Crux

Pitch: Slack for college students.

What is Crux?
Crux is a messaging app for managing private groups. It provides a campus-specific newsfeed so college students can stay informed on university activities and let others know about their organizations' events.

Founders:
Juan Carlos Perez, CEO (right)
Jordan Knox, CMO (left)

Team: 8

Funding: $180,000

How did you come up with Crux?
Juan Carlos: We spoke with 1,000’s of students over the span of a year, and started by narrowing down the problems that students were having. We rapid-prototyped solutions to their problems, and tested them in real-world situations with focus groups and beta testers. We learned that students simply want to know what’s happening on campus, and want a better way to communicate with their groups.

What market are you competing in?
We are competing in the fast moving and exciting category of location-based social networks and group messaging. On a broad scale, the market potential could be over one billion, accounting for the amount of users on group messaging apps and social media platforms, but more specifically there are over 50 million college students in the U.S. alone. Our main competitors are GroupMe, Facebook Groups, and YikYak.

How was your LAUNCH Incubator experience?
LAUNCH has been an incredible experience for us as founders and for the company. The hyper-focus on storytelling, the intimate feedback received from industry leaders, the product development guidance that led to us discovering a tremendous opportunity; all of these have truly aligned us toward greatness. Jason and the entire LAUNCH team have been beyond supportive of us, and we've all formed a strong bond for life.

Published on July 14, 2015 for the LAUNCH Incubator Class II demo day, Bastille Day.