TECHRISE IMPACT Stories
Founders on the Rise: Damien Howard
You might know Damien Howard from last season’s Ed-Tech TechRise competition hosted at the Latin School of Chicago. This March, we sat down with Damien to learn more about the history of SEL+ and how things have changed since receiving that $25,000 check on stage.
SELvie is a mentorship training platform leveraging technology to create data driven insights and strategic interventions to shape student’s lives and prepare them for postsecondary experiences with positive outcomes.
“So when we talk specifically about what SELvie is, SELvie is a mentorship, training and data management app that gives mentors visibility into what's going on in real time with young people. And then AI goes to work to look at that data to scrub all the progress notes and give suggestions that are not one-size-fits-all, that are not cookie cutter, but tailor made and personalized suggestions for mentors.”
Read on to learn more about Damien’s history as an educator with mentorship and how non-dilutive capital shaped what’s next for this revolutionary app.
Building a mentorship training app requires a baseline understanding of the power of mentors in young people’s lives. In high school, Damien served as a peer mentor. He noticed the running back of the high school football team was in special education courses, unbeknownst to the rest of the school. During this time there was an overrepresentation of black boys being labeled with behavior disorders and learning disabilities.
After studying Special Education at the University of Illinois, Damien worked as an educator for 10 years on the South and West Side of Chicago in schools with high turnover. The last decade, his work has shifted towards training mentors and utilizing technology to increase social impact in the incubation stages of Selvie.
What is a mentor really? Damien defines a mentor:
“All adult figures show up and keep showing up for the development of young people. So that includes for me, parents, teachers, the aunties and grandma's from churches that volunteer in the schools I've, I've mentored, excuse me, done mentorship, training and support of all of them and mobilize them to come into schools with me to serve kids.”
The development of SELvie and Howard’s brand ethos, amplified in recent series Village Talks, is that it takes a village to raise a child and prepare them for adulthood.
Earlier in Damien’s career, he facilitated mentorship trainings driving from the South and West sides of Chicago—the limitation, how many people he could meet in a day. SELvie leveraged the capabilities of technology to create an app interface where information could be compiled and stored expanding the access and reach of this mentorship model, while growing beyond the “one size fits all” approach to social and emotional learning assets.
SEL+ currently works with two nonprofit clients including My Brothers Keeper, a subsect of The Obama Foundation, and Together Chicago, with an upcoming collaboration with Monster Education—facilitating a communication across Chicago nonprofits and educators breaking down the barriers of previously siloed organizations.
What changes is Damien seeing in the field? A 50% reduction in behavioral incidents, 25% growth in SEL skills, zero failing grades among mentored students.
Since winning the TechRise Ed-Tech Competition last spring, the $25,000 nondilutive capital allowed SELvie to expand its implementation and user base. When we interviewed Damien, 250 kids from the South and West side were onboarded to SELvie mentorship. By the end of May this number will reach 450, more than doubling to 1,000 by the summer.
For early-stage founders on the rise, nondilutive capital provides the opportunity to continue building their businesses with no-strings attached. TechRise prize money awarded gives founders the freedom to grow their businesses without diluting equity or requiring the architecture to decide how much to give away at what rate.
When Founders enter those early stages, as Damien noted, they may not be ready to guide conversations regarding acquisition and relinquishing equity—TechRise meets them where they are. This boils down to the statement of investment in a Founder’s brand ethos as well, “We are believing and what you're doing, we're believing that you have the ability to do what you're say you're going to do.”
The onboarding metrics for SELvie included a 50% reduction in behavioral instance and 25% growth in social emotional learning skills, 0 failing grades amongst the mentored students.
When recollecting how Damien grew SELvie, he acknowledges the support of his mentoring circle to recognize how far SEL+ has grown and the potential for the future. Before taking the stage last spring, Damien existed in the TechRise ecosystem familiar with Venture & Innovation Strategy team members, including former Director Lucy Brennan, and subscribing to the newsletter. With preparation in the former Speed Round program and practice on his pitch, Damien prepared the competition blending insights from the field as an educator, over 20 years of experience, anecdotes, and data to deliver the prize-winning pitch.
His advice for founders: be persistent and have faith, “Find ways to innovate, find ways to bring ingenuity that affords you an opportunity to work your nine and five. And as Tony Robbins would say, use that 6 to 10 to build this thing out, to keep dreaming, to onboard team based on the power of your vision.”
Or rather, “succinctly just stick with it,” he said in closing remarks during our conversation.
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If Damien’s work speaks to you, we encourage you to connect with him here.
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