Press Releases | Grockit

Grockit Launches New App for Facebook Timeline

By farbood nivi posted January 19, 2012

The New Year brings with it some pretty exciting news for Grockit. You’ve probably heard that Facebook just announced that you can now enhance your Facebook Timeline with Entertainment, News, Music, and other apps, letting you share more of your interests with friends. I’m pumped to say that Grockit is one of those applications. This means that if a user adds the Grockit app to their Facebook Timeline, they can now share their Grockit experiences within Timeline.

For today, the full list of Grockit activities that can be shared on your Timeline include:
● Total Questions Answered: To show off how much work you’ve done.
● Creating and joining a Study Room: So your friends can join and you can study together.
● Earning an Achievement: Showing off your accomplishments.
● Playing a Game: To show off how often you study.

We think it’s cool that Facebook is bringing various corners of the web into one place where people can share, interact, and discover a variety of content they wouldn’t otherwise be exposed to. Grockit’s app for Facebook Timeline makes it easier for you to study with your friends, and show the world the hard work you’ve put into learning.

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Help Grockit spread the word: Grockit Discount for US military veterans, active personnel and families

By farbood nivi posted November 11, 2011

As you probably know, today is a national holiday honoring the efforts of nearly 25 million American military veterans. The holiday was created to commemorate the armistice ending World War I on November 11, 1918. The first observances of Armistice Day on November 11, 1919 celebrated war veterans with parades in the streets of small towns throughout America. The spirit of those parades expanded over time, and by 1954, all American military veterans were celebrated through Congressional actions formalizing Veterans Day as a national holiday.

Like other US holidays, Veterans Day and the time away from work creates commercial events and sales opportunities. Grockit wants to focus our Veterans Day commercial efforts on helping veterans, active military personnel and their families by introducing a special discount and offer specifically for veterans, active military and their families. If you are in this category, please visit the pages linked below to redeem and share a 40% discount on the purchase of Grockit products. This discount can’t be used in combination with another offer, and purchasers will be asked to attest to their military service and status. This is not a seasonal effort; the discount will be offered for the foreseeable future to all qualifying persons.

So, why is Grockit doing this?

It’s tradition on this Holiday to make a donation, write or call a veteran friend or family member and express personal gratitude for the military service of veterans. Like most businesses, the Grockit family can turn to colleagues and leaders, like Grockit’s CEO, Roy Gilbert, and express our gratitude and appreciation for their service. And, this year prominent American figures across the political spectrum are calling on American businesses to hire American military veterans as force deployments overseas are being drawn down, and men and women are discharged and integrated back into the civilian workforce. We support that effort wholeheartedly.

But, at Grockit we know that the American labor market is a highly-competitive environment, and securing a future increasingly means securing higher education. This is where Grockit believes we can help veterans, active military personnel and their families. These Americans deserve the best test prep products when preparing for the tests required for admissions to undergraduate and graduate school programs. We’re not doing anything new or groundbreaking, other test prep companies discreetly provide military discounts upon request. We’d really appreciate it if everyone reading this post shared on Facebook or emailed this discount to people that can use Grockit as they embark on a new chapter of life.

Thanks for any help you can provide in promoting this program focused on helping veterans, active military personnel and their families.

To visit special discount redemption pages, click on the specific test links below:

40% off of Grockit ACT
40% off of Grockit SAT
40% off of Grockit GMAT
40% off of Grockit GRE
40% off of Grockit LSAT

Note: If you are a veteran, active military personnel or an immediate family member of either, and you are in the rare circumstances of needing help preparing for the AP Calculus or AP US History exams or the IIM CAT (for India), please contact us via email at support@grockit.com to request a 40% discount. You may be asked to provide some form of military service proof.

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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Gets Behind Startup Weekend

By david marino posted November 4, 2011

The press announcement is below and over at edu.startupweekend.org. Huge thanks to Bill and Melinda for the support of Startup Weekend EDU.

