Dunce Deals #21 - The Explanation Company, Equipt, and Kurios
Hi, I'm John Danner, Managing Director of Dunce Capital. Dunce Deals is my look at the most interesting deals and news from edtech and the future of work. In the last four years, I have made almost three dozen pre-seed investments in the space including Lambda School, where I am on the board, Outschool, Prenda, and Supernow. Before Dunce, I founded three companies, NetGravity (IPO), Rocketship Public Schools (12k students) and Zeal (sold 2018).
Thoughts
I’m so fascinated with the back to work dance. Many companies would like to go back to pre-Covid life, with everyone dutifully commuting 20 miles every day to their cubicles from 9 to 5. Netflix famously talked about everyone going back to the office as soon as possible, but the Product group has already decided to go remote-first. I think for product, growth, and engineering, where talent acquisition and retention is cutthroat, there is no way that office-first wins. What I’m interested in seeing is whether companies move to a week a month or something like it instead of a couple days a week in office. The former allows people to live anywhere and fly in for face time. The latter makes that a bunch tougher. I bet the former wins.
As the market continues to peak, here is the last in my series on the way to look at this as a founder. It’s called Don’t Let Your Investors Fool You.
News
Congrats to Maven on their Series A from A16Z, I’m excited to work with Wes and Gagan to figure out how cohort-based courses (CBC)’s replace MOOC’s as the main form of online learning for the masses. And if you clicked on either person’s links above, you can see i’m trying out this new tool called intro to make it easier for readers to connect with founders.
Deals
The Explanation Company
Description: Google for Kids
Founder: Keith Schacht
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keiths
Stage: Idea
Raising: No
Current Dunce Investment: Yes
Notes: This is the next company of Keith Schacht, the founder of Mystery Science.
Equipt
Description: Live classes to help non-traditional candidates build their professional networks.
Website: https://www.joinequipt.com
Founder: Hubert Dagbo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hubertdagbo/
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising: Yes
Current Dunce Investment: No
Deck: https://docsend.com/view/4t7tbb2rchhzdv5s
Notes: Hubert did a great job of presenting at Edpitches this week. I like the live class angle as a way to acquire new students. Ultimately, everything depends on whether not just non-traditional job seekers are willing to hustle, but helping companies to learn how to hustle for non-traditional job seekers as well.
Kurios
Description: Live Class Upskilling in LatAm focused on Product Management, Growth, and Data Analytics.
Website: https://kurios.la
Founder: Carlos Lau
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carloslauv/
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising: Yes
Current Dunce Investment: No
Deck: https://docsend.com/view/wcu2v7gg4dyy7pni
Notes: Carlos is very well versed in current cohort-based course (CBC) techniques, making this a viable LatAm competitor to Reforge and Maven.
Here is the complete list of Dunce Investments:
Mystery Science - purchased by Discovery Education 2020
Swing - on-demand talent for the education market
Epic! - the best children’s books digitally for every classroom and every home
Kunduz - the leader in test prep for Turkey
Erudifi - loans for students going to vocational schools and higher ed in SE Asia.
Outschool - the best marketplace of live small classes for your k-12 student
Juni - Coding, Math, and English instruction 1-1 and small group
Lambda School - teaching students to code and get jobs in great companies
LingoKids - English learning for young children
Padlet - a modern document creation and sharing platform
TinyCare - micro-daycare centers
SV Academy - teaching students tech sales and getting them jobs in great companies
Sora - a better high school, completely online
Prenda - micro-schools to unlock your child’s talent
Galileo - the first online world school
Beanstalk - live classes for young children
GetSetup - live social network for seniors
Primer - live academic and social network for homeschoolers
Contra - social network for freelancers
Fourthrev - run digital bootcamps for universities focused on in-demand job skills
Marketerhire - marketing experts from that you can rent
Abwaab - the best test prep platform in MENA
Supernow - live classes and clubs for elementary and middle schoolers
Maven - the leader in cohort-based courses
Prendea - live classes and social network for students in LatAm
Kritik - peer grading for higher ed
Major League Hacking - hackathons and fellowships for university students
Reforge - live classes on Growth for upskilling professionals
Synthesis School - learn problem-solving by playing video games
AI Camp - AI for ages 13-18 from Stanford pHDs.
Bindr - Silent study groups online.
The Explanation Company - Google for kids.