Sympl., a new phone app, could revolutionize the way college students study. The app was designed by ex-Michigan State University football players Matthew Eleweke and Mark Meyers to connect classmates through a straightforward study platform.
TUN spoke with Eleweke, co-founder and CEO, to get all the details behind Sympl.
How Sympl. Works
Sympl. provides students with access to professors and their peers directly through the app. “It truly brings a balance to studying and socializing which is attractive to the student, and very beneficial for the teacher and the school itself,” said Eleweke. “It provides a platform for students to easily connect outside of the classroom and get the answers to questions easily, instead of having to rely on social media.”
The name of the app, Sympl., is self-explanatory. All students have to do is enter their class schedule and Sympl. does the rest. The app includes a live-study feature, a digitized list of peers from each class, and a calendar that automatically downloads all of the important dates listed on a syllabus and sends students push notifications when exams, quizzes or other important dates arrive.
Development of Sympl.
“The idea of Sympl. stemmed from the great difficulty in sharing class schedules with peers,” Eleweke explained. “I came up with the idea for Sympl. after having to send my class schedule repeatedly to each of my friends, instead of being able to upload the schedule onto a platform once, and allow my friends to view.”
The concept for the app formed when Eleweke and Meyers were sophomores at Michigan State, but it wasn’t revamped until May of 2016. Sympl. is now run by a team of five current students and recent college graduates of Michigan State. On top of being a co-founder and CEO of Sympl., Eleweke has done user interface design, graphic design and web design for the company. Meyers is the marketing coordinator. Sam Berndt, a current graduate student at Michigan State, is the chief information officer. Can Gokcek, who graduated in May 2016, serves as the chief technical officer. Roderick Walker, who is currently earning his bachelor’s degree, helps generate innovative ideas and markets the company.
With the desire to fill the void left by the sudden end to his football career, Eleweke and his team introduced Sympl. to Hatch, a part of the MSU Innovation Center designed to help student entrepreneurs develop their ideas. After the app was refined at Hatch, it went through beta-test mode in August.
Sympl. was chosen by Michigan State as one of the five ideas to represent their Innovation Center at South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas this past March. Michigan State acknowledged Sympl. as the university’s Start Up of the Year.
Eleweke anticipates exponential growth in the future. “The potential for Sympl. is honestly through the roof,” said Eleweke. “We have been able to build some really good relationships with educators and administrators at universities, and even business-savvy, experienced entrepreneurs that all recognize our passion and believe in our vision. Since our company began receiving traction, we have been in contact with 20-plus universities with four of them being foreign institutions.” Eleweke has his eyes set on three specific schools, Michigan State, University of Texas, and Arizona State University. The foreign institutions he mentioned are in Australia, Zambia and Ireland.
Sympl., a Social Cause
Sympl. views itself not only as a company, but a social cause as well. “The Sympl. cause is all about providing the educational tools that are currently overlooked to students all over, and working to bridge various societal and intergenerational gaps when it comes to education and technology,” Eleweke explained. Sympl. wishes to put power in the hands of the student. “The educational platforms existing now are intended for student use, yet provide full autonomy for the professor. Here at Sympl., we’re different. We want to be the voice of students, and with us being college students and recent grads ourselves, we believe that we are in the perfect position to be exactly that.”
In a closing note, which perfectly sums up a sales pitch and mission statement of Sympl., Eleweke explained why universities need Sympl. “Education is important, and if universities want students to improve academically every year they have to allow the the opportunity to create interpersonal relationships within the classroom,” said Eleweke. “They have to allow students easy access to the resource that are important to them reaching their academic potential. They have to make them WANT to study. They have to keep it Sympl.”
