Last night Riley Eynon-Lynch, co-founder of Pear Deck, won the Rise of the Rest pitch competition at SXSW. His prize? $150,000 in investment from Steve Case, venture capitalist and founder of America Online.
Iowa City-based Pear Deck helps teachers keep students engaged in the classroom by connecting their presentations with student digital devices. It also allows students to interact with the presentation, giving teachers immediate feedback from their students.
Steve Case launched the Rise of the Rest as a road trip campaign last year as a way to showcase entrepreneurship in cities outside of Silicon Valley and other major tech hubs. This year they invited teams from five cities–Madison, Minneapolis, Des Moines, Kansas City and St. Louis–to pitch at SXSW.
Watch Eynon-Lynch with Steve Case on CNBC following the win:
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“There’s always this moment in a class when the teacher says, ‘Are there any questions?’ And that’s kind of a tough moment for kids,” says Eynon-Lynch in video. “It’s tough for the teachers, too.”
Pear Deck was also a finalist for the SXSW’s LaunchEDU pitch competition, which focused on educational technology.