Startup Weekend Receives $250,000 Grant from The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for EDU Events

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – November 2, 2011 – Startup Weekend, a non-profit organization, powered by the Kauffman Foundation, and Grockit, a social-learning Internet start-up, today announced that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation issued a grant in support of Startup Weekend EDU, a dedicated education (EDU) vertical within Startup Weekend that is designed to attract and assist the education community working to bring new solutions to the industry. With a grant of $250,000, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is backing educators, developers, designers, marketers, product managers, and startup enthusiasts, all of whom share a common goal – to bring new innovations to education.

“The Kauffman Foundation is excited to have the Gates Foundation support this important initiative that will help entrepreneurs with innovative education business solutions learn how to execute their ideas,” said Nick Seguin, manager of entrepreneurship at the Kauffman Foundation. “Startup Weekend EDU builds upon the Kauffman Foundation’s interest in teaching entrepreneurs how to build successful education ventures that have the potential to be some of the next great high-growth companies of the future.”

Startup Weekends are 54-hour events where startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch startups with the ultimate goal of bringing new innovations to education. October has already seen three successful Startup Weekend EDU events in Seattle, San Francisco and Washington. The first London Startup Weekend EDU event is slated for November, and the series will announce additional events around the world taking place over the next 12 months.

“Given its dedication to education reform and extensive networks in the space, the Gates Foundation is the ideal partner for us to scale the Startup Weekend EDU initiative,” said Farb Nivi, founder of Grockit.

To register for the London Startup Weekend EDU event please visit edu.startupweekend.org. To learn more about becoming a Startup Weekend organizer please visit startupweekend.org/about/event.

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Grockit Funding News

By david marino posted October 17, 2011

It’s a busy news day over at Grockit. See our funding announcement and press coverage below.

New York Times with screens of Grockit’s new facebook canvas app

Grockit in CNet with a link to Grockit Answers

Venturebeat insights on Grockit funding news

Grockit makes the Spark of Genius series in Mashable

The Wall Street Journal mentioned the news. And they mentioned again here.

TechCrunch was the first to cover Grockit Answers

HackEducation expands on the funding news

USNews & World Report comes in with a new angle

Grockit Raises $7 Million to Drive Social Learning

Previous Backers Lead Round; NewSchools Venture Fund and GSV Capital Make First Investments in Grockit

SAN FRANCISCO, CA. (October 17, 2011) – Grockit, a social learning company, announced today that it has received just over $7 million in Series D venture funding led by Atlas Venture, a current investor in the company. Benchmark Capital and Integral Capital Partners, both return investors, also participated in the round, along with new investors NewSchools Venture Fund and GSV Capital Corp. (Nasdaq:GSVC). The funding will be used to support Grockit’s growth both domestically and internationally. The company’s total outside investment to date is over $24 million.

“Technology like Grockit’s has the power to transform the way students learn,” said Jennifer Carolan, Associate Partner at NewSchools Venture Fund. “When we invest in companies, we look for meaningful innovation in the education sector, the potential for big impact and a strong management team. Grockit meets all these criteria and it adds to them a very happy customer base. We’re thrilled to support the team at Grockit.”

Improving scores through social learning
Today’s students use technology to communicate, play games, share videos and more. Grockit combines the online tools students are already using, such as social networking and gaming, with an adaptive learning platform, to help students better prepare for college entrance exams, including the SAT, ACT, GMAT, LSAT, and GRE. Compared to independent studiers, social learners on Grockit spend 30 percent more time solving problems, solve more than twice as many problems, and are 10 percent more likely to answer questions correctly.

“The education sector is due to be transformed by a new wave of disruptive companies. Grockit has built a framework for social learning that will engage millions of college-bound students across the globe,” said Michael Moe, Founder and CEO of GSV Capital. “Grockit is ambitious; they’re focused on extending studying where students currently socialize online; and they have a plan to significantly grow the universe of online social learners.”

Expanding its base of customers around the world
In addition to the products available at www.grockit.com, the company is also partnering with higher education institutions to provide test prep as part of an academic institution’s study aids. This month, Georgetown University will begin providing students and alumni with access to Grockit’s GRE, GMAT and LSAT test prep programs. In the coming months, Grockit will be rolling out similar programs with universities in the U.S. and around the world.

