By Mackenzie Grizzard | Assistant News Editor
This summer, Los Angeles junior Samuel Koo felt the call. Simultaneously, this call was answered by his childhood best friend, Marshall Nickolauson, all the way in Ohio. This call was the beginning of their entrepreneurial dreams, set to launch right here on Baylor’s campus and beyond.
“We wanted to glorify God through this app and show people that you can have no experience and still be able to create something like this,” Koo said.
Nickolauson is a sound developer based in Ohio had been coding for several years and had shown Koo a productivity tool he had been working on. Flash-forward to last month, when this tool was born into EvolveDaily – a “holistic self improvement app,” Koo said.
“The categories we focus on are personal, professional and academic,” Koo said. “We try to combine these aspects because we saw that’s really the most important parts of a student’s life.”
This idea for a consolidated self-improvement app came from conversations Koo has had with peers throughout his college experience, all of whom struggled with mental health, motivation and discipline.
“We want to help people realize their potential and find their purpose, and the way we do that is through this platform,” Koo said.
Koo pointed out that having several different self-improvement apps connects to the problem students are facing with balancing their lives and is hopeful EvolveDaily will solve those pain points.
“The issue that we saw with a lot of these students is that these aspects of their lives rarely line up, so what we’re trying to do is unite all of those into one platform so you can find an integrated view of your priorities, which creates kind of like an all inclusive view into how you’re developing as a person,” Koo said.
This challenge is what spurred the entrepreneurial spark, according to Nickolauson.
“That disconnection creates a feeling of emptiness and lifeless profession,” Nickolauson said in an email. “That’s ultimately what we want to change for people.”
Koo and Nickolauson have also created a website for the app, which gives a simplistic view of what the finished app will look like, and support from the community.
“We want this app to be really catered and personalized to students, so we’re building the foundation based on their feedback, and we found that to be really helpful,” Koo said.
As they continue to code, the pair hopes to input as much student information as they can, including personality type, goals and everything else users are willing to give out.
“Everyone has potential, everyone has a calling, and my goal for EvolveDaily is to support in unlocking that full potential and fulfilling that calling,” Nickolauson said.
With Koo’s background in business entrepreneurship and Nickolauson’s in coding, they are hopeful to meet their original launch goal of mid fall semester.
“We try to set ambitious goals for ourselves so that we’re able to accelerate this process,” Koo said. “Our whole point is we really want to launch this as soon as possible to help students and get feedback.”
So far, feedback for EvolveDaily has been positive, which is reflected on their website.
“I did some really simple marketing, just kind of sending it to my group chats,” Koo said. “Right now, we have what’s called a waitlist page, and it’s there just to kind of get a number of how many people are interested.”
Koo and Nickolauson plan to continue garnering support for the app as they finish coding and are hopeful for its eventual launch success.
“Our whole intention is creating a self-improvement app for students that are built by students, not just us,” Koo said. “That’s what makes EvolveDaily unique — is that it literally evolves with you.”
