SubSpark

Rice University, Jones Graduate School of Business

Industry: Education

MBA Founding Student Name(s): Lauren Jackson

Brief Description of Solution: SubSpark is an intuitive, real-time, substitute teacher management platform that helps schools coordinate absences without chaos. Teachers and administrators can post, manage and book substitute jobs from our iOS and Android apps, while the web-based admin dashboard provides the clarity and control schools need.

Funding Dollars: $500/bootstrapped by founder

What led you to launch this venture? As a former public and private K–12 school teacher who worked across three major Texas cities, I experienced the challenges created by substitute teacher management firsthand. Planning periods were routinely spent covering for absent colleagues and classrooms were overcrowded with part of an absent teacher’s students added to your classroom. On one memorable day, I missed my next-door neighbor’s funeral because a substitute teacher was not assigned to my class. These experiences highlighted how inefficiencies in substitute teacher management directly affect both educators and students.

Two-and-a-half years ago, I applied to Rice Business with a single, focused line in my admissions essay: “I want to build a better way for schools to find substitute teachers.” That vision became the foundation for my MBA journey — a mission to design a solution that supports teachers and strengthens the systems they depend on.

What has been your biggest accomplishment so far with venture? Our biggest accomplishment has been developing a product that genuinely improves the daily experience of educators across all of our partner schools. From the start, we focused on building close relationships with our users, listening carefully to their feedback and continually refining our platform to meet their evolving needs. That collaboration led to a strong product-market fit early on, with our beta school becoming our first paying customer. Within a year of launching, we had active, paying schools for the following academic year. For us, that growth reflected not just business progress, but real validation that we were making a meaningful difference for teachers and administrators.

What has been the most significant challenge you’ve faced in creating your company and how did you solve it? The most significant challenge in creating SubSpark was building a tech-forward company without a technical co-founder. Early on, a lot of time and energy went into trying to find the right technical partner. When that search did not lead to a match, it became clear that the only way forward was to commit to building SubSpark without one.

Leaning into that decision meant focusing on assembling the right team rather than a single cofounder. By finding people with the skills and passion needed to design, build, and refine the product, it was possible to keep momentum, ship a strong minimum viable product and continue growing the company. In the end, the critical shift was moving from searching for one perfect technical cofounder to intentionally surrounding the venture with talented collaborators who could help accomplish the mission.

How has your MBA program helped you further this startup venture? The Rice MBA has been instrumental in moving this venture from idea to reality. Rice places a strong emphasis on community and offers a fantastic startup ecosystem for students — and that support showed up from the very first week. During orientation, our cohort stood in a circle and each person was asked to share something they needed and something they could offer. I extended a hand after one student mentioned he needed a ride to school, and those rides to and from campus turned into conversations about my idea — and eventually into his offer to help build our MVP.

Finding the right people was the critical piece, and it was within the MBA community that I found the skills and partners needed to build SubSpark. Our founding team includes the following:

Shivanshu Chaudhary (MBA): Developed our beta version, partnered with me on early product decisions and helped us off the ground.

Juliet Rubin Ramirez (MBA): Helped extensively during our launch and remains central in day-to-day operations, decision-making and clear execution.

MBA Pelumi Sikuade (MBA): Designed our onboarding experience and made it welcoming for teachers from the very start.

LeeAnn Feng: A talented Rice undergraduate, who brought UX instincts that made SubSpark feel intuitive, warm and thoughtful.

Beyond the founding team, the broader Rice community has been incredibly supportive. Classmates introduced me to key contacts, stress-tested ideas, and even helped test early app versions. SubSpark is very much a real solution built with, and by, a community — and the Rice MBA program created the environment where that community could come together around this mission.

Which MBA class has been most valuable in building your startup and what was the biggest lesson you gained from it? The most valuable MBA courses for building SubSpark were strategy, entrepreneurship, and new product/technology product classes. The strategy courses challenged me to think creatively about school staffing problems and to look for unconventional, scalable solutions. The new product and tech-focused courses gave me concrete, real-world steps and tools for building a strong product, from discovery and validation to iteration.

Entrepreneurship courses tied everything together by providing the frameworks and structures for building a business around that product. Through case studies that examined risks, failures, and success stories, I learned how to anticipate obstacles, design more resilient business models and apply those lessons directly to SubSpark.

What professor made a significant contribution to your plans and why? One of the most important influences on my plans came even before the MBA program officially began, in a conversation with Kyle Judah, the executive director of the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. He believed in both me and the idea, and encouraged me to conduct as many interviews as possible. Those conversations helped me build relationships with educators and keep my focus firmly on their problems and how I could solve them.

Throughout the program, Rice professors have continued to play a major role in shaping this journey. Their doors were always open, and I had countless conversations outside the classroom about everything from pitching and pricing to trademark law and building tech products. That access, mentorship and willingness to engage deeply with my startup turned classroom learning into real-world progress for SubSpark.

How has your local startup ecosystem contributed to your venture’s development and success? The local startup ecosystem has played a meaningful role in SubSpark’s growth by layering external support on top of the strong foundation from Rice. SubSpark was selected for gener8tor’s gBETA accelerator, which provided structured programming, mentorship and accountability that helped refine the product and business model. That experience pushed the venture to clarify its value proposition, sharpen its go-to-market strategy and move faster on key milestones. There is also a natural overlap between Houston’s broader startup community and the Rice ecosystem, which makes resources, mentors and peer founders more accessible.

What is your long-term goal with your startup? The team’s long-term goal is to scale SubSpark across the United States while staying grounded in measurable impact for educators. SubSpark wants to serve a growing number of schools and districts with a platform that clearly reduces administrative burden, supports teacher well-being and improves day-to-day school operations. At every stage of growth, success will be defined not just by reach, but by the data and stories that show SubSpark is making educators’ lives meaningfully better.

Looking back, what is the biggest lesson you wished you’d known before launching and scaling your venture? The biggest lesson I’ve learned since launching and scaling SubSpark is that building a startup is an emotional roller coaster with dramatic highs and lows. What I wish I’d known earlier is how essential it is to intentionally surround yourself with mentors who can provide perspective and resources, especially during critical moments when solutions aren’t obvious. Having trusted mentors can help uncover paths forward and keep you focused when challenges feel overwhelming, making the journey more resilient and sustainable.

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