“Grockit has made all the right moves to become a dominant player in this space,” said Jeff Fagnan, Partner at Atlas Venture. “Grockit is at the epicenter of the education technology space, and we’re excited about the future for the company.”

In the last month, Grockit has:
● Surpassed 10,000,000 questions answered by learners,
● Integrated with Facebook’s updated Open Graph API to make studying more social,
● Introduced a “one-for-one” business model to help under-resourced students achieve dreams of higher education,
● Expanded in India with a new product to help students prepare for the IIM-CAT, a required test for applying to India’s most prestigious management school,
● Added a new VP of Engineering to its growing management team,
● And, together with Startup Weekend and the Kauffman Foundation, announced a new Startup Weekend EDU series around the world.

“We’re growing quickly, and now is the time to accelerate the business. Every day, we add the equivalent of one American high school to our user base,” said Roy Gilbert, Grockit CEO. “While we continue to build from that momentum in the next year, our goals and focus will remain the same: to help more students learn by using the incredible power and scale of the Web.”

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Grockit Accepted at Georgetown

By Grockit Team posted October 13, 2011

About the Author: Rusty Greiff is Grockit’s Chief Strategy and Corporate Development Officer and a resident of the greater Washington DC area. Rusty has an extensive background in politics and education.

For over a year Grockit has developed and managed private-label and co-branded products for K-12 schools, virtual schools, charter school networks and major online Universities. Today, I’m proud to share that Grockit and Georgetown University have partnered to provide premium online test prep and collaborative learning for Georgetown undergraduate students, and we will co-market Grockit premium subscriptions at a significant discount for Georgetown alumni.

As one of the most selective academic universities in the world, Georgetown continues to drive online strategies and initiatives that improve student success – we are excited that they have chosen Grockit as a solution for their students and alumni. Georgetown will leverage Grockit’s personalized assessment engine, adaptive and social learning platform and gaming mechanics to drive superior student engagement. Like us, they believe in the power of social and collaborative learning to prepare students.

We’re looking forward to working with like-minded universities in the future. I promise to update Grockit followers with posts every time we create new relationships with Universities, so that you can know when your school has joined the Grockit community.

Just in case you’re wondering, here are just a few reasons why Grockit is attractive to major universities:

* Over the past few years, more than a million students all over the world have used Grockit to practice and study together online to achieve their best scores on standardized tests

* Grockit’s social learning has proven to help students learn more, faster and perform better

* Grockit has figured out how to add and move massive amounts of content, check and curate that content quickly

* Grockit already works with accomplished, forward-thinking schools with strong support and broad awareness

* Grockit is a leader in developing for the most pervasive and important platforms for students and teachers

* Grockit is actively trying to improve learning outcomes for millions of students in under-resourced communities

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Grockit Launches New IIM CAT Product

By jake becker posted September 28, 2011

Earlier this year, we began working to create a new Grockit learning community centered around the Indian Institutes of Management Common Admission Test (IIM-CAT). Over 300,000 students sit for the CAT each year, fighting for as few as 2,000 seats in one of the prestigious Indian management institutes, making it one of the most competitive standardized tests in the world. In 2009, the CAT moved from paper to a Computer-Based Test (CBT), a transition that has simplified the administration process, but presents a range of new challenges to students preparing for the exam.

In helping students meet these challenges, we are thrilled to announce the official launch of the Grockit IIM-CAT group! Here’s the first story covering this news, see the press release below.

With Grockit’s Indian user base growing fast, (in 2010, 27% of GMAT students in India used Grockit) it’s evident that CAT 2011 students are also seeking online solutions. Test Series and practice materials run upwards of Rs. 5000 ($112), and restrict students’ learning environment to test centers, packed classrooms, and the confines of a physical textbook. Grockit expands these borders, providing students 24/7 access to adaptive customizable assessments, social group study, detailed strength and weakness reports and a computer-based experience similar to the one on Test Day.

