Columbus resident Kilah Dickey had an idea to help middle- and high-school students transfer from one school to another more easily. She was stunned no one had the idea before she did, so she’s building a new tech company, Transcriptly, around the concept and has already found several key backers.

Five years ago when Dickey was working as a teacher and counselor at Clark-Pleasant Academy in Whiteland, she first began to develop her new concept – a tool in the form of a software platform to facilitate the transfer of information between trusted entities. Specifically, she wanted a system that could transfer a student’s transcript and other data from one school to another. For the most part, different school systems’ computer networks don’t have the ability to communicate with one another, not easily anyway. A similar problem with records has existed between health care systems.

Dickey admits that initially her concept was “a fleeting idea.” Fast forward to this year: She was working on an administrative project and noticed there were still some major inefficiencies in dealing with student transfers. “I couldn’t believe it,” she remarks.

Serendipitously, she heard about Ignite Columbus, a local version of a pitch competition that originated in Seattle. Each speaker gets five minutes and 20 slides to showcase their idea. Dickey had never done anything like that, or for that matter, even considered it.

Dickey says she signed up “not knowing what to expect.” Nevertheless, her pitch caught the attention of several investors, including Elevate Ventures and Amazon, and a computer whiz, Brian Slater, who would later become her business partner.

Slater, who attended the Columbus pitch competition, was as surprised as Dickey that the idea didn’t already exist.

“I usually look at utilities and ask myself, ‘Why isn’t that a thing?’” states Slater, a software engineer and vice president of technology innovation at Buffalo-based tech firm Patient Pattern Inc. “Because it seems like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that you can’t send a transcript from one school to another. Why wouldn’t that already exist?’ It’s pretty surprising.”

Judges at the competition were equally impressed with Dickey’s idea.

Dickey won the “Most Innovative” award, which came with a $750 cash prize. Judges said the key to Transcriptly’s award was that Dickey’s presentation showed an existing problem with transcript transfers and a possible solution.

The platform is designed so that when a customer enters the system, Transcriptly will authenticate their identity. Once schools are authenticated and part of the system, they will be able to request and authorize the transfer of transcripts.

“It’s not an issue of ‘can (schools) get the transcript?’” says Dickey. “It’s more of an issue of ‘how fast can they get the transcript?’ Because right now the delay is making students be placed in the wrong classes. And there’s just not that transparency between the school and the parents, the stakeholders, and so that they can see exactly where they’re at in real time and also have access to their data.”

Transcriptly secured a $20,000 investment from Velocities and Elevate Ventures. The company plans to use the funds for marketing, engineering and operational costs.

Amazon Web Services has also provided the business with $25,000 in credits for operations and $10,000 in business support credits.

Slater and Dickey, who are co-CEOs for the company, are working on developing a prototype of their software, raising funds and creating a brand identity and marketing.

The platform could morph in terms of scope and ownership, the duo says.

“Right now, Transcriptly is totally proprietary, but we also see a future where this actually becomes a network that is not owned by us, and it’s actually owned by the members, which are students and schools and entities that need to transfer information,” Slater explains.

Anthony Schoettle is the director of communications for the Indiana Chamber. He started with the Chamber in 2021 after a long career in journalism. He’s won multiple awards for his storytelling ability on a wide range of business topics.