Strive, a Singapore-based startup that raised a $ 1.3 million seed round led by Y Combinator, plans to expand across Asia in showing kids that coding is interesting and to cause them to have a long-lasting love of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects.
Strive is a platform that enlightens and teaches kids to code but intends to do more, developed with an active learning modal that helps students take the lead in classes, and holds one-on-one classes for kids aged 8-16years with a plan to target 3.7million students in international schools.
The Y combinator is an alum of the accelerator program, hence, the seed round had Soma Capital, Goodwater Capital, and individual investors like Crimson Education CEO Jamie Beaton, co-founder of West Bridge Capital and founding member of Sequoia India KP Balaraja, and Segment co-founder and ex-CTO Calvin French-Owen participation.
Strive was founded in 2020 by Tamir Shklaz and Pulkit Agarwal, Strive was built on the idea that the development of AI automation and tech means everything you learn might be outdated in a few years.
Tamir Shklaz said to TechCrunch “The most important skill we can give kids or anyone is learning how to be adaptable,” said Shklaz. “If you want to inspire adaptable students, learning should be fun. Learning should be joyful. So, we started to Strive for the core intention of equipping kids to thrive in the 21st century by making them fall in love with the process of learning.”
“Strive’s goal is to create a learning experience that is more effective and engaging than its competitors and this made them different from other online coding platforms, we have incredible teachers, but we don’t hire teachers based on their technical ability, but what’s far more important is their ability to empathize and relate with the student.” He said.
Agarwal said even though more parents and educational systems are starting to emphasize coding, their teaching methods often leave kids feeling disengaged and frustrated. “Most of the time the students are still getting introduced to coding and then they get turned off from it. They reach the false conclusion that coding is too difficult, coding is dry or coding is just not for me.”
Active learning means that instead of lecturing students throughout a class, teachers ask them questions and guide them through coding exercises, letting them take the lead.
When Strive launched, it had 16 students and each day Shklaz and Agarwal would spend six hours teaching so they could test different content and standards. Strive’s employees, including its founders, still need to teach at least one student. For example, Strive’s head of operations doesn’t know how to code, but she is taking coding classes with its teachers to prepare her to take on a student.
One of the challenges Strive may face as it executes its growth strategy is the scalability of its model. Shklaz said they have two solutions. One is slightly increasing the number of students per class, from one-on-one to one-on-four. The second is that Strive has a large pool of potential teachers since it hires a lot of university students who are studying coding. Shklaz said Strive will create a training process and infrastructure to ensure teaching quality remains consistent.
Strive’s current customer acquisition strategy is primarily word-of-mouth referrals from kids and their parents. Part of its new funding will be used to develop its code editor, adding additional concepts and curricula that are personalized to different kids’ interests.
Strive platform enlarges learners’ motivation for intentional application both at the beginning and the ongoing. Technology is a tool that has been advancing the learning process, learners should not forget the impact of technology and make good use of it in developing and growing to become better.
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