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Honorable Mention,

2021 Ed Tech Awards!

The EdTech Awards recognize people in and around education for outstanding contributions in transforming education through technology to enrich the lives of learners everywhere. Featuring EdTech’s best and brightest, the annual recognition program shines a spotlight on cool tools, inspiring leaders, and innovative trendsetters.

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In the past, college-bound students would turn to their high school's college counselor for guidance. While high schools were once well-equipped to offer exit plans, the current national ratio stands at a staggering 700 students to one college advisor. This imbalance has been exacerbated by shifting priorities, even as the need for such guidance has intensified.

Affluent families often turn to external educational consultants or college planners for specialized assistance. The field of educational consulting or sometimes called, college-planning, is one of the largest growing professions today! CounselMore serves the independent educational consultant, the high school, the non-profit education access network and the parent.

The CounselMore Mission

CounselMore is the beacon for student advisors, enabling them to serve more students efficiently, without depleting their energy or resources.


For anyone intent on guiding a student's journey from high school to college, CounselMore offers a clear roadmap. It presents a meticulous plan, side-by-side college comparisons, and evaluative milestones. No prior experience is needed; the software intuitively leads students & advisors through their essential needs, valuing their time and the inherent urgency of college planning.


While other tools falter in engaging students, CounselMore shines with a 72% student portal engagement rate. Its intuitive UI, integrated Google Drive, and detailed application tracking make students feel the software truly works for them.


CounselMore aims to revolutionize college readiness, shedding light on the enigmatic world of college admissions. Boasting the world's most current admissions results, our team of data-detectives ensures accuracy for real-time decision making.


Our premier College-Readiness Assignments, delivered via email and text, keep students on track. With separate portals for students and parents, CounselMore strikes a balance between autonomy and oversight.


Born from the insights of higher education professionals, CounselMore encapsulates the once-esoteric wisdom of high school advisors. For the first time, the gold standard of college counseling is unveiled for all to benefit.


Since its inception in 2016, CounselMore has rapidly become the go-to educational planning software. It offers an unmatched perspective and a resolute solution to higher education's gateway. Tailored for various stakeholders in the education sector, its pricing ranges from $35 to $225+ per month, depending on the chosen plan.

Three founders

Margaret is a college counselor and higher education professional. Todd is an applications development manager who specializes in lean startups. Keerthana is a full stack developer who started as a data architect. Together they dreamed of a technology solution that reflected the organic process of educational advising, with unencumbered access to the critical data all educators need. Focused on the area of secondary education most often overlooked, the student's exit plan.

“Enthusiasm is contagious, stand closer to me.”

Margaret Rothe, Founder

With a Master's degree and an extensive career in higher education student affairs, she has significantly influenced campus policy and culture. Being instrumental in the pioneering national development of live/learn on-campus communities, bridging gaps between staff and faculty, instructing First Year Experience courses, balancing admissions with enrollment goals, and even stepping into the role of campus public safety, she possesses a holistic understanding of college readiness.


Transitioning her vast experience into a thriving private college counseling practice was seamless, save for the technological challenges and the lack of standardized practices. While most industries have established routines passed down from one expert to another, college advising remains both an art and a science. This realization sparked a project to codify the essential practices of college advising and streamline its processes. This endeavor evolved into a collaborative effort among college advisors, aiming to enhance their capacity to serve more students without burnout. Topping their agenda was refining the college list-building process. And so, Margaret went looking for partners.

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“software can do anything but what do you want it to do?"


Todd Rothe, Founder

Prone to picking up on ideas, turning them over and over, expanding on them until the balloon bursts, makes for an excellent startup applications developer and product manager.


After growing up in Silicon Valley and returning after college to build his career, Todd has always been looking for operational problems to solve. The magic of technology and the empowerment it can deliver to any situation has always inspired Todd’s imagination.


The philosophy and computer science major has the uncanny ability to stand in the center of chaos and distill it to a simple if/then statement.

“A challenge is always on my to do list.” 


Keerthana Sankar, Founder

Purdue engineering didn’t know that the quiet woman who earned straight As but rarely asked questions was on her way to the top of her class. Equally surprised was Keerthana’s graduate school advisor when she announced she’d finished her thesis, was graduating early and had kicked off an education technology startup.


The truth is in the details and that is what is most often overlooked. When we embrace a problem for the experience of it, instead of just solving it, we gather deeper knowledge that we aren’t aware of until we find it in our problem solving toolbox later. Every question in college counseling seems to be answered with “it depends” and to Keerthana that sounds like an invitation to ask more questions.

"Paying it forward is worthwhile, our impact is evident."


Madeline Schroeder, Business & Legal Affairs

The community that has grown up around CounselMore is strong. This is evidenced in community roundtables, collaboration lab, and events, crowdsourced college information. This is a powerful industry because IECs possess deep esoteric knowledge about an elusive topic. Harnessing that knowledge through the CounselMore sharing platform is very special for many reasons. When a new customer joins as a software subscriber, it feels more like they're joining a movement. We can feel that this is bigger than we are - that didn't happen by accident! There's a need here that we are filling - together!

"LET'S BREAK THIS DOWN INTO SMALLER PIECES."


ALDO BARRIENTOS, CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DIRECTOR

Aldo has a BS in Computer Science and Applied Math from San Jose State University in the heart of Silicon Valley, California. Technology moves fast and even faster in start ups, where Aldo’s problem solving skills feel most at-home. Specializing in human computer interaction, he uses behavioral science, analytics, anecdotes, process dismantlement, and careful listening to build seamless technology solutions.


Knowing how to use something is one thing but it is the experience that provides value. We started and still do today, with the counselor's day-to-day process and detailed observations of the experience of each task. Why a task has to be done is less important than how. By asking enough questions we can recreate a function in technology that follows an organic experience, that anticipates the desired outcome.

"We are focused on details but there is a bigger mission we use as our North star."


Amy Silletto, Operations Executive

Most of the members we get to know are independent small business owners who really enjoy their work. They are dedicated to their students. Anything we do to smooth that road has a direct impact on those we serve - that's rewarding! On the Support team we are focused on the small details that will improve the customers' experience but I know that when I assist one counselor, I am really helping many students. We counsel more - together! I truly believe that. Our members are eager to jump in and help, which is always a welcomed surprise! Truly a great place to work!

"Data is to be protected, especially stats about our young people..." NANCY GUICO,


INFORMATION SYSTEMS & SECURITY

Data is to be protected, especially stats about our young peoples' thoughts, opinions, social leanings, grades, test scores, or even the courses they've taken.


Other college information companies buy, sell, trade their customers' information.


Here we do not!


The fact that we draw a bold line on protecting our customers' and their customers' data, is something I am very proud of!

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