Motion Math, Sifteo and GatherEducation #263

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Today, on This Week in Startups, we had a special trio in the studio: 3 companies from the upcoming LAUNCH Education & Kids event! David Merrill of Sifteo, Pano Anthos of GatherEducation and Jacob Klein of Motion Math demoed their products and illustrated how they're all on the cutting edge of educational technology.

1:00 Welcome everyone, we’re here today with three incredible ed-tech startups: Sifteo, Motion Math and GatherEducation.
2:30 Tyler, welcome back. Where have you been?
4:30 All our thanks for Trada for supporting the show! Everyone show them you appreciate their contribution by thanks @Trada!
8:15 We’re doing a LAUNCH Education + Kids event June 12 and 13 that I’m really excited about.
9:30 How are the companies, Tyler? What will I be scoring them tomorrow?
11:00 Welcome to David from Sifteto. Where did we first meet?
11:30 David explains how Sifteo cubes work.
16:00 Jason and Tyler try their hand playing with the cubes.
17:30 Who are you backed by?
19:00 Why didn’t you sell early on?
21:30 Have you seen any rip-offs of your technology in China?
23:30 In your experience, how have VCs reacted to Kickstarter?
26:15 Thank you so much to Squarespace for partnering with us on the show! If you want sign up to use Squarespace for your site, email your receipt to contest@thisweekin.com and you’ll be entered to win a Macbook Air!
30:00 Welcome to Jacob Klein from Motion Math. Jacob, what do you make?
31:00 Jacob demos the Motion Math game Hungry Fish.
32:30 Does this fall under the category of adaptive learning?
34:00 How do you get something like this to stand out in the App store?
38:30 Jacob demos Motion Math: Zoom.
40:00 How many downloads to you have combined for all games?
43:15 What’s the right amount of time for a child to be allowed to spend on these devices?
45:00 Welcome to Pano Anthos of GatherEducation.
45:15 Showing a video demo of how GatherEducation works.
49:30 Did you build this as a proof of concept?
54:00 Discussing the changing educational landscape.
56:00 In 20 years, when your grandchildren go to college, will that be a disappointment?
58:00 What’s next, are you venture-backed?
1:01:30 Dave, what drew you to educational technology?
1:03:30 What reactions have you gotten from the investor community?
1:06:00 Have you found that the Sifteo block work particularly well for students with disabilities?
1:08:30 Thank you to Dave, Jacob and Pano for joining us today. And thank you to Trada and Squarespace for supporting the show.
1:09:30 Everyone check out the LAUNCH Education + Kids event on June 12 and 13. We’ll see you next time.

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Keep up with the latest from our sister company, LAUNCH:

• LAUNCH Education & Kids: 30 Companies (6 Stealth) Plus Scoble, Alan Louie and Nolan Bushnell
• Yahoo to Launch “Chrome Killer” Tonight
• First Eight Companies for LAUNCH Education & Kids
• The Age of Excellence
• Is There a YCombinator Valuation Bubble or Not?

FOLLOW ON TWITTER
Jason: @jason
Tyler: @steepdecline
Motion Math: @motionmath
Gather Education: @gathereducation
Sifeto: @sifteo
Trada: @trada
Squarespace: @squarespace

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Special thanks to the members of the TWiST Backchannel Program!

Executive Producers

• Louis-Eric Simard
• Benjamin Gifford
• Jacek Artymiak
• Octavian Mihai
• Will Paoletto
• Geoffrey Clapp
• Jeff Hoffer
• Austin Miller
• Rashaun Sourles
• Robb Kunz
• Greg Berry
• Sean Lynch
• Mary Ann Halford
• Jim Joyce
• Morgan Howard
• Margaret Johns
• Kyle M. Brown
• Paul Cole
• Nick Duncan
• Magnus Ingvarsson
• Amir Ayalon
• Carlos Zaidenweber
• Avery Keitt
• Joshua Shipsey

Producers

• Eli Coler
• Ted Inoue
• Radek Rybicki
• Hunter Owens
• Ildar Khakimov
• Matti Hallanoro
• Rodrigo Dauster
• Rodrigo Fuentes
• Anthony Ortenzi
• Daniel de la Cruz
• Michael Hofmann
• John Meneses
• Mike Sunyich
• Sami Rageb
• Michael Lustig
• Alex Deli
• John Davies
• Mark Burcher
• Morgan Howard

Associate Producers

• Brad Pineau
• Kat Ganesan
• Nicholas Christian
• Mau Frontier
• Kyle Braatz
• Serena Ehrlich
• JD
• Alex Lotoczko
• James Kennedy
• Benoit Curdy
• Asher Nevins
• Mike Kaltschnee
• William Doom
• David Lee
• Jake Kerber
• Sarp Coskun
• Giuseppe Taibi
• Tyrone Rubin
• Keno Vigil
• Paul Peters
• Jamal Waring
• Nick Ostroff
• Alex Binkley
• John MP Knox
• Bryan McCormick
• Marcos Trinidad
• Allen Cordrey
• Daniel Mich
• Joshua Rosen
• Grant Carlile
• James Smith
• Christopher Rill
• Elliot Myhre
• Nihon Giga
• Nathan Gielis
• Greg Meadows
• Rick Cartwright
• Jacques Struwig
• Robert Ward
• Adam Gering
• Shelley Gaskin

Supporters

• Ryan Hoover
• Michael Cranston
• Josiah Thomas
• João Fernandes
• Petrus Theron
• Michael Wild
• Dale Emmons
• Tim de Jardine
• Alejandro Vasquez
• Milan Babuskov
• Chris Rowe
• Nelson Melo
• James Dawson
• Toddy Mladenov
• Daniel Torres
• Chris Macke
• Piotr Zuralski
• Armand Konan
• Brian Vogel
• Paul D
• Jennifer Sun
• David Kolb
• Sue Marrone
• Eugene Granovksy
• Will Blackton
• Ryan Dodds
• Brett Arp
• Jason Cresswell
• Edwin Orange
• Daniel Bradley
• Shawn Daniel
• Priidu Kull
• Patrick Desroches
• Alex Lam
• Paul Secor
• Ryan Urabe
• Madhu R.
• Paul Ardeleanu
• Ian Thomas
• Manny Alarcon
• Charlie Osmond
• Christopher Smitley
• Roshan H.
• Barcy Cordrey
• Matt Beaubien
• Matthew Smith
• Oscar Bueno
• Tim Hoyt
  
• Ian Gerstel
• Taphon Maddison
• John Bradley
• Luigi Armogida
• Dave Ferrara
• Janus Lindau
• Chris Mancil
• TR Ludwig
• Giles Thomas
• Jason Cartwright
• Michael Del Borrello
• Joshua Rosen
• David Karlberg
• Marcus Schappi
• Justin Furniss
• Mike Hauck
• Jess Bachman
• Isaac Hill
• Robert Haydock
• Dan Sfera
• Flaviu Simihaian
• Kiko Cherman
• Chandra Siva
• Kasper Andkjaer
• Zach Woodward
• Chris Galasso
• Chad Olsen
• Michael Grabham
• John Shiple
• Gregory Hoffman
• Chris Rickard
• Eskil Steenberg
• Jay Moran
• Karim Sarkis
• Michael Davidovich
• Petru Marchidan
• Sam Drzymala