Last week, FounderLY hosted The Future of Education panel discussion and Riviera Partners partnered with the organization to give the Who’s Who of education innovators a platform for discussing the future of one of the most important industries in the world.
Photo left to right: Matthew Wise, Heather Hiles, Tim Brady, Eren Bali, and Andrew Ng
Panelists:
Andrew Ng, Cofounder and CEO of Coursera, shared that Coursera had their first million users faster than Facebook and told an inspiring story of someone in Siberia Russia getting a job offer from Twitter after earning several certificates through Coursera.
Pathbrite CEO and Founder, Heather Hiles emphasized that investors need to fund education startups that are truly aiming to change the system and not simply make it more efficient.
Tim Brady, Founder of Imagine K12 spoke about how employers, not institutions, will determine the value of online courses and certifications and that the adoption of tablets in the classroom is spurring a need for software that integrates a teacher’s workflow.
Eren Bali CEO and Founder of Udemy started down this online education path 12 years ago but it was too early for the market because of Internet infrastructure issues. The market is right now and he is inspired by his personal history coming from a small town in Turkey to make education accessible to people in all parts of the world.
The audience was almost as impressive as the panel with many other education related startups in attendance including Khan Academy, Scoop.it, Lodestone, and several developer schools.
A big thanks to FounderLY organizers, Matthew Wise and Wayne Sutton, for creating this memorable event and promoting innovative thought around how we view and receive education.
About the author: Alaina Percival is a Marketing Manager at Riviera Partners. She is deeply involved with the tech community and spends the majority of her free time inspiring women to learn to program through Women Who Code.