We are launching with over 3,000 practice questions covering every topic area presented on CAT since 2001. Since we’ve found Verbal Ability to be the most important section for students to practice, two-thirds of our content will be in these areas. We’ve made the Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation sections super difficult, drawing from the expertise of our experienced CAT authors, editors and IIM alumni. And we plan to continue to build out our curriculum on a rolling basis, using information from newly released tests and ongoing feedback from our users. See our official press release, below.

Grockit Introduces Test Prep for India’s CAT Exam

September 28, 2011 — Grockit, the leader in collaborative and social learning, today announced the availability of its test preparation program for India’s Common Admission Test (CAT), the required exam for admission into Indian Institutes of Management (IIM). Grockit, which is currently used by over a quarter of students in India studying for the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), is releasing the IIM CAT program in response to customer demand and the company’s rapidly growing Indian user base.

Grockit’s IIM CAT prep differs from existing programs in that it’s built around an adaptive, social and interactive experience for students. Users have the advantage of preparing for the exam in a virtual group setting and receiving real-time feedback from their peers and Grockit tutors. This “anytime and anywhere” approach allows students who may not live in big cities with easily accessible testing centers to have access to an affordable, web-based alternative. The personalised study plan format adapts to each individual user’s level and shifts as the student improves and progresses. And since the IIM CAT recently moved from a paper-based test to a computer-based test, Grockit’s web-based format gives students a similar experience to what they’ll have during the real test.

“Students in India are incredibly enthusiastic about Grockit,” said Roy Gilbert, CEO, Grockit. “We’ve seen remarkable growth in India over the last year, and we’re excited to help our Indian users tackle one of the highest-stakes exams in the world.”

Grockit created the test prep program for the IIM CAT by working with partners on the ground in India, leading American and Indian authors, and IIM CAT specialists and alumni. The pricing for the program is significantly lower than alternative options currently available; for more information visit our programs page and IIM CAT blog.

“Grockit is the most addictive, creative and engaging product for learning I’ve come across. Thanks guys!” says Shuba, a student from Chennai, India.

The launch of Grockit’s CAT test prep follows Grockit’s launch of Rupee pricing and localised Indian payment options earlier this year. Currently, more than 25 percent of people taking the GMAT in India already use Grockit to study, answering 1.25 million study questions in the past year alone.

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Grockit Announces Facebook Integration to Make Studying More Social

By Roy Gilbert posted September 22, 2011

It’s the week before the SAT and you need help. Reading comprehension is killing you! Your friends aren’t home and no one is answering their cell. Panic! What do you do?

Grockit has integrated with Facebook to help you ace your next exam with your friends. In the coming weeks, Grockit will make it easier for students to create online study groups within Grockit and solve problems with friends. What this means is that you’ll be able to find friends to study with, create permanent Grockit study rooms, and share your team’s progress on your Facebook profile.

We’re excited about this for a couple of reasons. First, this solves a big problem for people that use Grockit. Many people want to study with friends they interact with in other parts of their lives, and we haven’t had a great way of doing that within Grockit. Now, with our new Facebook integration, students can quickly select-and-add study partners from among their friends, even if their friends aren’t using Grockit today.

Second, this was a result of amazingly fast design and engineering work. Thanks to the fine folks at Facebook who delivered this API, we’ve been able to build something we think will be beneficial for our users in just a couple of short weeks.

The result is something that we think will make online social learning a lot easier to use. And this cross-team work matches up with our Grockit core value of Collaborteam — our made-up word to describe the transparent, selfless way we work together.

Here’s the press release from F8, the Facebook Conference.

Grockit Announces Facebook Integration to Make Studying More Social

SAN FRANCISCO – September 22, 2011 – Today at f8, Facebook’s developer conference, Grockit, a social learning company, announced a new integration with Facebook that will make it even easier for students around the world to create Grockit study groups with their friends. Now people using Grockit can quickly create “Study Rooms”, invite their Facebook friends and prepare together for college entrance examinations, such as the SAT, ACT, LSATs, GMATs, GREs, and more. Students can also track and share academic progress and milestone achievements towards their academic goals on their Facebook profiles.

