Grockit, the Social Learning Company
Grockit was founded by Farbood Nivi in 2006. Nivi is currently the Chief Product Officer for Grockit. He is an educator and entrepreneur. Nivi worked with the Princeton Review as a teacher, trainer, and curriculum writer. In 2001, he was awarded with the Princeton Review’s National Teacher of the Year award. Before working for the Princeton Review he started his first business, Vision Computer Solutions. Bringing his technological, entrepreneurial, and education experiences together Nivi created Grockit.
Grockit is a self described, social learning company. The company aims to make learning an engaging activity drawing on the benefits of social learning. The company offers services of individualized study plans, tutors, video courses, test prep materials, and allows learners to work and study in groups. Most recently Grockit launched their mobile learning app, Learnist. This app aims to provide multi-media rich social learning opportunities to the user through the iPad and iPhone.
The Grockit management team is made up of many impressive individuals. The CEO, Roy Gilbert, worked for Google and among his other work there he launched the business operations for Gmail. Grockit’s Chief Strategy and Development Officer, Rusty Greiff, has many years of experience in social marketing and technology. He worked for the Clinton administration. He has held senior roles at organizations such as Educate, Inc., Hooked on Phonics, Sylvan Learning and more. Grockit’s VP of Marketing, Aaron Burcell, has held several positions in the technology sector, including for Microsoft and Yahoo!, was recognized with the honour of being one of the “1010 Youth Media Greatest Minds in Youth Marketing”. Chris Henley, VP of Engineering worked as a consulting engineer for NASA and TSA. More recently he held a senior role at the Social Gaming Network (SGN) creating social games for both Facebook and iPhone.
Looking through the materials provided by the company and their strong team it is apparent that they are determined to work with the best in the business and provide the best solutions for learners out there. This is a company that I am considering researching for my Venture Analysis assignment. After looking at their employment opportunities it is clear that they are aiming to be a top company to work for as well. Including competitive salaries, health plans, and surprisingly catered lunch everyday and staff fridges filled with cold drinks (including beer). More importantly the company is looking at ways to encourage learners to support other learners. This type of learning environment is what I encourage in the courses I teach.
References:
https://grockit.com/management-board
Image from:
http://grockit.com/blog/main/files/2009/07/Farb-Head-SHot.jpg
Video from:
Posted in: Week 04: Entrepreneur Bootcamp
tomwhyte1 10:02 am on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I appreciate reading about companies, founded by educators for educators. I see that there approach is to provide a review for specific tests, what appears mostly are university level, with some 7-12. In your research, I was wondering how the social aspect functions within this environment?
Secondly, as seen in other posts. I appreciate people from the education world, going forth with their ideas, teachers helping teachers, instead of non-educationally formed companies trying to cash in on our already limited budgets. What are your thoughts regarding the potential success of this company? Are they providing a unique service, or simply an old service packaged in a new way?
Thoughts?
kstackhouse 10:15 am on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Tom,
I think the biggest social aspect comes in the form of the group study sessions, collaboration, and competition as students work through the materials. There are SAT prep materials and other standardized assessment. There are grades k-12, Virtual School materials, included AP course materials.
So far the company is looking very strong. Their latest launch, Learnist, looks to be a Pinterest style of learning. I have not loaded the app yet, so I can’t be certain. The company lists some of its investors here: https://grockit.com/about_us. They claim to be the world’s fastest growing online test prep for students.
There have been other test-prep services in the past. I think that Grockit is trying to take a new approach at the way test-prep has taken place and trying to match the social focus that has been surging in the past few years.
tomwhyte1 10:29 am on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Thank you for furthering my understanding regarding the service, greatly appreciated.
As well, you mention “competition”… What does that look like inside of Grockit?
kstackhouse 10:40 am on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I’m not entirely sure how this looks. I did here in the video that students can earn points, badges, and connect with Facebook. I think in this sense and maybe in the quizzes or study sessions they may be able to compete. Again, I am not certain how this works from a user standpoint. Hope this info addresses your question.
tomwhyte1 7:06 pm on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
More than addresses, thank you for the information. I realize, it is not what we are entirely supposed to be focussing on for this portion of the assignment. It is just that my inquisitive nature took over.
Peggy Lawson 7:26 pm on September 27, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Well, well – this is an intriguing product! I took time to view your posted Grockit video. Very impressive. The product seems to offer so much it was difficult to keep track. A long elevator pitch, but well produced and I had to watch it all. My biggest concerns I guess, for deciding whether I would invest in this product or not – you mention that the company began in 2006. It is now 6 years later, and I have never heard of Grockit before now. Why not?
Peggy
kstackhouse 9:35 pm on September 28, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Good point Peggy about the video…it was actually a marketing commercial so it was longer than an elevator pitch. I’m not sure how popular it is in Canada since many of the standardized tests may be for university entrance in the USA. It is funny how ed tech works, I have been teaching in Canada for almost 10 years and I only heard of Moodle last year. Of course now I know how huge they are. It is always surprising when we find out about a technology and it already has millions of users. That just proves how big the market really is.
Ken