Friday
Nov192010
Friday, November 19, 2010 at 09:47PM This Week in Startups #94 with Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy
On the show this week Jason interviews Salman Khan the founder of Khan Academy. With over 1,000,000 students using the site per month its one of the fastest growing online educations platforms in the world. Along with the latest Startup news and a whole new Shark tank, you wont want to miss it. For more information, show notes and an upcoming schedule, go to http://thisweekin.com
Salman Khan of Khan academy, Shark tank, Kathy Choi news.
Amazing show today. Last friday I was sick.
Jason and Tyler discusses the last week, including Web 2.0, newsletters and the kick-off of the Launch Conference (including pricing).
Sal Khan - Jason does a 'Wrath of Khan' impression.
Jason discusses some of the new features of MailChimp he found this week. Jason announces the 1M MailChimp integration fund. They will give you money to use their API. Please thank @mailchimp (sweet monkey) using twitter.
Interview
Sal Khan of Khan Academy
Sal explains the beginning of the service and how he began by tutoring his family members. As part of the process, he hosted his videos on YouTube.
1M unique students per month. 150K video views per day.
Sal discusses the motivation behind ther Khan Academy and how his passion to help people played a part in the start-up.
Jason asks Sal about some of the venture funding he's being offered, and what his plans are. Sal discusses the early iterations of the Khan Academy.
Jason discusses the videos on the Khan Academy, and the technology he uses. Also that he (Sal) is the only one doing the videos. Sal discusses the form factor he uses to do the videos. Sal discusses the virtues of not using a video camera (no shaving in the morning).
@stephenwise - Khan is the reason I passed college stats
Jason asks why anyone would go to college when all this content is available online. Sal discusses the value of an education and how the Khan Academy fits in. A degree is still a social job filter. Sal believes that online learning will compete in the future.
Jason and Sal take a tour through the website and discuss the technology.
Sal discusses how he got a grant from the Bill Gates Foundation. 9-10 months ago someone sent him the Khan Academy link and he loved the idea and watched a bunch of videos. Ultimately Bill decided to support the Khan Academy financially.
@RamVaz - any plans for professional accreditations like CFA? Sal discusses his plans on accreditations.
@DomainNoob - Are you going to teach people to code? Sal describes his background is in CS and he will eventually have some training videos as part of the curriculum.
Do you plan on holding live classes? Sal discusses that live is not the direction of the Kahn Academy. He discusses the reasons why.
Jason asks how nerdy guys will meet girls if they don't go to school? Sal says if you get a job faster, that will help with the girls more than class. Social tool usage (like Meetup.com) are discussed.
Jason describes this as the Wikipedia of education. He also predicts that Sal will become a big celebrity in the web space.
Sal would like to get the word out. 1M is a fraction of the users who can use the service. Also, donations help keep the site going.
Thank @dnamail on Twitter
Shark Tank
Jason discusses his next SharkTank contact. He predicts that it will fizzle like all the other contacts he's had to date.
Brian Wilson of YourPlace.com (from Houston)
YourPlace.com provides locvally generated neighborhood reviews for people looking to buy/rent houses. They capture both the good and the bad critique of the various neighborhoods.
Jason likes the domain name. He remembers the NYT had a column called 'what it's like to live in..." This is an idea to put that online and getting reviews from users. He reviews the site, and discusses his concerns.
Jason and Tyler discuss the pitch and ways to improve it.
Scores:
Jason-
P: 7.5
I: 7-8 or 9 (with critical mass)
Tyler:
P: 8
I: 7
Chat Room
P: 7-8
I: 7-9
Jason tells that he got a knife from someone in Afganistan. Turns out, it was Brian who sent it.
News
Kathy Choi
Jason attended the invitation Only Web 2.0. What did you find were the highlights of the summit?
Jason discusses the conference and how it's changed over the years.
-------------------------------------
Facebook launched email. Will there be a time when every business will use Facebook as their platform?
