Million Dollar Scholar Christopher Gray was ranked on Forbes 2016’s 30 Under 30 list as one of the country’s leading social entrepreneurs. The 24-year-old, 2015 Drexel graduate earned the title for Scholly, a web and app platform that he co-founded with Drexel graduate Nick Pirollo and Bryson Alef, a graduate of Amherst College. Inspired by his own struggle to find scholarships, Gray created Scholly to help high school and college students find and apply for scholarships efficiently.
“Seeing people not get the education that they worked for and deserve because they can’t afford it is something I can’t stand for,” Gray told Forbes.
Scholly can currently be bought from the AppStore for $2.99. The mobile application collects students’ personal information and finds scholarships specifically tailored to their credentials.
Scholly first saw major exposure in 2013, when an article about it appeared on the homepage of USA Today. Since then, it has found national exposure both online and on national television. On Season six of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” in which a series of investors hear pitches for start-ups and decide whether or not they will invest, Gray scored funding from Lori Greiner and Daymond John. Subsequently, the app held the first position in both the iPhone and the Android app stores for several weeks and remains widely used by college students across the country. Since its creation, Scholly has assisted in awarding over $20 million in scholarships.