John Knific

 

 

CEO and Co-Founder of
Decision Desk

 

 

by Elijah Franklin, crew 6
 

 

Not too long ago in Lakewood, Ohio, a new company called Decision Desk opened. Decision Desk is a company that helps people get into colleges. It helps simplify the admissions and application process for students applying to colleges. John Knific is the Chief Executive Officer and a cofounder of Decision Desk.   At just age 27 he is helping smooth the way to college for thousands of hopeful applicants.

 

John Knific hadn’t always planned on being an entrepreneur. He went to college to be a doctor. He studied at Case Western Reserve University. John wanted to be a doctor because he felt that doctors are well-respected and successful people. He also wanted to be a doctor because his uncle was a doctor. He was also fascinated with the piano. John said, “I practiced 3-4 hours a day at piano, but now he’s not a professional pianist.” In high school he was fascinated with computers. John started his own computer repair business in high school. When he was younger he did not think about building his own company. It wasn’t until college that he realized he could be his own boss.

 

Decision Desk is a company that helps high school students submit their application materials for college into one online location. All the files are saved into computers. John said, “Oftentimes colleges lose some of the things that students send in to help them get into that college.”  Decision Desk solves this problem by providing colleges with a web platform that they can use to organize application materials. When students apply to the school they access the web platform and submit their application materials securely and quickly online instead of having to mail in materials to different offices at the college. While John encourages colleges to go paperless by putting their application process online, he also encourages his company to be paperless. At Decision Desk there are no pencils or pens, it is all computer based. The reason they use computers is to make sure there are no paper copies lost.

 

John was very young when he started Decision Desk. In college John and two of his other friends came up with the idea. It wasn’t until 4 months ago that his friends left the company. Ever since then John has been in full control of Decision Desk.

 

John said that they started Decision Desk in Cleveland because Cleveland is trying hard to keep more technology jobs here because it is very high growth and it’s a new industry. He also explained that another reason why they wanted to locate the company here is because “it’s very affordable to and the region is very supportive of new businesses.” John also feels that he and Decision Desk have a lot of support in Cleveland, Ohio. According to John he plans to work at Decision Desk for a very long time. He says, “I would love to help other startup companies get started.”

 

Overall, John Knific is the CEO of the wonderful new company Decision Desk. Through this company he helps people get in to college by keeping track of their records. As a young entrepreneur he gave this advice, “Follow your dreams and stick to what you believe in.” Because he has taken his own advice, John Knific is successfully running his own business today.