Janice Chong, the founder and CEO of Teaching Garage, sells her pitch at the Techweek New York City Launch Competition 2015.
Founded in 2014, Teaching Garage is a Boston-based company developing digital STEM-based curriculum for elementary students and teaching material for teachers. Through its Design SySTEM, it aims to provide the basics of engineering to seven-to-ten-year-olds and drive their interest into STEM education. The company, co-led by Janice Chong and Edwina Tom, has won the iHub Competition as well.
Other key points on the company:
Teaching Garage has identified certain STEM-invested states like Texas, Silicon Valley, and Washington and currently aims to focus on those. It predominantly markets itself via emails, conventions, and warm leads. It is currently targeting public schools.
The company usually pitches its business at district levels and usually charges $6,500 per school. In 2014-2015, the company had generated $50,000 revenue.
Below are some of the key points and moments from the conversation:
- 0:04 – Teaching Garage created the first digital curriculum for engineering at elementary school level
- 5:59 – Teaching Garage charged $6,500 per school and usually targeted at the district level
- 6:39 – Janice Chong and Edwina Tom are co-founders with an advisory board comprising Kathy Hurley, Carol Johnson, Marissa Dent, Tony Wagner, and Art Reimers
- 7:38 – Teaching Garage’s plan to sell itself in the tough market of educational technology
- 10:18 – Q&A – What are the disciplines from grades 2-3 and 4-5 and what was the mentality behind it? Do the company partners also provide study material and offer field trips?
- 11:40 – Q&A – How do you evaluate the success of the curriculum?
