Niche (company)

History

Niche, Inc. was founded as College Prowler in August 2002 by Luke Skurman and Joey Rahimi. Then students at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business, they spun the company out of a project in their entrepreneurship class.

In 2004, the small company obtained an investment of $500,000 from Glen Meakem, who then became the chairman. In 2005, College Prowler was recognized by Fast Company for being one of the 50 fastest-growing companies in the nation. Originally, the company produced print guidebooks, but by 2007 their content was made available online for a subscription fee, and then by 2009 the subscription was removed making all web content free.

In 2013, College Prowler changed its name to Niche and started to cover K-12 school districts using federal data, state data, and user-generated reviews. Within months of launching the K-12 product, Niche had collected 500,000 user reviews on half of all high schools in the US. After transitioning to the new business model, the bulk of revenue then came from partners who helped schools market and advertised to potential students.

In 2018, Niche raised a $6.6 million Series B funding round led by Allen & Company and Grit Capital Partners. The company also added Paul Palmieri, General Partner of Grit Capital Partners, to its board of directors.

In 2020, Niche raised a $35 million Series C round of funding led by Radian Capital, with Radian Capital partner and co-founder Weston Gaddy, and Francisco D’Souza, executive vice chairman and co-founder of Cognizant, both joining the board of directors. At the time of funding, Niche offered over 130,000 in-depth profiles on schools and colleges with over 140 million reviews and ratings from students, parents and alumni.

In 2025, Niche acquired Toronto-based GoodKind, a platform where potential students can connect with academic institutions. This was the first acquisition in company history.

Product

Niche, as College Prowler, provided rankings, report cards (with attributed grades) and reviews of colleges in the US. During its rebranding process, Niche expanded its coverage to include K-12 schools as well as neighborhoods under their "places to live" category. In addition to its comprehensive profiles, Niche also lists scholarships from the company and third parties. Niche functions as a two-sided platform with free access for prospective students and over 15,000 school clients who pay for services to help them market to these users, including placing advertising and promotional material on the site. Niche also offers access to its data for a cost to other parties such as real estate companies, which has raised concerns that this linkage might reinforce neighborhood disparities based on ethnicity and income.

Controversies

In a 2008 scandal known as "Facebookgate", the company created hundreds of "Class of 2013" Facebook groups, typically created by actual students or colleges themselves, for the purpose of promoting College Prowler. According to the CEO, "The original purpose was to use these groups as a way to inform students that they can access a free guide about their new college on our site." College Prowler later removed all administrative access from the 125 groups, admitting, "It was clearly over the line."

References

References

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2. Spencer, Malia. (October 11, 2013). "College Prowler becomes Niche and wants to help you make big decisions". [[Pittsburgh Business Times]].
3. Fenn, Donna. (October 1, 2009). "Case Study: Finding the Right Price for a Hot Product". [[Inc. (magazine).
4. Caffrey, Michelle. (2025-01-07). "K-12 Dealmaking: Niche Makes First Acquisition; Saudi Arabian Ed-Tech Startup Raises $5M".
5. Burkholder, Sophie. (2022-05-26). "How many Pittsburgh tech founders have started multiple companies?".
6. (29 April 2020). "Niche Helps Students Choose the Right College - News - Carnegie Mellon University".
7. Todd, Deborah. (October 4, 2014). "Review, rankings site College Prowler joins Niche group". [[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]].
8. (March 1, 2005). "2005 Fast 50 Winner". [[Fast Company (magazine).
9. Spencer, Malia. (August 12, 2011). "College Prowler soars after making switch to business model". [[Pittsburgh Business Times]].
10. (2020-04-29). "Niche Raises $35 Million to Rival School Directory Review Sites - EdSurge News".
11. "College Prowler becomes Niche and wants to help you make big decisions".
12. Spencer, Malia. (Aug 12, 2011). "College Prowler soars after making switch to business model". The Business Journals.
13. (2020-04-29). "Niche Announces $35M Series C Funding To Reimagine And Simplify The School And College Search Experience".
14. Vellucci, Justin. (April 30, 2020). "Niche got $35 million to change how Gen Z applies to college". NEXTPittsburgh News.
15. (2020-04-29). "Niche Announces $35M Series C Funding To Reimagine And Simplify The School And College Search Experience".
16. Todd, Deborah. (October 4, 2013). "Review, Rankings Site College Prowler Becomes Niche". [[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]].
17. Dill, Kathryn. (April 14, 2014). "Best cities and neighborhoods for millennials". [[Forbes]].
18. Tretina, Kat. (2020-12-02). "How To Read Your Student Aid Report".
19. Millward, Wade Tyler. (April 29, 2020). "Niche Raises $35 Million to Rival School Directory Review Sites". [[EdSurge]] News.
20. "Campus Overload - Facebookgate, the 2010 edition".
21. "Episode 14: Facebookgate & Three Years of Facebook Forgery | Higher ed Live".
22. Windish, Joe. (21 December 2008). "Facebookgate: Companies "Colonize" Facebook for Marketing Exploits". Joe Gandelman.
23. (19 December 2008). "Company Created Official-Looking 'Class of 2013' Facebook Groups for Hundreds of Colleges".