StartupRealities

Startup No 200 Exec Ed For All is an online education company which produces quarterly digests (summaries) of new developments in a dozen MBA-type subject areas (Marketing, Finance, Leadership, etc.). The digests come in two formats: email newsletter and audio podcast. The novelty-focused series forms a continuous top-up programme in which every week one of 12 quarterly newsletters and podcasts are published on a rolling basis. The company's target market are business executives and practitioners who have graduated from university at least five years earlier. In effect, the company democratises access to high-end executive education, as the cutting-edge business-related programmes that leading business schools sell at USD 2,000 per day of training are now opened up to the mass market for an annual subscription of USD 50-100. INTERVIEW WITH THE CEO: "Most MBA alumni and masters graduates find it frustrating or a waste of time when they sign up for a regular online or on-campus ...

Startup No 186 - StartupRealities 2020 series MetaphorGenerator is an artificial intelligence (AI) company whose machine learning software reviews text and generates possible metaphors to accompany the text. The programme is particularly useful for enriching new literary works with novel metaphors. While generating the metaphors is entirely computer-generated, human input is needed to shortlist and select the most relevant and useful metaphors for inclusion in the author's text. CEO QUOTE "Imagine a story that talks about the buzzing sound of your dishwasher when turned on. Our MetaphorGenerator will come up with interesting metaphors to go with this scene: perhaps the dishwasher is a metaphor for the busy life of a corporate executive, while washing dishes by hand would symbolise the more relaxed career of a teacher. After all, a teacher puts in a lot more personal touch in educating children - just like someone washing dishes by hand puts in personal touch and effort."...

StartupRealities No 143 MetaTextbook is an artificial intelligence (AI)-led content producer which creates visual content for electronic textbooks customised to the interests and hobbies of the reader. For example, if a student likes football, most of the images in the physics or geography textbooks for this particular student will be related to football. PSYCHOLOGY OF LEARNING The customisation of imagery makes the content easier to understand and internalise thanks to two key factors: 1) The relevance and familiarity with the images creates a shortcut to existing knowledge in the student's mind; 2) The virtuous cycle of reassurance engendered by familiarity gives confidence to the student that the effort required to learn a lesson is minimal. Aristotle described this process in Rhetoric: " To learn easily is naturally pleasant to all people. " PRINCIPLES OF IMAGE SELECTION The company applies the principle of  conceptual metaphors to select or create images ...

StartupRealities No 105 TheFunMBA is a management education company which runs an Online MBA based exclusively on fun exercises, interesting content and viral videos. #TheFunMBA does not use any traditional lecturing, nor any traditional case studies. Instead, the focus is on experiential learning, current mini-cases, memorable stories and gripping visual content. CEO QUOTE "If young people nowadays spend their time on Netflix and TikTok, we should all be using content from Netflix and TikTok when teaching to them. The #TikTokMBA is another name that our students use for TheFunMBA programme and we all agree this is a compliment. There are so many metaphorical parallels that you can draw in education using Netflix memes, even when using extreme ones such as #ChicagoSunroof or #SquatCobbler. With material like this, teaching and learning will never be boring again," said company founder and CEO Fiona Mbembe. TikTok logo (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 42 99Lines is an education publisher which produces textbooks and online courses condensing any subject into 99 sentences. Most of the sentences are quotes and metaphors, rather than theoretical explanations, as a metaphor can pack in more content in fewer words. CEO QUOTE "There used to be a big market for series like 'Marketing for Dummies' or 'Coding for Beginners'. 99Lines is different: we don't aim at beginners; our content is appropriate for all levels. We bring out the essence in a subject matter which makes it relevant for professionals as well as beginners. If you are a marketing practitioner, you need 99Lines even if you already know well almost all of the 99 lines in your area. A true expert needs to be able to quote these lines and understand them thoroughly, not only recognise them and be aware of them," said company CEO and founder Nino Limes. "In a world where time is in short supply, our content and editorial...