It may not be dramatic enough for an Aaron Sorkin script, but the rise of recent cyber-entrepreneurs and Washington University alumni Jeremy Friedman, Ryan Hwang and Timothy Trinidad could become one of the best campus success stories in recent years. The three founders of Schoology, an online social media and educational platform, have generated both press and praise with their new business, which could revolutionize the way schools use social media as a teaching tool.

In 2008, Friedman, Hwang and Trinidad launched the project as part of the “Hatchery” entrepreneurship course with Professor Clifford Holekamp, a class they agreed was “helpful and eye-opening.” Their platform was based on the idea of note sharing, complete with a tutoring aspect to appeal to university students. Ad-supported revenue from the system was returned to users as an incentive to participate.

By May 2009, the founders of Schoology decided to take the leap and pursue their project full time.

“We never imagined that we would be doing this after we graduated; even right up until graduation, a couple of us had job offers or were going to grad school,” Trinidad said. “It was definitely not something that we pictured when we originally founded the project.”

In a time when most seniors are worried about picking up their cap-and-gown combo, they raised a seed round of funding a week prior to graduation.

After securing funding, it was only a matter of time before the next generation of technology-focused users began to discover Schoology: high-schoolers. It was then that Schoology decided to rethink their approach.

“We saw that there was a really big need in K-12 that wasn’t being addressed,” Trinidad said. “Why not focus on a level that’s being underserved?”

Rather than mimicking the nature of other learning management systems, such as Blackboard, the founders wanted to stay away from a repository feel. Instead, they decided to develop Schoology for its interactive and collaborative potential. Helped along by an “angel donor,” venture firm Meakem Becker, and $1.25 million in Series A funding, Schoology expanded to combine the feel of social networking with an academic purpose.

It was through this community-minded environment that K-12 clients started responding to their product, suggesting features that might be more appropriate to schools at an individual or system-wide level. Although the majority of features are more applicable to post-secondary education, the dialogue between Schoology and their clients has allowed them to develop a user-friendly interface that could develop in the same manner as Twitter or Facebook.

“We’ve adopted a business model that is very different from the bigger players,” Friedman said.

Individual teachers can come on for free and then build from a school platform. Because ads are often blocked at the K-12 level, revenue is generated when schools purchase add-ons, such as custom branding. Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School and Clayton High School are two area schools among the approximately 2,400 Schoology clients across the nation.

The young founders are continually surprised by the outcomes of their venture, including a recent article in Entrepreneur Magazine.

“It’s not quite a success yet; we sit here every day and work really long hours because we love it,” Friedman said. “The most rewarding thing is not just creating a platform, but watching it grow and people use it.”

“It is kind of funny that my relationship with Jeremy, Ryan and Tim really blossomed after they delivered a pretty lackluster midterm rehearsal of their business plan pitch for Schoology in the Hatchery class. When they showed that they actually wanted the toughest criticism that they could get, I realized that these guys were going somewhere,” Holekamp wrote in an e-mail.

They are still in contact with their former professor, whom they consider “a great resource,” close friend and mentor.

“From their first elevator pitch in class to their full-page profile in Entrepreneur magazine, I have been tremendously proud of them,” Holekamp wrote.

To those budding entrepreneurs here at their alma mater, Hwang offers some advice: “When you’re in college, you have your whole life ahead of you; now’s the time to pursue what you really want to do.”