| Grockit

Learnist for the iPad and Learnist for the iPhone Available in the Apple AppStore

By david marino posted August 30, 2012

Since launching Learnist, tens-of-thousands of people have requested invites and joined our restricted beta group. Beta customers of Learnist have created an awesome community and content. Customer feedback prompted us to immediately develop mobile apps. In just a few months, we’ve built Learnist for the iPhone and Learnist for the iPad. We hope you enjoy these apps. Below is a press release sharing the details of the product announcement. We’ll update this post with news coverage of this announcement.

Please keep sharing your thoughts on how to make Learnist better. If you have an iPad or iPhone, install your Learnist app here.

Grockit Unlocks Mobile Social Learning: ‘Learnist’ App for iPhone and iPad Available Now

New Apps feature rich multimedia lessons curated by experts, teachers and learners everywhere

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — August 30, 2012 – Grockit(TM), the social learning company that introduced Learnist(TM) in May 2012, today announced that its popular people-curated, social learning application will enable mobile social learning experiences via Learnist for the iPhone(R) and Learnist for the iPad(R).

“From the beginning, Learnist was designed with mobility in mind. The Retina displays of the iPhone and iPad make for an unparalleled learning experience, and the fact that so many millions of people have these devices with them all the time means just that many more opportunities for collaboration and creation,” says Grockit founder Farbood Nivi.

The ‘Learnist for (the) iPhone’ App makes it easy to use the high-resolution camera to capture images that you can instantly sequence into a how-to guide or lesson. Share your lesson with anyone and collaborate with your readers. Learnist on the iPhone can even use GPS to show your location on learnings that use maps. You can also browse and learn from thousands of topics created and curated by other Learnist members.

The ’Learnist for (the) iPad’ App is optimized for learning from the thousands of topics curated by experts, teachers, and other members. The, long battery-life, large stunning display and LTE capabilities make multimedia, interactive and collaborative learning available from almost anywhere at anytime. Browse and learn about topics including Art & Design, Education, Food & Drinks, Travel & Places, Sports and more.

“Whether it’s in the classroom, the workplace or the home, people learn best when they do it together and often when they are sharing a computer or tablet screen,” says Roy Gilbert, Grockit CEO. “Our goal is to help people learn from and teach each other with the incredibly rich educational resources found all over the internet. Our new mobile apps make it fun for Learnist users to do this.”

Update on Learnist
In a two-month-long, invite-only beta of the Learnist web application, tens-of-thousands of people joined Learnist sharing expert knowledge focused on a wide range of academic and casual learning topics. Notably, several thousand American teachers joined Learnist, creating “Learnboards” covering 100% of the new Common Core academic standards for public school grades 7-12. And, influential non-academic experts are adopting Learnist, including best-selling author of Lean Startup, Eric Ries and fashion designer Melissa Fleis, popular contestant on reality TV series Project Runway.

To request an invitation to Learnist, please visit Learni.st or download Learnist for the iPad or Learnist for the iPhone on the Apple(R) App Store(SM), here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learnist/id522850398

About Grockit
Grockit was founded to improve academic achievement and extend learning outside of the classroom by advancing online social learning as the dominant instructional design. Applying adaptive learning algorithms and innovative social networking and online gaming technologies, Grockit and Learnist users discover a fun and engaging learning experience. 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, GSV Capital, NewSchools Ventures and prominent angel investors including Reid Hoffman (founder, LinkedIn) and Mark Pincus (founder and CEO, Zynga). For more information, please visit www.grockit.com.

###

* Grockit(TM) and Learnist(TM) are trademarks of Grockit, Inc. Apple(R), iPhone(R), iPad(R), iTunes Store(R) are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the respective property of their owners.

No Comments »

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.

No Comments »

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.”

2 Comments »

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

1 Comment »

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.

No Comments »