Hi Michael, Aaron, I'm a co-founder of an educational games platform based in the Netherlands. At the moment, games on the market that are targeted at K-6 students are not that much fun, they are not thoroughly aligned to school curriculums (just to CCSS goals in the US), and they're not connected in terms of content + analytics.
We've built 4 games, generate content for math questions (and soon starting work on literacy), and have a dashboard for teachers/parents. Early pilot results are quite positive (most importantly, children want to play the games at home).
I've been thinking about the next step in 3-6 months: should we expand to a neighbouring country (e.g. France, UK) or start looking at the US. The latter seems to be the first choice for most startups originating from Europe, but our improvement over existing competitors is much more in non-English speaking countries than it would be in the US (as 90% of educational apps are English). Any thoughts on this?
Also: what is YC's view on EdTech startups? It seems there haven't been many in recent batches.
Also working on math education. I am targeting middle schoolers, and my approach is to build a system based on symbolic math and AI to help the students. I have things that could be used in primary schools as well, maybe we could partner somehow?
Hey, I'm one of the ReadMe founders. Stripe was certainly an inspiration for us. I'm so psyched to have SEED building their API using our documentation tool—nice job SEED!
Currently you do not have to pay a dime to do a PhD in the Netherlands. In fact, you are almost surely an employee of the university (not a "student") and get a salary of 2300+ EUR (gross) a month.
The 1.8k EUR applies to MA/MSc/BA. If part of the requirement to do a PhD is a to do a MSc degree and the programme is joint you might get a waver from the university for that 1.8k EUR. Also, most Dutch get that money back through the government stipend programme that "lends" people about 250EUR a month and gives them free travel across the whole country. At today's prices this package is worth 4000+ EUR. You only have to pay back that loan if you do not graduate in time (=+1 year of what is the duration of the programme), if you do graduate the loan is considered paid. Foreign students can get on this action by working one day a week, somewhere (incl. TA/RA/etc.). And then there are also various subsidies that students often qualify for. It is not unheard of to see a student in the Netherlands sporting 10k+ EUR income by working one day a week.
>Foreign students can get on this action by working one day a week, somewhere (incl. TA/RA/etc.).
This has changed, I used to get this but since 2014 my job (10 hours a week) does not qualify for it anymore. I think the new regulations allow only people working more than 16 hours per-week (not 100% sure on the exact number).
At Unfilled, we are trying to rethink and improve the way people learn how to read, write and code and we are currently looking for a Designer to be part of our co-founding team.
You will find yourself designing the wireframes for the mobile app, newsletters, presentations about the product and more. You will also be working with other teammates sharing knowledge and learning from each other.
Furthermore, you can play a role in changing the world, as the platform we're creating could potentially impact millions of lives.
If you are interested in being part of our team, take a look at the key points we are looking for: http://unfilled.org/get-involved/
If you think this position fits to you, just send an email to jeroen[at]unfilled.org and we'll get back to you!
This is simply not true, the US has both signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention [1], though it still has to destroy some of their stockpile [2].
I love TED talks as well, and like everyone most talks leave me with a whoa! But TED talks aren't a good model to emulate for formal presentations. It's great if you have an awesome punchline with a jaw dropping assertion, but most presentations don't. Just think about it how much of the details from the TED talks you have watched do you really remmember. That's not what TED talks are for. They are meant to push the viewers into deeper self research by attracting them with just a tiny dose of hyperbole.
And frankly most day-to-day presentations and even most pitches understandably don't have something jaw-dropping to talk about, or else they would attract a TED talk, no? If you're giving a pitch, chances are you have to convince the investor/audience with an almost complete narrative. Having a story framework is useful, but it has to have enough information that backs your assertions, which is not true for a TED talk. Data is important, but the art is in the way you present them. Having no data might point that you don't have a strong case, or just didn't care. So have one or two convincing data representations.
And slides are important, to help you say what you wont be able to say verbally and the second to guide the audience about the structure of your presentation. Most people aren't great story tellers. It's an art which few can be trained in. In those cases you need to use your slides to complement what you are saying and keep the audience engaged.
Definitely agree that networking is one of the best parts.
I was at the same Startup Weekend the author of the post started Party With a Local at (swAMS '12) and one of the people I met there is now my co-founder!
We've built 4 games, generate content for math questions (and soon starting work on literacy), and have a dashboard for teachers/parents. Early pilot results are quite positive (most importantly, children want to play the games at home).
I've been thinking about the next step in 3-6 months: should we expand to a neighbouring country (e.g. France, UK) or start looking at the US. The latter seems to be the first choice for most startups originating from Europe, but our improvement over existing competitors is much more in non-English speaking countries than it would be in the US (as 90% of educational apps are English). Any thoughts on this?
Also: what is YC's view on EdTech startups? It seems there haven't been many in recent batches.