Jason discusses the likelyhood, but agrees that Facebook is not trustworthy and may not get some traction.
-------------------------------------
Salman Khan of Khan academy, Shark tank, Kathy Choi news.
Amazing show today. Last friday I was sick.
Jason and Tyler discusses the last week, including Web 2.0, newsletters and the kick-off of the Launch Conference (including pricing).
Sal Khan - Jason does a 'Wrath of Khan' impression.
Jason discusses some of the new features of MailChimp he found this week. Jason announces the 1M MailChimp integration fund. They will give you money to use their API. Please thank @mailchimp (sweet monkey) using twitter.
Interview
Sal Khan of Khan Academy
Sal explains the beginning of the service and how he began by tutoring his family members. As part of the process, he hosted his videos on YouTube.
1M unique students per month. 150K video views per day.
Sal discusses the motivation behind ther Khan Academy and how his passion to help people played a part in the start-up.
Jason asks Sal about some of the venture funding he's being offered, and what his plans are. Sal discusses the early iterations of the Khan Academy.
Jason discusses the videos on the Khan Academy, and the technology he uses. Also that he (Sal) is the only one doing the videos. Sal discusses the form factor he uses to do the videos. Sal discusses the virtues of not using a video camera (no shaving in the morning).
@stephenwise - Khan is the reason I passed college stats
Jason asks why anyone would go to college when all this content is available online. Sal discusses the value of an education and how the Khan Academy fits in. A degree is still a social job filter. Sal believes that online learning will compete in the future.
Jason and Sal take a tour through the website and discuss the technology.
Sal discusses how he got a grant from the Bill Gates Foundation. 9-10 months ago someone sent him the Khan Academy link and he loved the idea and watched a bunch of videos. Ultimately Bill decided to support the Khan Academy financially.
@RamVaz - any plans for professional accreditations like CFA? Sal discusses his plans on accreditations.
@DomainNoob - Are you going to teach people to code? Sal describes his background is in CS and he will eventually have some training videos as part of the curriculum.
Do you plan on holding live classes? Sal discusses that live is not the direction of the Kahn Academy. He discusses the reasons why.
Jason asks how nerdy guys will meet girls if they don't go to school? Sal says if you get a job faster, that will help with the girls more than class. Social tool usage (like Meetup.com) are discussed.
Jason describes this as the Wikipedia of education. He also predicts that Sal will become a big celebrity in the web space.
Sal would like to get the word out. 1M is a fraction of the users who can use the service. Also, donations help keep the site going.
Provides fully hosted / managed Microsoft Exchange and Google Apps e-mail
Thank @dnamail on Twitter
Shark Tank
Jason discusses his next SharkTank contact. He predicts that it will fizzle like all the other contacts he's had to date.
Brian Wilson of YourPlace.com (from Houston)
YourPlace.com provides locvally generated neighborhood reviews for people looking to buy/rent houses. They capture both the good and the bad critique of the various neighborhoods.
Jason likes the domain name. He remembers the NYT had a column called 'what it's like to live in..." This is an idea to put that online and getting reviews from users. He reviews the site, and discusses his concerns.
Jason and Tyler discuss the pitch and ways to improve it.
Scores:
Jason-
P: 7.5
I: 7-8 or 9 (with critical mass)
Tyler:
P: 8
I: 7
Chat Room
P: 7-8
I: 7-9
Jason tells that he got a knife from someone in Afganistan. Turns out, it was Brian who sent it.
News
Kathy Choi
Jason attended the invitation Only Web 2.0. What did you find were the highlights of the summit?
Jason discusses the conference and how it's changed over the years.
-------------------------------------
Facebook launched email. Will there be a time when every business will use Facebook as their platform?
Jason discusses the likelyhood, but agrees that Facebook is not trustworthy and may not get some traction.
-------------------------------------
Reader Comments (1)
The video quality for this show has gone through the roof! You guys keep upping the bar on quality... Thanks!