StartupRealities

StartupRealities No 166 StudentSocietySeeder is a franchise-model operator of university student societies organised around career trajectories and disciplines. The company sets up students societies in areas that are missing at a university campus and supports volunteer students in the governance and operation of these societies. STRUCTURE The company draws its distinctiveness from the granularity of the industry and discipline areas in which it organises the students societies. For example, there isn't just a Marketing Society; instead, there is a: - Digital Marketing Society - Guerrilla Marketing Society - B2B (Business to Business) Marketing Society - B2C (Business to Consumer) Marketing Society. Similarly, in the field of Finance, the societies are organised as: - Commercial Banking Society - Investment Banking Society - Wealth Management Society - Venture Capital and Private Equity Society - Corporate Finance Society. CEO QUOTE "We create industry-spec...

StartupRealities No 145 Academics&Professionals is an education consultancy which uses peer-review teams to carry out accreditation, consulting and benchmarking projects at university departments which have not had access to such services previously. Business schools (management departments), engineering schools and medical schools are already part of well-developed international (voluntary) accreditation systems and are not a target for the company. The primary target customers are departments in other fields that do not have such processes or systems in place, including: Natural Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Geology) Life Sciences (Agriculture, Biotechnology) Social Sciences (Sociology, Political Science, Media) Arts & Humanities (Languages, History, Philosophy) Technology (Computer Science) SERVICES OFFERING Academics&Professionals uses mixed teams of academics (professors, lecturers, researchers) and business practitioners related to the discipline to carry ...

StartupRealities No 121 EducationJoints is a higher education company that builds and runs a network of new university campuses along the coast of Africa. The company delivers affordable online education programmes with localised tutoring in big classrooms on its campuses. The programmes are developed and recorded in a central hub, while the localised coastal campuses provide programme administration, classroom management and exam invigilation. The company's online courses are available in English, French, Portuguese, Arabic and Swahili. REAL ESTATE & EDUCATION The greenfield campus sites are the centres of new cities built around university campuses, so the company is able to cross-subsidise the education programmes with revenue from the sale and renting of real estate. The company's higher education licences and degree-awarding powers in various African countries are linked to 99-year leases on the campus sites and the new city development areas around the campuses. ...

StartupRealities No 120 NicheRankings is an online media company which produces a range of "Top-10" format rankings in niche areas. For example, in the education space the company produces rankings such as "Top 10 British Universities for Chinese Students" or "Top 10 Portuguese Universities for Brazilian Students." The company rarely goes beyond the "Top-10" format given the specialist niches that its rankings inhabit. CEO QUOTE "Top-1,000 or even Top-100 of anything is too much information in a crowded world. On the other hand, the three winners model that sports championships adopt and award medals for is too simplistic. So we've zeroed in on the golden mean with the NicheRankings Top-10 format," - said company founder and CEO Nic Rankard. Top 3 places at a sports podium (image source: Wikipedia )

StartupRealities No 113 PractitionersTeach is an online directory of corporate executives, managers and other professionals who have an interest in teaching at university or in secondary education and have either experience in teaching or a teaching certificate. Experienced practitioners are commonly used to teach on MBA programmes and in acting courses, for example, but are starting to become more common outside the business school and drama department. The company has its own teaching certification, consisting of an online course and an exam. The directory also has a depository of links to videos and podcasts of teaching materials by practitioners, including YouTube videos and TED talks. CEO QUOTE "We create a marketplace, a two-sided network. On the one side there are all those gifted and experienced people who are interested in teaching and developing the talent of the next generation. On the other side are all the education institutions, which desperately need current an...