Dunce Deals #22 - Supernow, Video Notebook, and LiveSpot
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 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
Who else has forgotten their table manners in the last year? Oh man, remembering how to socialize, who would have thought?
I hope wherever you are reading this, you are getting on the other side of Covid. It’s been amazing to see people I haven’t seen in person for a year, including my five year old niece Audrey, who is at least twice the size she was a year ago and speaks in full sentences.
This week I wrote a piece based on what so many of my founders fight for in their companies. Early startups start off with a growth mindset, everything is an experiment, everything is possible. If you aren’t careful, that gets shut down when your company grows.
News
Here is an unsolicited plug for the one and only conference I go to every year, the GSV summit. If you are an investor wanting to understand the latest in edtech and future of work, or a founder in the space, you pretty much have to go. If you do go, look me up, I am running a couple of panels on consumer edtech.
Deals
Supernow
Description: Live-streamed interactive classes for kids age 5 to 12, focused on building relationships and social connectedness.
Website: campsupernow.com
Founder: Lyndsey Wheeler
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyndseywheeler/
Stage: Seed
Raising: Yes
Current Dunce Investment: Yes
Notes: Supernow is one of my pre-seed companies. They’ve had exceptional growth and retention over the last few months and are ready to raise a seed to see if they can get to PMF.
Video Notebook
Description: note taking for online meetings and videos
Website: https://www.videonotebook.com
Founder: Mike Lanza
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-lanza-5808/
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising: Yes
Current Dunce Investment: No
Notes: One of my great misses is not investing in Mike Adams’ company, Grain. I think we are at day one of rethinking work to be less about endless meetings and more about the way we share those precious minutes with others so that they don’t need to sit there. Mike Lanza is focused on this space and I’m rooting for him.
Livespot
Description: livestreamed coaching
Website: livespot.co
Founder: Edward Sun
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edwardsun3
Stage: Seed
Raising: No
Current Dunce Investment: No
Notes: Livespot has finished raising their seed, but including them here for transparency. They fit into the general space of “find the creator/influencers enough revenue that they can quit their day jobs”. Their first coach is a professional poker player who plays with their fans and gives them pointers. I spent a lot of time in the creator space about a year ago. My take away was that in general, it was a lot more about entertainment than education and I would lose my shirt. But if you’ve got the guts and interest, Edward is a serial founder and he and his co-founder have thought a lot about the problem.
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.