ScholarBuys opened for business on March 20th, 2008 with Matt Ryan and Bob Smith. Today we celebrate their accomplishments so far and take a look back at how the company has grown.
On November 1st, 2012 ScholarBuys settled into its current office at 11 West Main St in Carpentersville, Illinois after moving from a different office in Carpentersville. This office change allowed the team to have a more open work place instead of the traditional cubical set-up.
ScholarBuys made the INC 5000 list in 2012 and 2013
Matt Ryan and Bob Smith started the company in Matt’s basement in 2008 during a rough time for the economy. The company has evolved into a team of 10 in Carpentersville that focuses exclusively on academic technology. Over the years this team has gained expert knowledge and provides unparalleled quality that makes ScholarBuys stand out from other resellers.
The team has grown to ten individuals that bring unique knowledge and strengths to create a collective group of technology experts. Both Matt and Bob quoted the team as their favorite part about working at ScholarBuys. The two partners have watched employees hired right out of college go on to build a home and families in the community and find it rewarding to witness the personal and professional growth in each colleague.
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Matt and Bob share their biggest takeaways
Follow your gut. If something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t and vice versa.
Bob Smith
You can never run out of new skills to learn and master to help your team. Never think you know everything and be prepared to hire those who know more than you. We all have one common goal; provide the academic community with expert level technology procurement support.
Matt Ryan
The Next Steps
The future for ScholarBuys focuses on growth in the K-12 market. ScholarBuys was almost exclusively focused on Higher Education before discovering that the K-12 market is dramatically under-served from a technology procurement standpoint. Over the last 9-10 months, ScholarBuys began to support K-12 schools and that market share has exploded. ScholarBuys hopes to see this momentum continue. When asked about how the team is preparing for this focus Matt Ryan stated:
Over the past 18-24 months we have retooled our team substantially. We were able to locate some key missing pieces to our team puzzle. We have the foundation in place for exponential growth in the coming years.
Matt Ryan
Bob also shared where he sees the company heading in the next year:
I’d like to see our customer base, the breadth of products and services, and our team here at ScholarBuys continue to grow.
Bob Smith
