Dunce Deals 8/15/20 - GalileoXP, StudyStream, ZipSchool, LrnEd
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
As in past weeks, back to school looms large and there's some insane demand happening.
Deals
GalileoXP
Description: live world school
Website: galileoxp.com
Founder: Vlad Stan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladstan/
Email: vlad@galileoxp.com
Stage: Pre-seed
Raising:Yes
Dunce Deal: Yes
Notes: I have been working with Vlad for about a year now. He's a serial entrepreneur, who started the main search engine for Bulgaria and afterwards got very interested in education. Galileo is at 100 students paying $250 per month for live classes and clubs, including daily standups, core subjects, and lots of student-directed clubs. It's a cool school, and several of you now have your kids there, yeah! He's mostly finished with his pre-seed, but may take another check or two.
StudyStream
Description: Watch other people study (really!)
Website: studystream.com
Founder: Ti Xu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tianyouxu/
Email: tianyou@kc.institute
Stage: Idea
Raising: Yes
Dunce Deal: No
Notes: This is one of the more unusual deals to come to me in a while. I had never heard of lo-fi music or study streaming, which are mostly about getting the motivation to study and de-stressing. Increasingly with covid, they are also about feeling connected to other students. My 18 year old daughter verifies that it is a thing she has heard of and done. So there you go. It does fit well with a thesis I have that students are going to use studying as a way to create more community during covid.
ZipSchool
ZipSchool: Live, online classes for kids.
Website: zipschool.com
Founder: Farza Majeed
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farza-majeed-76685612a/
Email: farza@ziphomeschool.com
Stage: Seed
Raising: Yes
Dunce Deal: No
Notes: This fits squarely in the bucket of large live classes at Netflix prices. Wish I had met Farza before YC :)
LrnEd
Description: Vedantu for Higher Ed
Website: lrned.io
Founder: Romil Verma
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vermaromil/
Email: romilverma1@gmail.com
Stage: Idea
Raising: Yes
Dunce Deal: No
Notes: My one non-k12 deal of the week. LrnEd is working on the problem that 93% of engineers in India finish college and are unemployable (Romil's unverified number, but anecdotally it is a big problem). Vedantu is the most popular live large class test study company in India and LrnEd wants to do the same for graduating engineers to get the hard and soft skills they need to be employable.
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.