“Millions of students are on Facebook, but they aren’t just socializing. They are helping each other with homework, sharing school resources, and in general hacking together a social learning experience online,” said Farbood Nivi, founder and Chief Product Officer, Grockit. “The cool thing about our new Facebook integration is that students can create, control, and access Grockit Study Rooms right from their Facebook profiles. Study Rooms include tons of content to help with studying, from practice questions, to video lessons, and even personal tutoring.”

Earlier this year, Grockit released research showing that students who study together on Grockit do twice as much work — and get answers correct more often — as students who study alone.

In addition to creating new study groups, people using Grockit can share the total number of hours spent studying, the total number of questions attempted, and their progress studying within Grockit via their Facebook profiles. People can control how their activity is shared with friends on Facebook from their Facebook privacy settings.

To learn more about Grockit’s Facebook integration, please visit: Grockit.com/social

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Grockit For Good: A New Business Model for Education

By farbood nivi posted September 22, 2011

Throughout history, education has been a fundamental contributor to upward social progress. Whether it is the expansion of reading and writing from the privileged class to the masses hundreds of years ago, or the invention of the Internet in recent decades, the expansion of civilization and technology has gone part and parcel with that of access to education.

Today at Grockit we are proud to announce a fundamental shift in our business model, a shift that we believe is one more step in this necessary human movement towards increased access for everyone, including and especially those who are less privileged.

From today forward, Grockit will be a one-for-one business. For every Grockit account purchased, we will provide one year of free access to Grockit Academy to an under-served student. To do this we have partnered with the very organizations that work tirelessly everyday to reach and support these students. Organizations like Higher Achievement, KIPP, Level Playing Field Institute, Magic Johnson Foundation, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and TLABs are just some of the amazing groups that Grockit customers can direct their one-for-one purchase towards.

Our desire to create Grockit for Good was motivated by the same reason I founded Grockit in the first place.

After teaching for over a decade I was unsatisfied with the progress of education, especially in light of rapidly advancing technologies that were not reaching students. I was also unsatisfied with the high costs that limited access and scale.

With that, we started Grockit to bring adaptive, social-learning to hundreds of thousands of students all over the world and we believe that our shift to a one-for-one business model is another step forward in our mission to bring effective, engaging education to everyone. We’re calling this new model, Grockit For Good, and if you know an organization that you think would be a good partner, we want to know. Grockit has always been about social-learning, and with Grockit For Good our customers are doing even more to help the world learn.

Farb Nivi
Founder Grockit

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Grockit Adds New VP of Engineering

By Roy Gilbert posted September 13, 2011

Here at Grockit, we’ve been searching for a fantastic VP of Engineering for a long time. Anyone entering this dojo of supersmart Ruby on Rails ninjas needs to be a true craftmaster. For these reasons, this has been a challenging position to fill.

We had an imaginary dream candidate: he or she needed absurd technical skills, solid leadership talent, and (most importantly) they needed to be imbued with awesome Grockity values. Gamer with a passion for disrupting education? Major bonus points.

That is why I am so excited and honored to have Chris Henley join us as our VP of Engineering. He’s joining Grockit after a successful career at Roost, SGN, Hughes, and NASA (yes, he is a rocket engineer). Chris impressed all of us with his eagerness to learn and improve our team.

Here’s the official press release sent out moments ago:

Grockit Hires Chris Henley as Vice President of Engineering

Henley brings social gaming expertise and engineering leadership to Grockit

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – September 13, 2011 - Grockit, a social learning company, today announced the hiring of Chris Henley, vice president of engineering, to lead the company’s engineering efforts and scale technology development as Grockit continues to grow and increase its product offerings. Chris will focus on product development across new platforms and new geographies. He will also work with partners to launch new co-branded products.

“We’re thrilled to have Chris on board,” says Roy Gilbert, Grockit CEO. “He is a gifted leader, skilled technologist, and his background in building social products that engage millions of users is a perfect fit for Grockit.”

