5 startup teams engage with Kansas City community to bring innovative ideas to its urban schools
Back in 2013, Katie Boody and Carrie Markel realized that Kansas City schools were dying — and they decided to do something about it. Every summer since then, The Lean Lab has hosted its core program, The Incubator Fellowship, to support and coach early-stage startups focused on reimagining public education through entrepreneurship.
The third annual Incubator Fellowship kicked off last Wednesday at the Sprint Accelerator. During the first (half) week, the Cohort dove headfirst into the history of public education and its loss of accreditation, and racial segregation in Kansas City.
Jamie Cordes, a current fellow and co-founder of InReach, noticed some similarities and differences between Kansas City and his hometown of Chicago, IL:
“KC is similar to my hometown, Chicago, because it still struggles to overcome its segregated landscape, but [KC] has engaged community members working on this issue. It’s different [here] in that its small size has allowed us to make quicker inroads into community stakeholders.”
The fellows soon thereafter took advantage of those engaged community stakeholders during the Mentor Mixer, where each team gave pitches to a cohort of 30 mentors, hailing from a diverse cross section of Kansas City expertise: investors, business leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, parents, and community members. Many mentors stayed all day and consulted with every fellow on their venture through in-depth sessions.
Mehreen Butt, another current fellow and co-founder of Brydge, found the Mentor Mixer to be extremely beneficial:
“[One of the mentors] challenged my team to think about the user features of our product that would keep parents and teachers coming back. He suggested investing time in curating quality and engaging questions [for] teachers that would in turn support them as they go through the on-boarding process [of Brydge]. In other words, if we’re truly going to solve parent engagement, we need a product that is engaging.”
This week is the first full week of programming, and teams will be focused on building a prototype that they can then test at our school partner sites.
Katie Boody told Startland News:
“We’re really thrilled and ecstatic to be working with the caliber of entrepreneurs we have this year. They’re all wonderful people that have creative and innovative solutions… [They are] really mission-aligned and value[s]-align[ed] to helping Kansas City kids, teachers, and families.”
Introducing Cohort 3
Mehreen Butt, Richard Pettey, and David Wilson of Brydge (Jackson, MS)
Butt, Pettey, and Wilson of Brydge realized there was a disconnect between what was happening in the classroom, and what was happening at home. They decided to create an app and web-based platform that teachers can use to send a quick list of questions about that day’s lesson plan home to parents. The result? Parents can engage their kids after school with specific content and reinforce learning.
Lida Zlatic, Thierry Uwilingiyimana, and Merlin Patterson of ClassTracks (Washington, D.C.)
Zlatic, Uwilingiyimana, and Patterson decided to tackle the problem that, despite years of curriculum and study, students are not reaching true immersion within their foreign language courses and therefore cannot speak the language fluently. They’re creating a web-based platform that will help give teachers more class time for immersion lesson plans and practices.
Angie Rivera, Jamie Cordes, and Zach Layng of InReach (Chicago, IL)
Rivera, Cordes, and Layng wanted to address the current, inefficient process that low income and / or first generation college students experience when trying to make decisions about college. They’re working on a web-based and app platform that connects prospective college students with current college students for a more authentic, informative, and connected experience.
Bob King, Brice Jensen, Doug Tree, and Nadja Cajic of Meedu (Kansas City area and St. Louis, MO)
King, Jensen, Tree, and Cajic noticed that K-5 students do not have a thorough understanding of nutrition and how a nutritious diet impacts the mind and body. They’re working on a platform that will gamify the lunch line and provide kids, parents, and schools information on the nutritional choices being made.
Andyshea Saberioon, Kevon O’Rear, and Ricky Johnson of PledgeCents (Philadelphia, PA and Memphis, TN)
Saberioon, O’Rear and Johnson experienced the pain of needing to purchase supplies for the classroom out-of-pocket. They created a crowdfunding platform that they call “Bake Sale 2.0” to democratize funding for teachers. Teachers will be able to keep almost every penny they raise, regardless if they meet their funding goal.
Every Friday during the Fellowship, #LeanLabC3 will be publicly pitching their ventures to attendees at the Sprint Accelerator in Kansas City, MO. Tickets are free, and your input is invaluable. Check out the Eventbrite link here for more information.
