Dunce Deals #25 - GenieBook, Slingshot Ahead, and GoCoach
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 over 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 hope you are all enjoying the world re-opening. I was in downtown Los Gatos last night listening to live bands playing on the street. I felt like a human again. Sadly, my dog Maggie was diagnosed with cancer and only has a few months to live. Her brother Ollie is going to miss her the most.
(Maggie standing)
This week, I wrote about the difference between a project and a company. Hint: investors do not turn a project into a company.
News
So many of my portfolio companies now have live video and chat functionality. As I wrote about in Zoom/Slack Jail, the monolithic nature of those apps is making the UI pretty crummy for most use cases. I want to highlight companies here that are trying to help developers solve these problems. Here is a founder I met this week who is already working with GetSetup and a couple of my other companies:
LiveLike is on a mission to convert passive audiences into engaged communities. The Company's audience engagement toolkit enables product managers to bring community, interactivity, and gamification into their owned-and-operated digital properties. Our platform has helped our partners achieve higher engagement rates, longer session lengths, and reduced churn. We are trusted to power the biggest sporting events around the world, and we are now offering our technology to the next generation of education platforms.
Deals
GenieBook
Description: Geniebook helps students in Singapore and Vietnam learn Math and English through a question bank, live streamed lectures, and a strong community.
Website: https://geniebook.com
Founder: Neo Zhizhong
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zzneo/
Email: neo@geniebook.com
Stage: Series A
Raising: Yes
Current Dunce Investment: Yes
Notes: This is my first learning investment in SouthEast Asia, so a pretty small check. I’m excited to understand the differences in parent and student behavior between US, Europe, LatAm, MENA, and now SE Asia. Thanks to the Lightspeed India folks for sending this my way.
Slingshot Ahead
Description: Gigging out high school coders to top companies.
Website: http://slingshotahead.com/
Founder: mayank jain
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjain30/
Email: mayankj.work@gmail.com
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising: Raising
Current Dunce Investment: Not yet
Notes: This is a space that I love. Smart bored high school coders feel like a tremendous untapped resource. Obviously to find them gigs requires the right amount of oversight and structure. Slingshot Ahead is on their first 70 gigs, but have done a great job at curating their coders and overseeing their work.
GoCoach
Description: A better system for finding coaches for your employees and measuring their progress.
Website: https://www.gocoachgo.com/
Founder: kristy mccann flynn
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmflynn/
Email: kristy@gocoachgo.com
Stage: Seed
Raising: Yes
Current Dunce Investment: No
Notes: Coaching is not one of the things I invest in. That said, Kristy is a unique founder. She has a great background in both HR as a practitioner and is a great sales person. As companies push out the learning and development budget to managers, it’s giving companies like GoCoach a lot of revenue momentum in matching employees to coaches and reporting results.
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.