Hometown CEO Nick Mirisis on Building the Kind of Technology School Administrators, Athletic Directors Actually Need

Yahoo

17-03-2025

By Exec Edge Editorial Staff
As the CEO of Hometown, a leading digital platform for K-12 schools and universities, Nick Mirisis has transformed what began as a ticketing service into a comprehensive solution for educational institutions across the United States. With the company's recent combination with Schoolfundr at the end of 2024, Mirisis says Hometown is now positioned to tackle one of education's most persistent challenges: helping schools keep more of what they raise.
We spoke with Mirisis about Hometown's year of evolution, growth-phase leadership, and why the education technology space is primed for disruption in 2025.
Let's look back at 2024. How would you segment the year for Hometown?
Mirisis: When I look back at 2024, it breaks down into three distinct phases. Early on, we focused on stabilizing our core and rebuilding our foundation – ratifying our long-term strategy to make our suite offering beat competitors, returning to an innovation and performance culture, and making key leadership changes to drive different outcomes.
Spring and summer was about building a reliable business for the long term. We confirmed our hypothesis of a 'winning suite' with fundraising, websites, and digital ticketing working together. We finalized our strategy by building out our website offering and partnering with Schoolfundr as the top fundraising company. We also built scalable processes ensuring efficient growth through automation and intelligence that yield repeatable outcomes.
By fall and winter, we were solving more problems for our customers by reintroducing ourselves to the market as a full suite of solutions. We moved away from the 'Ticketing' moniker, launched the new 'Hometown' at the National Athletic Directors Conference, introduced our new website product, Hometown Engage, and finalized our merger with Schoolfundr.
That's a lot of movement for one year. What internal shift are you particularly proud of?
Mirisis: Building new products that our customers had been asking for, especially our website solutions, while simultaneously adding 500 new customers and maintaining a financially healthy and stable company. Being financially healthy ensures that we can continue to deliver our mission to the thousands of schools who rely on us and support the dedicated team members who help them create that impact.
Your merger with Schoolfundr has generated significant buzz. What do you think makes that partnership powerful?
Mirisis: Our strategic relationship with Schoolfundr stands out. We had a unique advantage that few companies enjoy – we were able to partner together for 15 months before the merger, experimenting with how a joint offering would be received by the market and how our teams could work together toward a common purpose.
By bringing these complementary teams and companies together, we've added more value for our customers in pursuit of our ultimate goal: helping schools raise $2.5 billion. As partners, we've already supported over 400 Hometown schools, run more than 1,400 Schoolfundr fundraisers, and raised millions of dollars.
How did you discover the need for a fundraising solution in the first place?
Mirisis: When I came on as CEO in 2023, we did a deep dive into how customers were using our platform. We discovered that about 20% of our customers were using Hometown for fundraising, which was a bit of a head-scratcher because our system was built as a ticketing platform.
When we asked athletic and arts directors why they were doing this, they told us that even though our system wasn't optimized for fundraising, it cost them less. Most fundraising software on the market takes 20-30% of donor dollars as a fee. That's when we knew there was a real opportunity to solve this problem properly.
Rather than build in-house, you partnered with Schoolfundr. What stood out about them?
Mirisis: We started looking for an outside partner, and some of our customers actually recommended Schoolfundr. I was impressed that they had grown to 1,500 clients in just two years – which is remarkable speed in the education space where schools typically change vendors very slowly.
We were hearing consistently from athletic directors that Schoolfundr was a powerful solution they loved. Their values aligned with ours, and their technology was already proven. The fact that they were founded by entrepreneurs also gave us confidence in their approach.
Give me an example of the real-world impact.
Mirisis: Schoolfundr's fee-free fundraising means schools can raise AND keep more. With Owen J. Roberts Field Hockey in Pennsylvania, for example, they raised $5,000 last year and kept $3,800. This year with Schoolfundr, they raised $7,500 and kept $7,300 – nearly double the amount that actually reached the program.
The fundraising space in EdTech is crowded with competitors taking 20-30% fees. How do you maintain profitability with your fee-free model?
Mirisis: We're taking a fundamentally different approach. The market for years has conditioned folks to accept solutions that take 20-30% of everything raised. Our mission is to give every cent raised back to the students and programs. If donors agree with our values, they have the ability to provide an optional tip at checkout.
We're wildly transparent about this, and we've found that when donors learn they're supporting students directly instead of paying high fees, they're more likely to leave a tip. It's about transparency and choice – the donor can select what they want to contribute to support our operations, rather than us taking a mandatory cut from every transaction.
How did the leadership structure change after the merger?
Mirisis: The combined company has 186 employees, including 62 in Central Ohio. Our leadership team became stronger by integrating executives from both organizations. Dennis Levene, Schoolfundr's founder and CEO, is now Hometown's chief revenue officer, and Ryan Elmquist, Schoolfundr's founder and CTO, is now Hometown's CTO.
