Cruce Saunders
Founder & CEO of Crawft, software that shows teachers what their students actually work on
About
I'm the founder and CEO of Crawft, Mac software for private schools that shows teachers what their students have actually been working on. I'm building it now for Alpha School, my own school, and I turned down an offer that valued it at $400,000.
At 13 my family went from a downtown condo to a converted garage and food banks. At 15, after a classmate threatened to shoot me, I found Alpha, an AI-first private school in Austin, on my own and became the first student in its history on a full scholarship.
Before Crawft, I pitched my Apple Watch running game, Ippo, first on a $1.7M Shark Tank-style show filmed three miles off Oahu, and won a $25,000 offer from Chris Camillo and Bill Perkins on air.
At Wharton's two-week startup program for high school students, I led my team of five as CEO and built our iPhone app, NestIQ. Out of about 100 students, it won Best MVP, the prize for the best working first version of a product, and it's now on the App Store.
I build software with teams of AI agents, run by a workflow system I designed. So far that's 4 iOS apps, 2 of them on the App Store, plus 2 Mac apps and 40+ web projects.
Experience
Building Mac software for private schools that shows teachers what their students have actually been working on, starting with Alpha School, where its first beta ran. Demoed to investors and companies.
Project lead (internship), Synteq Digital
Built the first customer-finding engine for this company, which rents out computing power for AI: AI agents research companies likely to need it, score each against a best-fit profile with dated evidence, and draft first emails a person approves. Presented it to leadership.
Apple Watch running game that rewards effort over pace, live on the App Store since February 2026.
Cast in four productions from this YouTube channel, made in partnership with my school, Alpha. Together they had over $3M in production value.
At 16, ran sales and every client relationship for a film-marketing startup, including a deal of about $15,000 at SXSW with Kurt Ravenwood, a producer of the indie hit Hundreds of Beavers. After it was acquired for millions, turned down an $80,000 full-time offer to stay at Alpha.
My first startup, started at 15: an app where friends keep each other off social media, grown out of my research on teen habits. Testers' screen time dropped 48% on average and stayed down.
Founder & host, South Austin Games
Founded and hosted weekly board-game nights for about 20 people, with a 1,000+ member Meetup group and waitlists in the hundreds.
Education
High school, Class of 2027, Alpha School
An AI-first private high school in Austin. I attend on a full scholarship and have a 4.43 weighted GPA.
Honors
Best MVP, Wharton Global Youth
The prize for the best working first version of a product, out of about 100 high school students in Wharton's two-week startup program in San Francisco. I attended on a full scholarship.
AP Scholar with Distinction
The College Board's award for strong scores on at least five AP exams. I scored a 4 or 5 on all five of mine.
SAT: 1520 superscore
My best Reading and Writing score and my best Math score, from two test dates, add up to 1520. My best single test was 1490, in the 97th percentile.
QuestBridge College Prep Scholar
Selected for QuestBridge's national program for high-achieving students from low-income families.
College Board School Recognition Award
An award from the College Board, which runs the SAT and AP exams, based on PSAT or AP performance.
Austin's best-known startup hub picked me to pitch Ippo on its main stage on April 3, 2025. It was one of four pitches I made there.
Royal Anthropological Institute presenter
Presented my research on teen social-media habits at the institute's 2024 Anthropology and Education conference, held at Senate House, University of London.
First full scholarship in Alpha School history
Funded personally by Joe Liemandt, the software entrepreneur who backs the school. It covers about $40,000 a year in tuition.
Skills
Designing AI agent systems, Directing AI agents, Product design, Sales, Pitching, Go-to-market, iOS and macOS apps, Fluency across AI tools