Dunce Deals 8/21/20 - YC Edition - Zip School, Virtually, Tappity, Henry, Scrimba, Jemi
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
I hope you had a great week! Back to school changes continue to dominate my days both for my portfolio and the incredible number of smart founders entering the space. I thought I would take this week to summarize the companies I've spoken with coming up next week in Y Combinator's summer batch.
News
I also want to give a big shout out to Austen and the Lambda crew for their $74M Series C. I am learning a ton working with you!
Deals
On to the YC founders. I've chatted with all of these and I'm happy to connect you with any you like.
Zip School
Description: Elementary age live large-class instruction with a wide variety of subjects. Definitely front and center in the large class movement.
Virtually
Description: Trying to make it incredibly easy to spin up a new school. Primarily focused on the nitty gritty of scheduling and student management. These are definitely big challenges for existing schools.
Tappity
Description: Teaching science to kids on a mobile app. Not live learning yet.
Henry
Description: Lambda for LatAm. They have already done some very smart things like placing students in an unpaid internship at companies. Early days, but very high hire rate so far.
Scrimba
Description: Coding website which allows students to edit the instructor's code as they watch. Pretty cool! I'm hoping they go farther on peer learning and pair programming.
Jemi
Description: OK, I'm cheating here, because this is really future of work, specifically 'Can all these people with big followings make a living online?' Jemi wants to be the single solution for influencers to engage, manage, and monetize their audience.
Deal1
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.