What operational changes drove the most value last year?
Mirisis: Starting in March, our teams began investing in testing and re-testing every core component of the software to ensure its reliability for the fall season. We followed a mantra most of our schools, athletic directors, and coaches use: we put in the time in the offseason to practice and prepare, so we're ready for game time. We sunset the practice of reacting when problems occurred, instead investing the time, talent, and resources to be proactive and prevent issues from happening in the first place.
You've had to adapt your leadership style while managing a distributed workforce and merging two companies. What personal change has been most effective?
Mirisis: More impromptu skip-level check-ins and virtual coffees. With more than half of the company outside our Columbus and Cleveland offices, it became increasingly important to build those 'creative connections' – the spontaneous, impromptu conversations that occur in offices – and start fostering community in a hybrid workforce world.
AI is currently dominating the EdTech conversation. Do you see it as transformative or overhyped?
Mirisis: They might be the same thing. AI seems to be all anyone wants to talk about, but in reality, it's technology, intelligence, and business process automation – the very benefit and reason software exists. Examining how we can be more efficient and reduce repetitive tasks is core to what we do.
Our customers trust us because we deliver thoughtful best practices and tested real-world strategies that deliver results. I don't believe that level of subject matter expertise, analysis, and critical thinking can be replaced in 2025.
With so many EdTech companies claiming to transform the space, what evidence tells you Hometown is actually making a difference?
Mirisis: We're visiting schools and districts continuously, with over 300 meetings completed by February alone. During each meeting, our existing customers rave about – and express genuine gratitude for – our commitment to customer success, athletic director support, and fan support team members who all work on behalf of our customers to remove burdens from them. All three of our caring customer teams are highlighted every time we conduct an on-site visit.
This hands-on approach is why someone like Jay Govan at Northside ISD tells us we 'go above and beyond.' Or why athletic directors like Becky Craig at Frisco ISD say our implementation and communication is 'seamless' and 'absolutely great.' That feedback is our true north.
What's your response to schools facing increasingly tight budgets?
Mirisis: This is core to what we do. Schools are strapped for the right tools and the right team. One thing that will remain constant is that budgets will continue to be tight. That's why we're launching Engage, a free tool for schools to build athletic and arts websites to promote their events. It will officially launch early next year.
By combining our ticketing revenue model – which comes from a convenience charge paid by consumers – with Schoolfundr's optional donor tip approach, we're able to offer more services without burdening school budgets.
Merging company cultures is notoriously difficult. What's your approach to building a cohesive identity after the Schoolfundr merger?
Mirisis: Shooting straight and not 'MSU-ing.' Often when leaders don't have an answer, they 'Make Stuff Up.' We don't do that with our customers or our employees.
The process of building one cohesive Hometown culture has thousands of moving parts, and the leadership team couldn't possibly think of every scenario or hiccup that might arise. When challenges do appear, we lean into our core values of Hustle, Excellence, Resilience, and Ownership.
What's unique about our merger is that few companies have the opportunity to mesh from a strategic partnership. Most times in mergers, it's completely secret – you don't know about the other team. This was very different. We've been working together – we know everyone's passions and skills, we know everyone's quirks. That shared understanding makes a tremendous difference.
Let's go back to the merger strategy. Unlike many tech companies that lock customers into an all-or-nothing ecosystem, you've emphasized customer flexibility. Why?
Mirisis: The assumption that customers want everything you have to offer is flawed. More often, they're looking for a specific solution that meets their immediate needs. Forcing them to engage with every service they don't want or can't use risks alienating them entirely.
We want to be the provider of choice across all of our services and ensure that we're preserving the independence of both platforms while also finding ways to create value for users who choose to engage with both. It's about meeting our customers where they are, not forcing them into a box.
So what's next for Hometown (and Nick Mirisis) in 2025?
Mirisis: Looking ahead, we're focused on expanding our reach to the 40,000+ schools that haven't yet experienced the Hometown difference. We have four years of our business plan ratified, positioning us to be solely focused on education while addressing three key problems: communications and awareness, frictionless commerce, and fan engagement.
For communications, we're offering website solutions; for commerce, both in-person and remote ticketing support or online fundraising; and for engagement, we're helping athletic directors identify their most engaged fans and supporters.
The two companies had about 25% customer overlap before the merger, so there's a huge opportunity for cross-selling our services. But we'll stay true to our commitment to choice – schools can use all our services or just the ones they need.
When an athletic director or arts program coordinator can look at their budget and see actual, tangible impact instead of outgoing fees, that's when we know we're making the difference we set out to create.
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