Element451 Turns 6!
by Ardis Kadiu · Updated Sep 13, 2024
This January, we're toasting to six remarkable years of Element451! From a bold start-up to the leading AI-powered CRM for higher education, our journey has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Join us as we reflect on the milestones and innovations that have shaped our path. It's not just a celebration of our birthday – it's a tribute to the AI-powered reality we continue to build together!
2015
January of 2015, Element451 began as “Luminious”, a project born as part of higher-ed marketing agency, Spark451. The project that kick-started it all was a builder schools use to create and manage college applications.
A screen-shot of the first project (application builder) for Luminous.
Once we released the applications module, I thought it was just the one product we were going to be working on, but that was just the tip of the iceberg!
Given that we were working with data and students, the name Luminous made a lot of sense to us at the time. It had that enlightening component we wanted.
That fall, the Element451 name took shape and the brand was born.
Element451's first branded website.
2016 - 2018
At warp speed, the Element451 team designed and built a complete platform, including drag-and-drop email + SMS marketing, landing page builder, smart decisioning, event management, marketing automation, data management, and analytics.
Its earliest adopters played a huge role in shaping the product to match the needs of college and university admissions and enrollment.
At that time we were building the first versions of many of the modules that are indispensable today in Element451 from scratch. It's great to see how time and continuous improvement have turned these modules into cornerstones of productivity for our customers.
2018
Element451, Inc. set off as its own company. CEO and Founder, Ardis Kadiu recalls it being “scary as hell.”
When you're growing a product inside a service company, you're serving clients and you're being shown what to prioritize. With our product standing on its own, we were able to focus and pay more attention to the user experience and engineering in a way that helped make Element the best it could be.
2019
In 2019, partner schools met in Brooklyn (our old homebase) for Element451’s first user conference, Lab Days. That October, Cofounders Capital invested $1M in seed funding to accelerate Element451’s growth.
Our first user conference, Lab Days, took place in Brooklyn in 2019.
Element451 answers the call for software that optimizes higher-ed recruiting and matches what today's professionals and students expect — user-friendly online products that get out of their way and help them get things done.
By the end of the year, Element451 more than tripled its client base. Southeast Missouri State University was among the schools that adopted Element451 for its admissions and enrollment.
From a student perspective, Element was leaps and bounds ahead of the others. The Element team continues to innovate the platform for its partners with the student's experience at the center of everything.
2020
In March of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic upended the college experience for millions of students. A reported 520 campuses across 47 states shut down in one week, including all of our partner schools.
Finding the right work-from-home set up was crucial.
Mere days into the lockdown, partner schools got together for an Element451 moderated conversation about what virtual enrollment would look like. Over the next few months, they met three more times to share their experiences and challenges.
If the pandemic taught people in many different industries a lesson, it is that you can be an expert, or at least well-versed, but when something like this pandemic happens, something that has never happened before, that ability goes out the window.
Over the summer, more than 150 participants joined the Intelligent Admissions Academy, Element451’s online user conference.
The Intelligent Admissions lab sessions on data auditing would prove to be fruitful and enlightening to many users.
That fall, Packs, our automated campaign builder launched, making Element451 the first higher-ed CRM to include fully written campaigns to drive enrollment and student engagement.
The first iteration of our announcement of Packs!
Packs was a truly multidisciplinary effort. We turned our collective experience across content, technology, and strategy into something that will make it easier for schools to attract students.
2021
April of 2021 saw Element receive a $3 million investment to expand student engagement efforts.
I understand the value that Element451 is creating for college admissions offices, and I am excited to help them grow.
Element451 closed out the year serving nearly 60 partner schools, a doubling from the previous year. New partnerships included BYU-Hawaii, Bethune-Cookman University, Tennessee State University, Western Theological Seminary, and our first international partner, Bright Domino.
Element451 had a successful 2021. We hired top-notch employees and we doubled our client count. We have the people, the product and the knowledge to more than double in 2022.
