Christopher Gray grew up in deep poverty in Birmingham, Alabama. An academic star, he had every qualification for attending a top college—except for the financial means. Desperate, Gray headed off the beaten path, applying for every scholarship he could find. His hustle resulted in awards of 1.3 million dollars and inspired him to create a startup called Scholly, an app that matches college applicants with millions of dollars in scholarships that often go unclaimed.

As a senior at Drexel University, Gray appeared on Shark Tank and, in the most heated fight in the show’s history, was challenged on whether his app was a charity or a profitable business.  Both, he insisted, proposing a new paradigm for social entrepreneurship and netting deals from Lori Greiner and Daymond John.  

At the time Scholly had 90,000 users. Today the app has 4 million subscribers who have won scholarships totaling more than $100 million. Meanwhile, Gray has emerged as a tech startup superhero now tackling the crisis of student debt with innovative, unrivaled strategies.

Gray’s story is proof that when you create opportunities for others, you enrich the marketplace for yourself too. He shows us, we can carve out new paths to better days and leave trails for others.