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Educelerate, the education innovation network of Los Angeles and Chicago (nicely overlapping with Built In's own core markets), organized last week's Educelerate Pitch Event featuring some of the most promising edtech startups of Los Angeles. Hosted by Cross Campus in the heart of Silicon Beach (Santa Monica) and with further sponsorship from General Assembly, Originate and DLA Piper, we had nearly 165 edtech enthusiasts register to learn more about the local education innovation ecosystem.
While notable education figures such as Tom Vander Ark and the team at EdSurge have observed LA's lack of innovation and collaboration, Southern California actually draws upon as rich a history of scaled success in edtech as our northern neighbors in SF (see Cornerstone OnDemand, Lynda.com, Knowledge Universe, and past players like The Learning Co and Davidson & Associates). However, LA had been missing an organic, grassroots element until we formed Educelerate LA last year and organized LA StartupWeekend EDU this past January.
Our meetup last week could be seen as a continuation of these efforts as we drew from our LA membership base of over 300 Educelerants to select five emerging start-ups to present before a panel of judges (including several familiar faces from LA SWEDU) and an audience of over 100.
Our pitches included:
- ApplyMap: founded by Daniel Lim and Steve Palley to provide personalized, automated
college recommendations with convenience, intelligence and affordability. - Monster Genomics Project: founded by Jeff Lander to teach genetics through gamification (and monsters).
- Eddefy: founded by Evonne Heyning to create and share learning paths that connect your favorite media, learning resources, mentors and interests.
- Yokyco.co: founded by Luz Rivas, the founder of DIYGirls, and developed over LA SWEDU to provide free (corporate sponsored) hands-on electronics classroom kits and teacher training workshops.
- Propagate: founded by Frank Freeman to provide an online highlights of challenging words for students, providing immediate support (i.e., definitions) and creating customized review games and activities to reinforce understanding.
- CodeSpark: founded by Grant Hosford to teach computer science to kids age 5-8 through a curriculum-based subscription service.
Ironically enough, it was Luz Rivas (LA SWEDU's winner) that again carried the day, receiving the judges' top votes last week at Educelerate.
Hopefully, such events combined with the support of our mentors will help bring more attention to the rich education ecosystem that populates the markets between the Midwest and Southern California, call it the “Route 66 of EdTech”. Learn more at Educlerate.com.
Image: Shutterstock
