Welcome to the Evolving Man Project’s ‘Evolved Man of the Week’ profiles. Each week we will highlight an individual that embodies what it means to be an evolved man, famous and non-famous men alike. The world needs to know their stories and deeds. This week’s honor goes to the Drexel Unversity alumni, Shark Tank Contestant, and Co-Founder of the Scholly app, Christopher Gray.
Gray, the oldest of three siblings in Alabama, was raised by a single mother and experienced hardship firsthand. However, he recalls that he always found his role models through reading—”I was,” he admits, “extremely nerdy.” “Milton’s Paradise Lost,” he recalls, “didn’t so much focus me on religion as forcing me to think outside the box, to ask questions.” His wildly eclectic reading list ranged from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens and Snowball, the biography of Warren Buffett, to Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, the quirky primer on achievement. “That one really helped me identify my potential.”
As his high school graduation approached, Gray recognized the challenges ahead. Because of the 2008 recession, his mother was recently unemployed from a call center, and no one in his family had prior college experience.
When Scholly was featured on Shark Tank, it captured the nation’s attention and affection by securing a deal with Daymond John and Lori Greiner, which led to the biggest fight in Shark Tank history—Scholly achieved remarkable success, becoming the top-ranked app in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store for an impressive three-week period. The company was named in Inc Magazine’s Top College Start-Ups, won Under Armour’s Cupid’s Cup competition, and won Steve Case’s Rise of the Rest Competition. Chris Gray was named Ernst and Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year for 2015” for Philadelphia and is one of Forbes’ “30 under 30 for 2016”. Scholly has also been featured in just about every major media outlet, including Good Morning America, Forbes, BET, USA Today, Fortune Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, CNN, Fox News, and many more, and featured in the new ad campaign Dare Greatly. Gray received invitations to speak at conferences across the nation.
Gray, 30, is based in Philadelphia for work. Despite running a start-up, he finds time for yoga and running. He says, “I still read comics. Two iconic superheroes are Batman and Iron Man. I like heroes who are powerful leaders and intellectuals as well.”
Scholly’s success, according to Gray, is due to its patent-pending algorithm and a substantial amount of effort.
“For returning students, vegetarians, left-handed students,” he quips.
He says even the algorithm cannot distinguish scams: Staffers weed out scholarships that could be yours if you supply a Social Security number. Graduate students—the “Scholly Squad”—do the sifting. “They’re the quality assurance people.”
Today, we honor Christopher Gray as our Evolved Man of the Week.
Evolving Folks Project 