the tech space,” Asan said.
Aside from relocating their business to St. Louis, Asan said, they are also looking forward to working in the community to inspire young entrepreneurs. He said they want to teach students how to solve their own problems because, “that’s what entrepreneurism is all about.”
Another African-American entrepreneur who received an Arch Grant is Chris Motley, who founded Better Weekdays – a job-matching platform that helps universities improve job-placement outcomes for their graduates, and helps companies hire these candidates based on job compatibility and culture fit.
When he got the news about the grant, Motley said he was “speechless.”
“We applied last year, and we didn’t even make it to the finalist round,” Motley said. “We weren’t ready last year, but we are definitely ready now.”
With the grant, Motley plans to hire a salesperson who is from St. Louis.
Motley believes that that every school in the state should be using Better Weekdays’ product.
“It helps to solve a big problem of tracking students in their careers,” he said. “State institutions are getting funding that is tied to job-placement outcomes.”
Arch Grants has awarded $3.65 million to grow 66 early-stage businesses since the organization launched in 2012. These companies have created more than 250 jobs in Missouri, generated $16 million in revenue, and raised $49 million in capital funding as of March 31, 2015.
“St. Louis was founded by entrepreneurs and immigrants, and we are proud to support the next generation of entrepreneurs and immigrants who are, once again, defining our region’s future,” said Ginger Imster, executive director, Arch Grants.
Since the launch of the competition, Arch Grants has attracted applications from entrepreneurs from 62 countries and, in the United States, from 41 states and the District of Columbia.
Another set of Arch Grants recipients will be announced in November. The cycle to identify the winter cohort is underway with rolling application deadlines of July 10 and Aug. 30. For more information, visit archgrants.org.
