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An Orgainc Start-Up
Where We Started
The idea for ActionGrad was inspired by the desire to give back during the Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis. As a result of the recession, ActionGrad founder Nick Brown found he was accruing massive debt in pursuit of higher education, and returned home from college his freshman year. Only a year later, news broke on the the BP Oil Disaster. As an able-bodied construction worker at the time, images of devastation on the coast became a call to action. Within the week, he set his sights on traveling to the coast to volunteer in the clean-up.
After being approved for time-off and carefully planning a budget for food, gas, and lodging; however, he came to find it wasn't his living expenses that would hold him back, but his student loan payment. Watching as thousands of relief workers were paid to facilitate the clean-up - and finding that student debt had not only prevented him from completing college - but also volunteering for the causes he cared about, he set his sights on how to reverse the impact the cost of college has on our ability to provide for ourselves and others.
From the wake of the BP Oil Disaster through the beginning of the Student Loan Debt Crisis arose the inspiration for ActionGrad - an innovative platform that provides students and graduates the ability to source funds toward their student loan debt in exchange for providing volunteer services for the social and environmental issues that impact us all. Nearly 10 years later - having climbed the ranks from and entry level construction worker to multi-state project management, Nick returned to school full-time where he got his Bachelors in Mass Communications/Strategic Advertising, and both a Baccalaureate and Masters Degree in Product Innovation in only short years. It was during this time he met his cofounders at the VCU da Vinci Center and Unstuck Labs Business Accelerator who came together to make that dream a reality.
Our Team
Nicholas Brown; Founder & CEO
ActionGrad Founder; Product/Service Designer
VCU da Vinci Center; Master of Product Innovation; BS of Mass Comm
Nicholas is a Product and Service Designer with a history of leading end-to-end business development operations across multiple industries. When not designing new product and services, Nick is passionate about creating innovative solutions to our longstanding social and environmental challenges. In doing so, Nick founded ActionGrad to make higher education more accessible to those with limited means while providing support to the causes they care about.
Wa’il Ashshowwaf, Business Strategy
CEO and Cofounder of Unstuck Labs;
Harvard; Ex. Ed – Strategy, Georgetown; MS of Business Leadership, CSU BS of MKTG
Wa’il is an impact driven leader, entrepreneur, tech guru, UI/UX designer, and creative startup strategist. His professional experience spans a range of industries including roles at Walt Disney World, Pepsi, HSBC, and cofounding numerous startups. As of Fall 2019, Wa’il and Unstuck Labs partnered with CandidWorks to accelerate the business and tech development of the current CandidWorks user interface.
Fadil Khan, Digital Development Lead
Head of Digital, Unstuck Labs; Georgetown University, Master of Technology MGMT
Questrom School of Business, Boston University
Fadil is a leader in cross-functional digital services and business development. With a rich background in cutting-edge technology from giants like Booz Allen and Deloitte, he now steers a robust team of 90 technical developers and product managers at Unstuck Labs. His focus is on driving revenue growth, managing comprehensive project lifecycles, and crafting tailored digital solutions that empower both emerging startups and established enterprises.
Hui Zhai, Media & Marketing Lead
Co-founder of ActionGrad, Graduate Student of Georgetown University
VCU Master of Product Innovation; BS of Economics
Hui Zhai is a graduate student at Georgetown University and Master of Product Innovation Graduate from VCU's da Vinci Center. With over a decade of experience in business reporting and an award winning career publishing news content for international news agencies, Hui's experience brings perspective to our mission of supporting the financial, humanitarian, and environmental initiatives around the world.
Our Partners
2019-2020
UnStuck Labs
ActionGrad is a current partner of UnStuck Labs in Rosslyn Virginia. Unstuck Labs is a multidimensional start-up accelerator that assists in taking big ideas to a deliverable level. Unstuck Labs is a digital agency that specializing in providing companies with a variety of technical services, including website and mobile app development. And the founders are entrepreneurs and dreamers in their own right: They believe in, and invest in other products and companies, as well.
2018-Current
Virginia Commonwealth University da Vinci Center
ActionGrad is a current partner of Virginia Commonwealth University’s da Vinci Center. The VCU da Vinci Center provides cutting edge, innovation-based programs focused on merging the study of arts, business, and engineering into real world problem solving and entrepreneurship. The VCU da Vinci Center has been a support platform for entrepreneurial education, networking, and planning for our projects early stage development.
Become a Partner
Become a partner in the social, environmental causes you care about.
As a start-up focused on impact, we are always on the lookout for partnerships based on social and environmental improvement. If you are part of a charity/non-profit that could use support - a commercial venture looking to give back and support the community while supporting education – or even have a bright new idea for service, contact us. We look forward to hearing from you, and, as always – wish you the best in all your endeavors!
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