The idea for Student Backup was conceived by company cofounder Maggie Tolkin after the first of her three children went off to his freshman year in college. After purchasing a laptop computer for her son, Maggie wondered how he would back up valuable computer files.  When asked, her son told her that he had not given the idea of backing up his computer files a single thought.  Concerned, she purchased a flash drive storage device and insisted that he back up his computer files regularly.  Although she was happy that she was able to provide a solution, she knew that her request would probably not be followed and certainly not followed every day. 

During a midsemester visit Maggie found that her son had backed up his files only once since the start of the school year.  Discouraged, she asked other students how often they back up their schoolwork files, and every one of them said they never back up schoolwork.  It was apparent to her that although students spent a tremendous amount of time creating computer documents, PowerPoint presentations and term papers, even the most dedicated did not back up their files.  With exams to cram for and parties to attend, backing up critical work files was obviously not on their minds.   Both Maggie and company cofounder Amy Motschwiller sensed that disaster was just around the corner.  No sooner did Maggie return from the visit when her son called explaining that there was a power outage and had lost his entire semester’s work.  Maggie turned to Amy, a college friend of more than twenty years and the two started to look for a solution to this problem that every student faces and every parent fears.
 
The partners tried to find a data backup service that would automatically back up work files created by a student.  After much research, they found that no such service existed.  Worse, during their research they uncovered statistics which showed that over 50% of all computers experience failure and data loss and 70% of students NEVER back up their files.

 If the loss of critical work files was so devastating to students, why didn’t they use their backup devices?  What students needed was the ability to back up their computer files automatically each day. With six children between them, the partners dedicated themselves to creating an automatic file backup service geared specifically toward the needs of students.

After surveying hundreds of college students to determine their needs and habits, they partnered with Adam Schwam, President of Sandwire, a Long Island based technical services company.  They developed an online automatic file backup service that takes all manual responsibility out of the student’s hands.  The automated process only requires a student to connect to the internet each day.  The custom software scans the student’s My Documents folder and transmits a copy of all files to an offsite data facility via a secure internet connection.