- We believe that all individuals and organizations can continue to grow and improve throughout their lives.
- We believe in the power of education to change people's lives and improve our world.
- We believe that coaching significantly enhances the benefits and opportunities that education provides.
- We believe that organizations have a responsibility to foster individual success by providing the systems, support and culture that will help people thrive.
- We believe that feedback and measurement foster self awareness, which is essential for the growth and improvement of individuals and organizations.
- We believe that recognition, encouragement and clarity of purpose are essential to success.
InsideTrack founders Alan Tripp and Kai Drekmeier began working together in 1992 when they opened the first Score! Educational Center in Palo Alto, California. Score! offered an innovative combination of academic coaching, personalized learning and positive reinforcement to K-7 students. The company eventually expanded to more than 100 locations and was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine in 1998. Alan left Score! in 1999 and returned to Stanford University where he began teaching in the dual masters degree program in education and business. While at Stanford, Alan began to consider the potential for providing coaching to college students in order to increase student engagement and success. Alan consulted frequently with Kai as his thinking evolved, and the two decided to found a new venture focused on coaching college students.
Alan and Kai recruited James Cleveland from Score! to help them further develop the concept that would become InsideTrack. They were soon joined by Jennifer Hartvikson, a former student of Alan's from Stanford. On October 23, 2000 the four entrepreneurs began working together full time in a tiny, windowless office in the back of a warehouse in San Francisco's Mission District. This team built InsideTrack from the bottom up, assembling the furniture, defining the mission, creating the curriculum and designing the coaching program.
The InsideTrack Coaching program was initially tested at Stanford and UC Berkeley in 2000 and 2001. Over the course of many months, Kai, Jennifer, James and Alan spent several hours each day canvassing students in front of the Stanford book store and on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, inviting them to participate in "free academic strategy sessions." Students responded enthusiastically.
Following this initial success, InsideTrack began partnering with universities - including Chapman University and DeVry University - to provide coaching to their incoming students. The company has continued to expand ever since, providing services to a growing number of universities.
Today, InsideTrack is the nation's leading provider of student coaching services, having coached more than 350,000 students nationally. The company employs hundreds of InsideTrack Coaches who are as dedicated as the founders to providing students with the guidance and motivation they need to get the most out of their college experience.
Photos, left to right: Notes from a brainstorming session decorate the walls of the first InsideTrack office in 2001. InsideTrack founders Kai Drekmeier, Alan Tripp, Jennifer Hartvickson and James Cleveland smile for a group photo. James Cleveland coaches a college student. In the early days, all of the founders were coaches, marketers and furniture assemblers.
