Closer to School

Businesses are clamoring for qualified employees. Schools want to help their students get jobs.

In Charlotte County, one Naples-based software company called Softwarenology is bridging that gap.

Founded by young techies who escaped from Cuba, Softwarenology created an online communication tool that helps teachers, parents and businesses connect via computer, cell phone or tablet.

Charlotte County is implementing Softwarenology's Web-based communication technology for its 16,000 students. It has some gee-wiz components such as the ability to automatically translate any message into the parents' native language and back into English for the reply to the teacher.
“Charlotte County has become our champion,” says Marcos Quiros, the CEO of Softwarenology. “It has become really important for us.”

While communication between the school and the parent is vital, Softwarenology is launching another system that will connect employers with prospective students who are nearing graduation and will be looking for employment. The idea is to keep students from leaving the area to find good jobs. “They don't have to look for jobs on Monster.com,” Quiros says.

There's a mistaken notion among many Southwest Florida residents that there are few well-paying and challenging jobs in the region. But Quiros says there's no central point where employers can access the talent that's graduating today.

For example, a company might want to look for qualified applicants by offering internships to students while they're in school that could lead to full-time employment after they graduate. “Companies are for it,” says Quiros.

But Quiros wants the system to be much bigger than just Charlotte County schools. He envisions opening up the Web-based portal so other school districts as well as colleges and universities can participate. “You have to create it as a community,” says Quiros.

Pricing hasn't been established for the business portal, but Quiros envisions it being paid for by the schools that need to place their graduates. It would be free for students and companies. “We're creating a plan, but obviously the plan will change as we move forward,” he says. “If we can implement it here, we can do it anywhere in the world.”

Quiros and his business partners, Emilio Baez, Jasan Alvarez and Brian Pazos, built the company from scratch. Quiros and Baez quit their jobs working in the technology department of Collier County schools in January. Alvarez and Pazos joined them later.

The four men escaped Cuba after earning technology degrees. Some had harrowing escapes, such as Alvarez, who was stripped naked by Mexican border guards who tried to steal his money and threatened to kill him.

They used their personal savings and worked around the clock from home to launch Softwarenology. Because of their unique perspective building technology systems for Collier's schools, Quiros and Baez say they understand what it takes for schools to communicate better with parents and others.

Charlotte County is the company's first customer. It has agreed to pay $35,000 to deploy the school-parent online communication tool. “Charlotte is a heck of a school district,” says Quiros. “They're innovative. People love the school system there. They have a sense of ownership.”

The company's business plan is to charge a $5 annual fee per student. The three-year plan is to grow annual revenues to $4 million.