Dunce Deals 4/21/20 - Beanstalk, TinyCare, Elemental Health, GetMeHired
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 two 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
Hey there, periodically I’m going to send an email with the deals I found interesting. Some of these are ones I’m invested in, others just seemed cool. I would love it if you would send me deals you think I missed. Please feel free to reach out directly to the founders or I am happy to connect you. Also tell me if this is spam for you and I will stop sending.
News
Deals
Beanstalk
Description: Live streamed teacher-led activities parents can do with their young kids - creative projects, movement, etc. Very early, but tapping into the angst of new parents feeling socially isolated and overwhelmed.
Website: www.beanstalk.co
Founder: Amy Molk
Email: amy@beanstalk.co
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising: Yes
Dunce Investment: Yes
Tinycare
Description: Amazing day care in apartments around your work and home. Currently working to care for the children of essential workers and back on high growth when SIP lifted so that parents with young kids can actually get back to work.
Website: https://tinycare.co/
Founder: Michael Lai
Email: michaeltclai@gmail.com
Stage: Seed
Raising: Yes
Dunce Investment: Yes
Elemental Health (now Daybreak Health)
Description: Mental health for teens. Anxiety & depression rates have increased by 50%+ in teens in the last decade, and 4 in 5 impacted receive no support. Elemental offers an accessible digital mental health program designed for teens - including individual counseling, teen peer groups, and wellbeing tools.
Website: https://www.joinelemental.com/
Founder: Alex Alvarado
Email: alex@joinelemental.com
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising: Yes
Dunce Investment: No
GetMeHired
Description: Getting jobs for STEM international students. Every year more than 220,000 international students graduate from American colleges & universities. GetMeHired specializes in helping STEM majors enough programming skills and connections to land their first job, while helping them navigate visa issues.
Website: https://getmehired.co/
Founder: Siam Hossain
Email: siam@getmehired.co
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising: Yes
Dunce Investment: No
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.