In the U.S. alone, over 55 million students will need access to a CS curriculum. The nonprofit sector is a part of the equation but it is not enough to fill this massive educational mandate. This creates a burgeoning market opportunity in the for-profit educational space.
I have been in the computer science education field since I started teaching the subject at NYU in 1999. I have conducted NSF-backed research on CS education and supported numerous tech startups as an advisor and co-founder.
I helped the Bloomberg administration create NYC’s first two software engineering high schools. Fred Wilson and I co-founded CSNYC.org (the second org I co-founded in the CS Ed space -- hackNY being the first) in order to ensure all 1.1 million NYC public school students have an opportunity to study computer science. I took a leave from NYU to serve as the founding Executive Director launching programs in 122 schools. In September 2015, Mayor Deblasio announced a $81mm public private partnership with CSNYC to meet its mission within ten years.
I started professionally investing in 2012 as a Venture Partner at Quotidian Ventures. I syndicate all my CS education deals here. I also advise Flybridge Capital and sit on NYU Innovation Venture Fund’s investment committee.
I plan to syndicate 4-8 deals per year in computer science education companies at the early stage. My first deal will be in December 2016.