Today we’d like to introduce you to Jean Marie Richardson.
Jean, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
When I was 14 years old, my Father said to me, “You are smart and need to think ahead to college. You will be on your own. You need to get scholarships. And if you lose those scholarships, you can come home and ride the dump truck.” I believe he was referring to the truck that picked up trash in our neighborhood every week. I was terrified. With these few short words, my father terrified me but also inspired me to work harder than I ever thought I could. Throughout my life, I have heard these words repeated in the back of my mind a million times.
My senior year in high school, I spent over 600 hours working on applications to colleges and scholarship programs. What I learned next is there are 20 Million students applying for college every year. For top ranked universities, a high GPA or a strong SAT is not enough. They want to know what makes you unique? How are you a leader? How will you contribute to their school?
I believe the portfolios I used when applying to college helped me answer those questions with examples and secure acceptance and over $200K of scholarship offers to “Top 100 Colleges.” I graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology cum laude and a President’s Scholar. After graduation, I spent 9 years helping to interview the applicants for the President’s Scholarship and other scholarships at Georgia Tech.
What most people don’t know is there is a rubric or 25 Criteria scorecard that Top 100 ranked colleges use to stack rank applicants. If all students understood this scorecard, it could change their class choices, their extra-curricular activities, and what they prioritize when they present their own experience. Also, students are using digital portfolios to get a leg up on their competition for scholarships in college, and for jobs after college. These are not just graphic designers, but business managers, engineers, and product managers.
iFOLIO makes it possible for all students to understand what colleges are looking for and to present their experience visually with photos and videos in a digital portfolio to make their application and resume stronger.
My personal story made me realize that I could help other students make their own way, and my company, iFolio was born. I am now helping other students tell their story digitally, gain acceptance to top ranked colleges and the Ivy League, and land scholarship offers and their dream jobs. The little girl scared of riding on the dump truck, is now helping folks achieve their dreams.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
New businesses ARE a roller coaster, but iFOLIO has been the most exciting thing I’ve ever done and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
In my work with Oracle, Microsoft, and MasterCard, we had established products in market, a globally recognized brand name, customers and capital behind us. In my CRM Innovation project at Oracle, when we wanted to build a new product we just bought a company to build it.
As a startup, we had to bootleg it until we got our first investment round. Every dollar spent was not just savings, it was a dollar that wasn’t being replaced with a salary dollar. Getting our first paid user was like a marathon.
It took hours of hard work, help from our awesome developers, and several iterations to be proud of iFOLIO’s current version. The first version was too technical and had too many options. We had to learn how to balance great content and options in a simple and user-friendly format that would not overwhelm with options. Today it is a world class product.
Our next step was to connect with users. To do this we partnered with Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia Summer Academy to host seminars for students. This was a big test for the newest version of the product. We had 12-year-olds fly over from China and 14-year-olds fly from Puerto Rico to pay to get their iFOLIO. The results were astounding and everyone loved iFOLIO. It was a great experience, and the iFOLIO product is stronger from it.
It is very hard to deliver the ‘delight factor’ and I believe we do that. Because it is clean and delightful and easy-to-use, we have education service providers reselling iFOLIO as an e-learning module. We have middle schools like The Museum School rolling out iFOLIO for 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. We also have enterprises looking at iFOLIO College Version for their rotational analyst programs to keep a portfolio of work and share projects and presentations.
Please tell us about iFOLIO.
iFolio was founded to give students the best chance to go to the school of their dreams.
Users have gained acceptance to ivy league schools, military academies, and some even used iFolio to land the job of their dreams. It has become so much more than I ever imagined.
Educators have long encouraged digital portfolios (www.gettingsmart.com). But no portfolio tool exists that helps students target what colleges are looking for. Build-from-scratch tools are difficult for students and administrators to use.
iFOLIO is unique because it is designed targeting the 25 Criteria Scorecard Top 100 ranked colleges and universities in the U.S. use to select applicants and provides users insights from admissions selection processes, and examples from scholarship recipients.
iFOLIO templates are easy-to-use and users get to optimize 3 iFOLIOs from Student, Athlete, Project templates based on the school and program they are targeting. A student’s iFOLIO for Brown University may be different than their iFOLIO for Georgia Tech.
iFOLIO works for B2B or B2C. Students can get their access codes directly from iFOLIO or organizations can get a license to provide iFOLIO to their students or members and get analytics, collaborative access, and reports through the admin portal.
What inspires me the most personally about iFOLIO, is seeing each user develop their own personal story and chase their dreams. Helping others bring their dreams to life is like a dream come true for me.
Frequently Asked Questions:
●What is an iFOLIO digital portfolio? A targeted visual presentation site that compliments a resume or application and highlights experience and academics that Colleges & Employers value, with photos, video clips, and images.
● How does a portfolio help? Reviewers will look at a resume for 15 seconds, but they will look at an iFOLIO digital portfolio for up to 120 seconds. A digital portfolio can humanize an applicant to a reviewer looking at 100’s of applications a day and visually illustrate key criteria they score.
● Where are some examples? www.ifoliocorp.com
● Where can I put them in my college application? Activity Section, Supplemental Materials Section, Essay Section
● Do all colleges accept a digital portfolio? Yes, the trend is ‘go digital’, you can attach or submit digital materials
iFOLIO is a digital portfolio solution that students use to make their applications and resumes stronger and to bring their experience and talents to life with photos and videos in targeted portfolio templates.
Educators use iFOLIO as a college prep tool and as a project sharing tool.
With iFOLIO users in 5 countries, throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico, we are most proud of our Student results including:
• Acceptance to Top 100 ranked colleges including Georgia Institute of Technology and Yale University
• Awards for merit scholarships to Top 100 ranked colleges valued at $100,000
• On-the- Spot job offers in interviews
Some of our Partners and Licensees:
• Georgia Tech Scheller College Summer Programs
• University of Georgia Summer Academy Programs
• The Museum School – new!
• iD Tech – new!
• Future Business Leaders of America
• Rally Volleyball
• North Atlanta Volleyball Club
Curriculum Options:
1) Work on it during study hall- just follow insights independently.
2) Add to a STEM program.
3) Add to a technology program.
4) iFOLIO can host a College Prep workshop.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was very driven, serious, deeply curious, a voracious reader, loved stories of pioneers and explorers, and often followed the beat of a different drum.
My sister says “JM was full of curiosity and had a taste for adventure and mischief. She was keenly smart and had no worries about the rules or petty opinion of others.
Entrepreneurial at an early age, she sold blueberries door to door. As a young girl, she could turn a lazy hot afternoon into a mysterious adventure with imaginary foes that we would hunt down and capture.”
I remember caring very much when I did not win the Angel Award at summer camp. Mom pointed out that I had 3 other awards including swimming a mile and that I was coming home with $100 because I sold my care package candy in a black-market canteen.
My Father instilled in me a hard work ethic. When I was 12 years old I asked for an allowance. He said, “I will not give you an allowance, but I will teach you to work.” A strong work ethic and the creative mindset of an entrepreneur has been far more valuable to me.
Pricing:
- iFOLIO kits sell today for $200
- Custom iFOLIOs sell for $500
- Licenses – priced based on number of users- please contact us today to find out more
Contact Info:
- Address: iFOLIO
3423 Piedmont Road NE, Suite 262, Atlanta, GA 30305 - Website: www.ifoliocorp.com
- Phone: 470-223-4818
- Email: info@ifoliocorp.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iFOLIO/
- Other: https://vimeo.com/222888852
Image Credit:
Randy McDow
William Gilkey
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