The Accolade introduces a new feature that focuses on those who have graduated from Sunny Hills and how they are contributing to their community and beyond. In this first segment, Spotlight team reporter Kyuwon Han connects with Adrien Truong from the Class of 2015 and the grades app he created when he was a student here.

They say you never forget your first love.

For Adrien Truong, his first can also include his passion project from when he was a senior at Sunny Hills High School.

Truong said it all started when he wanted to build an app for himself but also published it in the App Store, thinking others might also find it useful.

“I just decided to release the app on a whim after my friends and I had used it for a couple of months,” Truong said in a Zoom video interview from his home in San Francisco. “I figured if my friends liked it, maybe others would too, and it got a few hundred downloads at the end of the 2014-2015 school year.”

THEIR FIRST MEETING

The alumnus said he started developing a grades app while taking summer school economics with then-social science teacher Patrick Debacker in 2014. Gradekit, previously known as Grades App, first released as an iOS version for iPhones in April 2015 — a month before his graduation in May — became popular among students, getting half a million downloads. After many student and parent requests, Truong said he released the app on Android in February 2017 when he was a sophomore working toward a bachelor’s degree in computer science at Stanford University.

“The app has gotten over a million downloads over its lifetime — the vast majority from the first iteration of the app,” the software engineer said. “I think it was popular because, at the time, there was no other alternative, so when people searched for Aeries in the App Store, they found my app.”

He said the main three reasons the app became so popular were its simple design, a grade calculator feature and that users only have to log in once.

Originally named Grades for Aeries, he changed it to Grades for Parents and Students at the request of the Aeries company. He ended up naming it Grades App, inspired by other apps such as WhatsApp and Cash App.

However, Truong said he had to bring down the app for reasons such as not having enough time and resources to maintain it and Aeries Software wanting to create an official app.

“At the time, it was bittersweet for me,” he said. “This was my big hit that I was really proud of.”

Aeries Software, established in 1995, is a portal app with a student information system that helps students and guardians check grades.

Truong said an employee from Aeries Software sent an email in June 2015, inviting him to Aeries headquarters and supporting his efforts with the app he created. At the time, they asked him to change the name from Grades for Aeries to Grades for Parents and Students to clarify that it is a third-party app unaffiliated with Aeries.

“But at the time, I thought, ‘There’ll be more things in the future; I think I can let this one go for now,’” he said.

In April 2018, Aeries Software finished building its official version of a grades app and requested Truong to remove his from the app stores with no offer of compensation in return.

“I decided the best thing for everyone [was] to pass them [Aeries] the torch and have them continue developing the app officially while I would kind of take my app down,” he said. “It was really amazing to see all the stories and reviews that people posted after I announced that the app would be shutting down, and letting me know how much they enjoyed using the app.”

International Baccalaureate coordinator Brian Wall said the app was a successful creation, according to a past Accolade issue.

“I remember when his app came out; I saw everyone using it at Sunny Hills,” Wall said. “To be able to speculate what your grade might be makes the app a goldmine.”

GOING BACK TO HIS APP

However, Truong said Gradekit was always in the back of his mind, so he decided to relaunch it on iOS on Feb. 11.

“I was going to regret it for the rest of my life,” he said. “I think I just kind of have to take the shot, and even if it doesn’t work out, I’ll still be glad that I took the bet on myself.”

Truong noticed that on the App Store, the official Aeries app has a one-and-a-half or two-star rating out of five, telling him that the official app isn’t popular among students.

“I believe that students and parents deserve world-class software, and being a software engineer, I was in a very fortunate position to do something about this,” the programmer said.

From creating Gradekit in high school, which led to his decision to major in computer science, to now choosing to dedicate all his time to developing the app, Truong said he is excited to continue adding to his creation.

Realizing that continuing his full-time job at Robinhood, where he worked from May 2020 to July 2024, and maintaining his app would be too hard, he decided to focus only on Gradekit. He only told his older brother about his plans and notified his parents the day he resigned from his work.

“After a few months, I was having so much fun and decided to quit my job to expand the app to more schools and grading systems across the U.S. as well as add more functionality,” the Class of 2015 alumnus said.

Truong’s mother, My Truong, said she was shocked at the time in response to her son’s question regarding his decision.

“I would not lie to say that I’m appalled, but knowing my son and knowing that all his decisions in life can only be good ones as he doesn’t live only for himself but for the community,” My Truong said according to an email Adrien Truong sent to The Accolade on Monday, Oct. 28.

Truong said the one person who motivated him the most to take such a risk at the time was Pieter Levels, who created Nomad List, a website for digital migrants working remotely around the world. Having more freedom while working and the amount of money he is able to make inspired him to become an indie hacker.

“Nomad List is built around my vision for the future of remote work, where I think billions of people in some form will work remotely from multiple countries/cities in the world while moving around to find their perfect place to live with the community of people they fit in,” Levels said in his January 2017 levels.io article.

Additionally, Truong said he has been watching the indie hacker movement, which refers to people who build software businesses with one or two people. As a solo software developer of the app, he said it was a great way to express himself creatively and learn more about marketing or other features instead of just coding.

“This whole proposition of doing more than just coding, being able to do marketing, sales, run an actual proper business, thinking about revenue, profit and customer acquisition costs, just became really appealing to me,” he said. “Also, the idea of the amount of freedom that comes with running your own company was incredibly appealing to me.”

A LOVE RENEWED

On the second version of his creation, the process of refining the app required much research and help from students since Truong was no longer a student with an Aeries account, the Class of 2015 graduate said.

“I’ve been able to find a few students who are very excited about helping me build the app and have been working with me to build various integrations into the app and other grading systems,” he said.

One of those students is Evan Zhang, a senior from Diamond Bar High School. They got into contact in February 2024, and Zhang said he found the app by searching across the App Store for a better alternative to the grades app he previously used.

“Adrien has been very proactive about making advancements to the app,” Zhang said. “Bugs are fixed quickly for user convenience, and he takes into account the needs and perspectives of different grading portals and tries to create an app that would apply to all.”

Truong also decided to add a College Center feature that allows users to view profiles of students admitted to different colleges, view their GPAs and transcripts and explore information about the Universities of California. Another feature he coded that the Aeries app doesn’t have is a category view on the assignment list to view individual category percentages.

On Friday, Nov. 8, Truong renamed the app for the third time to Gradekit, hoping it would be more recognizable and memorable. He said he thought Grades App was a generic name, and people could not easily know which app specifically it refers to since numerous other grade apps on the App Store exist.

“I brainstormed lots of words that were related to grades, schools and students and even asked ChatGPT for some ideas, though I didn’t use any of them,” he said. “Ultimately, Gradekit is the name that won out, and hopefully, it becomes a household name someday.”

The app is available for free on the Apple App Store and is compatible with Aeries, StudentVUE, Home Access Center, Aspen, Infinite Campus, Skyward, Q Student Connection, Focus and SchoolBrains.

While many of his peers are out socializing or getting married and starting a family, Truong has decided to stick with his first love — the grades app. He doesn’t plan on breaking up anytime soon.

“I hope that this could eventually be my full-time job and sustain me indefinitely,” the 27-year-old software engineer said. “I think I would continue working on this app if I continue having ideas on how to improve the app and how to better meet the needs of students.”

This story was originally published on The Accolade on November 19, 2024.