As I hung up my phone, I was in tears. I had just been asked by Satish Mirle, the founder and CEO of MaiaLearning, to send out a survey to our GuidedPath customers. It was a turning point for our company. It was also a profound moment in my journey as an female entrepreneur in technology. 

The past few weeks had been fraught with stress and uncertainty, both personally and for our company. On July 1 we had announced GuidedPath would be closing down as a college counseling platform. This was less than two months after I lost my husband. Having two losses so close together was almost overwhelming. Add covid-19 on top of everything, and it was a bleak time.

Hard Decisions

The decision to close a company is never done lightly. Our company did not have a choice as to why to close or when to close. The twin issues of Covid-19 and a marked decrease in Chinese-American trade had created an untenable situation for our parent company. They decided to discontinue offering GuidedPath as a product. Notice was given to our users as soon as possible. We knew this was the busiest time of year for them. We wanted to give them as much time as possible. We had been told the development team, hosted in China, was only available until Sept. 30. We had a strict time clock that we could not change.

In preparation to our product closing down, I had reached out to all of our competitors. I wanted them to be ready for the wave of new customers I knew would be coming their way. They were all gracious and supportive. Each of the companies we talked to expressed sadness that their profit was being increased through our demise. It was heartwarming to see everyone in our market unified in one cause: that of serving customers.



Launching A Market

As I reflected back on the history of our market, I felt a great deal of pride. This was a market our company has started, back in 2005. Back then the brand was MyCCA.net. We were the first to say it was time to move the industry of college planning from paper folders and post it notes to technology. We showed it could be done. We talked to college planners, found their needs, and built a system to fit their needs. I remember sitting at a school classroom in Elmhurst College in Chicago, at a HECA conference one summer, asking people for their ideas and needs for a college planner. This is how my husband and I started MyCCA.net.

We started with CD’s that were loaded onto computers. My husband, myself and even our children spent hours burning CD’s (remember that?), putting labels on discs and mailing them out to customers. Early adopters came to our house to learn more about how to use this new fangled tool we had created. They wanted to make their businesses grow and thrive. The first five users turned into ten, and we grew exponentially each year. It was an exciting experience to found an entirely new industry. And now, this new industry had multiple companies offering college planning tools. I knew everyone was in good hands. There were many choices and excellent tools to turn to.

Tough Choices

After the announcement that GuidedPath was closing came out, there was much for each subscriber to GuidedPath to do. Check out the other college platforms. Figure out how to download and store data. Explore how to migrate data from one platform to another. Our users were thrust into a decision they were not ready to make, nor really had time to make.

Then the emails started pouring in. One after another, our subscribers were saying they were having a difficult time finding the right software. As one advisor wrote,

“I am so sad about this. All of the unique features that have been incredibly helpful -- the My Chances page when having the 'get in the reality zone' meeting with student and parent, the information about costs, diversity, the wonderful visual under My College List that so helps when meeting with kids talking about their schools... Fiske... It all saves so much time and really helps the students take more ownership of the process.”

Our subscribers wrote about the superb support, the personal connections they felt to our support team of Andrea and Jennifer Smith. The value of supporting our clients, of making sure the user experience is our top priority, was recognized and applauded. Comments such as this were not uncommon:

“As I used it over the past few months another feature stood out -- the customer service was top notch. They helped me correct problems and understand features. The few times they didn't have a direct solution, they offered a work around. And they were so fast. No query went more than a few hours without a helpful response. Please pass them my thanks.”

A Company Who Cares

One of the alternative products our users were exploring was MaiaLearning. MaiaLearning did several demonstrations. Phil Roybal listed to the needs of multiple advisors. CEO Satish Mirle talked to several advisors, both from the US and abroad. After hearing about advisors needs, their stress, and the difficulties the advisors were having finding the right solutions, he decided something needed to be done. This is when he called me to do a survey. “Find out where your customers are in their decision process. Is it too late to have them stay with GuidedPath?”. This was 30 days into our 60 day count down. After wiping away the tears, I got to work and sent out the survey.

The results of the survey were staggering. 80% said they would stay with GuidedPath if given the chance. Over 80% said they would continue to pay the same price for GuidedPath as they were before. But was it too late to have subscribers stay? For many the answer was “yes”. I had many tell me they wished we had made the announcement even a week prior. In the survey 50% of the subscribers said they had not selected a new company to migrate to. Another almost 30% said they would be able to return to GuidedPath. The emails, the calls, the posts to social media, and the surveys all told a persuasive story: GuidedPath was a tool valued by our users. It was not a tool that was easily replaceable.

Writing a New Chapter

MaiaLearning, armed with this experience and knowledge about GuidedPath, set out to do the right thing by the customers. Satish shared his thoughts in the email to subscribers: “I realized the data was screaming that shutting down GuidedPath at this crucial application season was the WRONG thing to do.” They made an offer to our parent company to purchase GuidedPath. It took longer than expected to close the deal. We were in a quiet period of the acquisition, so we could not say much about it. All we could do was say, “GuidedPath is still in business”. “Our commitment to service and quality has not changed”. Now, we can burst out with the news, GuidedPath has officially joined the MaiaLearning product line.

The GuidedPath team was kept intact. Andrea Lindquist and Jen Smith joined the MaiaLearning teams. I was asked by Satish to head up the IEC division of the company, working as a part time consultant. This allows me time to continue building my coaching and consulting practice. And have time to teach for UCLA and other projects I am involved in.

Eventually GuidedPath will be merged into MaiaLearning. It will be a managed, seamless process. It will be influenced, once again, by the voices of our subscribers. It will not be rushed. MaiaLearning shares the same dedication to customers. Satish, in a letter to the subscribers stated,

“ I personally want you to know the values of GuidedPath for customer service are shared by MaiaLearning. We have your best interests at heart. You are in safe hands.”

Full Circle 

In many ways, I feel like I am back at the beginning again, with MyCCA.net. I am talking to advisors who are new to consulting, as well as being new to GuidedPath. I am talking to experienced advisors looking for new ways to scale their practice. And I rejoice in hearing each story, and celebrating each experience. I especially enjoy welcoming each new subscriber (or current subscriber too) to the GuidedPath community. For, in spite of what we have all gone through the past two months, we know we truly are a community.

For that, I am grateful. I just wish I could share this moment with my co-founder, and spouse, my husband. Yet, I can feel his presence and smiles, and his gratitude too, for a happy ending. I realize, my journey as a female entrepreneur in technology has been full of bumps and twists, but it has brought me back to a place I want to be. Of service to the profession of college counseling.