2022
In June of 2022, Element hosted its new and improved user conference, Engage Summit, in beautiful Raleigh, North Carolina.
Apart from connecting with our colleagues in person, we were able to provide some enrollment and marketing inspiration for our partner institutions.
New partnerships were made in 2022 including a new investment in our growth led by the technology-focused firm, Blueprint Equity.
We are excited to help elevate Element451 into this next chapter of growth. We believe that their innovative work will continue to transform higher ed as they have done in tandem with their partner institutions since inception.
New school partnerships in 2022 brought Element451 to 100+ partners, including San Jose State University, Wake Tech, Durham Tech, Paul Mitchell Schools, Blinn College, Rush University, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
2023
2023 was a year of unprecedented achievement for Element451.
At the forefront was the 2023 Engage Summit in Raleigh, NC, the largest in Element451's history, bringing together the brightest minds in higher education.
As OpenAI, ChatGPT, and other artificial intelligence tools took the world by storm, we were there every step of the way, guiding higher ed into this new era of innovation. The introduction of AI tools coincided with our own technological leaps with the rollout of BoltBot, our revolutionary AI chatbot.
This shift toward AI is not just about keeping up with technological trends; it's a reflection of our commitment to being at the forefront of innovation in higher education.
This innovation was part of our broader expansion, as we introduced three new packages: Element Bolt, Element Ignite, and Element Engage, each designed to meet the evolving needs of higher education.
Element451 also acquired Enrollify, further enriching clients, subscribers, and the higher ed community with the latest edtech trends and resources.
This acquisition represents our dedication to providing cutting-edge insights and tools, ensuring institutions stay at the forefront of educational innovation.
Alongside webinars and informational resources, 2023 saw the launch of the first comprehensive Prompt Engineering Course for Higher Education.
Welcoming Enrollify into the Element451 family wasn't just an acquisition, it's an accelerator to our core mission. We're all about empowering higher ed with intelligent tools and insights, and Enrollify fits right into that vision.
In 2023, our Element451 family grew significantly, as we welcomed over 65 new partner institutions! And our partners were able to accomplish some incredible engagement feats:
New Contacts Added: With a whopping 8,556,994 new contacts added in 2023, we significantly expanded the outreach capabilities of our partners.
Emails Sent: Our partners sent out 177,582,067 emails, leveraging our powerful communication platforms to effectively reach the right audience with the right message at the right time.
Texts Managed: A total of 3,443,308 texts were efficiently managed, ensuring timely and effective student communication so that staff could form 1-1 connections and get information out in a timely manner.
Conversations Managed: Our tools adeptly managed 388,877 conversations, fostering better student-institution interactions.
Tasks Completed: With 586,939 tasks completed, our partners experienced unparalleled productivity and efficiency.
Applications Processed: Our partners processed 344,232 applications, streamlining the admissions process like never before.
We wouldn't be where we are without our incredible partner schools! Together, we're not just navigating the future of education; we're shaping it with innovation and collaboration.
Types of schools represented: public, two-year; public, four-year; private, for-profit; private, not-for-profit; non-traditional, trade
Types of mascots: Bears (Bloomfield College), Senators (D&E College), Flying Fleet (Erskine), the River Monster (LSUS), Cardy the Cardinal (Otterbein), Rowdy the Redhawk (SEMO), Vikings (Villa Maria College at Buffalo), Seasiders (BYU Hawaii), Twister the Lion (King University), Aristocrat the Tiger (Tennessee State University), Flame the Firehawk (UT Southern), Blaze the Gray Fox (Forsyth Technical Community College), Talon the Eagle (Wake Tech Community College), General the Jaguar (Texas A&M San Antonio).
Oldest partners: Villa Maria College
Newest partner: Eastern Wyoming College
About Element451
Element451 is an AI-first CRM and Student Engagement platform for higher education. Designed to simplify and personalize every interaction across the student journey. Welcome to the era of student-centric engagement.
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