From Idea to MVP: PocketPal

The Duke FinTech program have always supported students to create their own ventures and become entrepreneurs. One of those ventures is PocketPal, co-founded by Angela Liang (Duke FinTech class of 2025) and Agnes Yan (Duke FinTech class of 2025).

The idea for PocketPal came from an experience most students have during their time in university: the struggle of balancing well-being and productivity. While students are surrounded by their peers frequently, Angela and Agnes mentioned how they often felt isolated when trying to manage their schedules, goals, and accountability by themselves. Those conversations led Angela and Agnes to consider how technology could be used to help connect students, create a supportive learning environment, and take care of student wellbeing. During their final semester at Duke, Angela and Agnes decided to enroll in Duke FinTech’s Incubate class, a course where students spend a semester taking an idea and making it into a minimum viable product (MVP). After some refinement and guidance through the course, they created PocketPal: an AI-powered academic planning and study-group matching platform that helps overwhelmed college students navigate their coursework, meet deadlines, and achieve their educational goals.

PocketPal combines personalized study plans, campus-integrated scheduling, and peer accountability with analytics that surface student habits and campus-wide trends for deeper insights, helping students track progress and helping administrators monitor programs. Through the platform, students can create study groups, coordinate sessions, and stay on track with their work through progress insights. Looking to the future of the platform, Angela and Agnes hope to expand PocketPal’s reach to other universities besides Duke, as well as integrate it into different campuses ecosystems. They also hope to empower lifelong learners on college campuses by having PocketPal provided personalized support for individual users.

When reflecting on how the Incubate course helped them bring PocketPal to life, Angela and Agnes mentioned how the course gave them the structure and mentorship they needed to create a tangible product. Through weekly workshops and feedback from Professor Fimbel and mentorship board, Angela and Agnes were able to refine their value proposition, identify early adopters, and build a testable MVP. The course also connected them with other student founders on Duke’s campus, as well as Duke’s resources for student entrepreneurs.

To learn more about PocketPal, please visit https://pocketpalrevolution.com/.