Dunce Deals #31 - Syndicating Abwaab, Funded Stepful, Stoa, and Ender, and Previewing Mixlife, Cirkled In and Day One
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, Outschool, GetSetup, and Maven. Before Dunce, I founded three companies, NetGravity (IPO), Rocketship Public Schools (12k students) and Zeal (sold 2018).
Thoughts
Summer is officially over as my son heads back to school, so back to work! Sorry for all of the stuff in this week, sometimes it just works out that way.
This week, I write about the disconnect that started earlier this year between Product Market Fit and Series A and what it means to founders.
News
Happy to announce that I funded Ender, previously announced in Dunce Deals, Stoa, who was previously called Questo (and did a hard pivot to altMBA for India). I also funded a YC company Stepful this batch, paying the 3x YC markup because I spent a couple of years looking for this approach to nurse training.
Syndicate
I’m really excited to be running a small syndicate alongside Abwaab’s Series A round. I have been working with the team every week for over a year. Like most of my companies, it’s got a high price tag already, but may be justifiable. The founding team is in Jordan, were the GMs of Uber and Kareem, and are expanding from test prep to academic community and are already in several Arabic speaking countries. Here is the link to check out their video and investment memo. Thanks as always to the amazing Brian Nichols for putting this together.
Deals
Mixlife
Description: Maven for Creativity
Website: www.mixlife.com
Founder: Deepa Vivekanandan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepa-vivekanandan-1229ab21/
Email: deepa@mixlife.com
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising: Yes
Current Dunce Investment: No
Notes: Deepa started Mixlife to use creative pursuits like art and music to help people with self-care and solving loneliness. Cohort-based courses are really good for this, so I’m excited to follow her journey.
Cirkled In
Description: LinkedIn for high school and college kids, focused on college recruiting now and company internships soon.
Website: cirkledin.com
Founder: Reetu Gupta
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reetug/
Email: reetu@cirkledin.co
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising: Yes
Current Dunce Investment: No
Notes: This one was difficult for me because there is a current business around college recruiting which I am not excited about (I think the whole college recruiting/admissions game is awful), but with the potential to become a portal for tech internships for high school and college kids, which I love. If the latter happens and Cirkled In gets traction there, it would be very exciting.
Day One
Description: OnDeck for SMB Founders
Website: www.joindayone.com
Founder: andrew hutton
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-hutton-3a030739/
Email: andrew@joindayone.com
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising: Yes
Current Dunce Investment: No
Notes: Like Maven, OnDeck for X is a big thing right now. OnDeck has expanded into everything these days, but got its start helping founders meet their co-founders and come up with their ideas. Andrew is doing this type of founder MBA for SMB owners, building a community that can help them through their journey.
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
CoLearn - K-9 virtual unschooling that’s better than free.
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.
Omella - payments for schools, non-profits, and small businesses.
Geniebook - a personalized learning platform for Singapore and Vietnam.
Hallo - cohort-based language learning.
StudyStream - Silent study groups online.
Ender - Minecraft competitions.
Stepful - A career training center for nurses.
Stoa - AltMBA for India.
This newsletter is not an offer to sell securities nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any security. I am not acting as your financial advisor and I urge you to consult your own advisors before making any investment decision.
I would love for you to follow me on twitter @jwdanner or read my medium posts medium.com/@johnwdanner