Chris was most recently the VP of engineering at Roost where he led engineering and helped shape product operations. Prior to Roost, Chris served as the founding director of engineering and executive producer at Social Gaming Network, an early pioneer in social gaming. He helped grow the company from three people to more than one hundred in just over a year, while overseeing the technology and operations behind SGN’s Facebook and iPhone games that had a combined reach of over 50 million users.

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TLabs brings Grockit into Detroit Learning Center

By david marino posted August 17, 2011

Grockit has some news this morning, Grockit and TLabs have joined forces to help students in the greater Detroit area. And with so many of us hailing from the great state of Michigan, we’re exceptionally proud of Mr. Jayleon Davis and his progress on the ACT (read press release below).

TLAB Adopts Grockit’s Social Learning Technologies for Test Prep

Detroit-based organization to provide students with access to Grockit’s online ACT prep tools

DETROIT – August 17, 2011 – The Technology Laboratory and Professional Development Center (TLAB), a Detroit-based non-profit accelerated learning program, today announced an agreement with Grockit that will enable the organization to offer Grockit tools to students preparing for the ACT, which is a mandatory test for all 11th-grade students in Michigan. Students will be able to access Grockit’s ACT preparatory tools from their own computer or at one of TLAB’s dedicated computer labs.

“Grockit is one of the few providers with keen insight and a solution for educating people in the 21st Century. Grockit is leveraging the power of the web in helping students get the tools and the guidance they need to perform at exceptional levels academically and especially on standardized tests,” said Dr. Clarence Nixon, Jr., founder of the TLAB program. “We’re excited to be working with them in helping our students prepare academically, master the ACT, and do so in a way that’s more effective and more affordable than the other methods out there.”

With Grockit, students work online with other students and with tutors to learn key concepts, solve practice problems, and develop test-taking strategies. More than 1 million users have used Grockit to date, and the service’s highly interactive and collaborative social learning model has proven to engage students: Compared to Grockit’s average independent studier, the average Grockit group studier spends three times as much time solving problems per study session; solves more than twice as many problems per study session; and is 10 percent more likely to answer questions correctly.

“Grockit helped me connect and learn with other students my own age, and with that help I improved my score on the ACT from 18 to 30 in less than three months,” said Jayleon Davis, a TLAB student in Dearborn Heights, Mich. “Grockit makes studying fun, and it’s helping me gain confidence as I work to achieve my dream score of a perfect 36 on the ACT.”

TLAB centers use data-driven software applications and the support of experienced tutors to help accelerate learning for students ranging from kindergarten to college. Their core academic programs are ACT prep, math, reading, vocabulary, writing, language, public speaking, research and development and leadership development.

About TLAB

TLAB is a faith-based, nonprofit, accelerated learning center founded in Detroit in 2007. It is focused on creating extraordinary academic achievement, among any and all students, to prepare them to assume leadership roles in careers as entrepreneurs, physicians, nurses, research scientists, and other professions. The majority of TLAB’s 300 students come from Michigan, but we have attracted students from Atlanta; Phoenix; Jacksonville, Florida; Ohio, Minnesota, New York, Georgia, North Carolina, and Lake Providence, Louisiana.

About Grockit

Grockit was created to improve academic achievement and extend learning outside of the classroom. By applying adaptive learning algorithms and innovative social networking and online gaming technologies, students experience a fun and engaging way to master academic skills and achieve personal best scores on standardized tests. The diagnostic, prescriptive and adaptive nature of the underlying Grockit platform ensures that each student receives a personalized learning experience, designed to help them overcome areas of academic weakness. Founded in 2007 by Farb Nivi, a former Teacher of the Year for The Princeton Review and academic director at Kaplan, Grockit is headquartered in San Francisco and has received funding from Atlas Venture, Benchmark Capital, Integral Capital Partners and prominent angel investors including Reid Hoffman (founder, LinkedIn) and Mark Pincus (founder and CEO, Zynga). For more information, please visit www .grockit .com.

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