education

  • Boosterville builds relationships between booster clubs and merchants

    Boosterville builds relationships between booster clubs and merchants

    How many times have you been approached by students selling cookie dough or discount cards to stores you rarely visit? Pam Cooper, a small business owner with over 20 years as a civic leader and fundraising volunteer, kept asking herself, “How can technology be applied to school fundraising?” Not having a technology background, she asked her…

  • CrayonBox offers a subscription box for teachers in low-income schools

    CrayonBox offers a subscription box for teachers in low-income schools

    “Being a teacher can be a pretty isolated experience,” said Ravan Charles, founder of CrayonBox. “Bringing them together across districts, cities, and states is the goal.” CrayonBox is a two-part non profit idea that Charles has been working on for the last two years. The startup consists of a subscription box for teachers in low-income…

  • How LendEDU made it into Y Combinator on their second try

    How LendEDU made it into Y Combinator on their second try

    Nate Matherson and Matt Lenhard came up for the idea for LendEDU while college students in Delaware. After going through the Iowa Startup Accelerator in Cedar Rapids, they moved back to Delaware. In December they joined Y Combinator in Mountain View, California. SPN caught up with Matherson over the phone. SPN: What made you decide to apply…

  • Striv shows students how to live stream high school events

    Striv shows students how to live stream high school events

    The Henderson, Neb., company has expanded to 66 schools in three years. Taylor Siebert, CEO of Striv, is what some people call a “boomerang” — someone who grew up in Nebraska, left the state and then came back. “I got my degree from Doane and wanted to get out of Nebraska,” Siebert said. “I made…

  • ClusterFlunk co-founders start new service geared for professors

    Getting an entire college class on the same page is often an arduous task. Some people prefer communication through email, others prefer text. Some people set up Facebook groups, and others use Dropbox and Google Drive. It would be easier to get everyone using the same service, wouldn’t it? Enter Pi, based in Chicago. Pi…

  • Pear Deck wins Rise of the Rest competition at SXSW [Video]

    Pear Deck wins Rise of the Rest competition at SXSW [Video]

    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…