Profiling Higher Ed Profiles

After spending two decades managing data in higher education, Eric Spear saw an opportunity to provide smaller colleges with the same strategic tools used by larger schools. Based in Portsmouth, Higher Ed Profiles (HEP) is Spear’s attempt to make affordable, comprehensive databases available to decision-makers at small- to mid-size colleges.

Until last year, Spear worked remotely as a data warehouse developer for the University of Maryland, tasked with analyzing and summarizing information from the University’s data warehouse. Spear explains that any given warehouse may contain more than 20 years of data regarding enrollment, classes, tuition and more.

While this is useful for mapping trends, it isn’t practical for most college administrators. This prompts larger schools to hire developers to create and update user-friendly databases, typically containing a year’s worth of summarized data.

“Provosts and deans aren’t interested in combing through years of data,” says Spear. “They want accessible information geared towards strategic planning.”

But while bigger schools can afford to build these types of databases, smaller schools usually can’t. So Spear says he built a solution. “I wanted to build a product that allows smaller schools to enjoy the benefits of enterprise reporting,” he says.

The company analyzes data provided by client schools and presents reports directly to stakeholders. These reports are cloud-hosted and don’t require any additional infrastructure to be installed at the school. HEP is a subscription-based service that will charge schools an annual fee, with the exact cost depending on the size of the school and the scope of the requested data.

After launching HEP’s website in July 2015, Spear spent the remainder of the year networking at various trade shows and conferences across the country.

Last December, Spear landed his first client, a community college in California with 70,000 students. Spear fully launched HEP’s services with the school this past January.

Higher Ed Profiles also participated in Alpha Loft’s Accelerate NH program this past spring, which provides workshops and training on such topics as presentation skills, networking and financing. “Running a startup on your own can be very isolating, so working with other startups going through the exact same thing allowed everyone to learn from one another,” says Spear. “The more we can support New Hampshire startups, the greater our business ecosystem will be for everybody.”

Spear describes 2015 as a self-funded growth year for HEP, focused primarily on product development. By the end of 2016, he hopes to have five customers and break even.