LIGHTBULB MOMENTS
DEANDRE HARAKAS
DeAndre Harakas (’21) unconventionally shines in the classroom. Twice, the trajectory of Harakas’ life changed because of “lightbulb” moments while sitting under the instruction of a teacher in Christian education. His lightbulb ideas have disrupted the status quo and positioned him to create educational opportunities for the next generation.
The first of Harakas’ lightbulb moments flickered on day one of 10th grade geometry, in a new school. He transferred to a small Christian high school after attending an Indianapolis public school on the east side. Raised by his grandparents, and a gifted athlete, Harakas’ had a history of success on the field and a history of sleeping in class. So, on his first day at the new school, he laid his head on his desk right as class began.
The student next to him, poked his shoulder and asked, “'What are you doing?" Harakas sat up and realized for the first time, that school was for learning.
Harakas’ succeeded in high school and was recruited to play football for Indiana Wesleyan University. He entered as a political science major but failed his first political science exam and decided to focus on business. He admits, “I never dreamed of being an entrepreneur; I just loved solving problems. I see myself as a problem solver.”
His mind always jumped to solutions, so while sitting in class during his sophomore year at IWU, Harakas’ experienced a lightbulb idea. He says, “I was sitting in Music 180 and not listening at all, because this idea came to me. I whispered the idea to a friend, and I started dreaming.”
About that time, Harakas’ suffered a knee injury and could no longer participate in football. Instead of waking up at 5 a.m. each day to hit the gym, he and business classmate Carter Dood (’23) committed to waking up at 5 a.m. to work on this business idea in Hodson Hall—creating a platform for coaches and teams called ProBook. Harakas’ switched his major to entrepreneurship and placed all efforts on solving problems through business ideas.
The pair, along with graphic designer Graham Terry (’21), pitched their business idea in IWU’s DeVoe School of Business’ pitch competition, Grand in 60, and won $1,000 to invest in their idea. With momentum on their side, they began to explore how to bring their business plan to life. Soon, however, they realized the coding and tech know-how was far above their skill set. They explored the option of outsourcing the coding work and received a quote to the tune of $100,000.
This became the next problem for Harakas’ and his partners to solve. Over the summer of their junior year, they began knocking on the office doors of investors and found one willing to write a seed-money check for $150,000. With those funds, they hired a Ukrainian company to write the code, spending wee-morning hours in cooperative calls because of the time zone difference.
By the end of Harakas’ senior year, everything fell into place, and they launched ProBook (later called AllIn), a mobile app for iOS and Android. Fresh out of college, they ran full force, pitching the app to customers and to investors. After one year, they had raised a considerable amount of money ($800,000) and scaled the business.
“In order to learn, you have to fail. In order to fail, you must try. In order to try, you cannot be afraid to fail. If you keep putting yourself in the arena with the possibility to fail, you will win.”
DEANDRE HARAKAS ’21 Managing Director, DAST Investments
He says a theme in his growth as an entrepreneur is consistent learning. Harakas’ says, “I watched about 3,000 hours on YouTube to help me understand how to solve the next problem in my business. Making mistakes and learning from them—it’s such a sport.”
“In order to learn, you have to fail. In order to fail, you must try. In order to try, you cannot be afraid to fail. If you keep putting yourself in the arena with the possibility to fail, you will win.” His tech business evolved and grew, thanks to Harakas’ commitment to learn and willingness to step into the arena. Harakas says, “We had incredible wins with AllIn, but I remember and learn from the failures more.”
Over the next three years, Harakas changed the name of the app from ProBook to AllIn, raised over 1.5 million dollars, and worked with some 2,000 sports high school and college organizations through the app and his business. When the DAST organization approached Harakas with the idea of pitching his product to athletic directors rather than coaches, the potential of Harakas’ business grew. DAST’s network and connections to education institutions across the nation encouraged Harakas to sell them AllIn and in turn, they hired him as Managing Director for the Investment Studio and the Head of Sales for DAST.
The vision of DAST fits Harakas’ story because they partner with K-12 private Christian schools and pair them with grant and scholarship money, providing the opportunity for every student to attend a private Christian school if they choose. Harakas’ life was changed by a private Christian school and now he works to help create accessibility to that same opportunity for students like him across the nation.
Harakas’ future is bright, and he is excited to solve the problem of bringing a Christ-centered education to every child in America—a big vision. One thing is certain—he is not afraid to fail and will enter the arena until he finds the wins. His work impacts the next generation of innovators and ignites creativity in students so they too can gain from their own “lightbulb moments.”