May 2012
8 posts
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Year One
A year ago, Dan, Jim, and I wrapped up finals and moved from Philly to a 3-bedroom apartment in the Financial District. We set up shop and got to work. Since then we’ve grown to 14 people, raised $6mm, rebranded, and built a product that’s used and loved at over 600 schools.
It’s just the beginning, though. Here’s to an even better next year.
Steve Jobs on Recruiting →
When you put two great people together, the result is far great than 1+1=2.
morganmissen:
Excerpts from the book In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations with the Visionaries of the Digital World, 1997, published in BusinessWeek in 1998.
What talent do you think you consistently brought to Apple and bring to NeXT and Pixar?
I think that I’ve consistently figured out who really smart...
4 tags
Thoughts on Entrepreneurship Education
I got an email in November from a student at Penn looking for some perspective on making entrepreneurship more of a priority at Wharton undergrad. I was a sophomore there last year, and I’ve since left to build Lore. I sent him some thoughts, and looking back I think they’re worth sharing. Edited for polish and anonymity.
Hey Joe,
I’m a sophomore in Wharton. I’m...
April 2012
11 posts
The Mason Jar →
New York Times:
Before a New Jersey-born son of a Scottish farmer named John Landis Mason patented his jar in 1858, home-food preservation was a tricky affair.
A simple invention that changed how people ate.
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Coursekit is Now Lore →
When we first conceived Coursekit, we set out to build the perfect supplement to a college course: a product that combines world-class course management tools with the best of social networking. We’ve since come a long way.
It’s been a remarkable first semester. In December 2011, when we first launched the product, it was being piloted at 30 schools. Now, one semester later, it’s in use by...
3 tags
Explore:
“Invention comes in many forms and at many scales. The most radical and transformative of inventions are often those that empower others to unleash their creativity – to pursue their dreams.”
—
Jeff Bezos in a letter to shareholders. Wired’s Tim Carmody has a related critique.
Welcome Matt!
coursekit:
I’m extremely excited to welcome Matt Delbridge to the Coursekit team as our third designer. Matt joins us from Pentagram, where he was an intern. Before that, he graduated from CCA in December, and had stints at Apple and MINE.
You get the sense when you meet Matt that he’s going to be an all star in whatever he puts his mind to. I can’t wait to work with him.
— Joe
March 2012
3 posts
This is one of our tenets at Coursekit.
Explore:
“Art and artists are very much misunderstood in our culture… Because we have this ethic of purpose and utility, and art is not useful in a very direct way. And I think that, also, our concept of artists is that they’re lazy somehow and that they don’t want to work hard… In fact, what I discovered in working with artists is that most artists, by...
“I think all your work is personal,” he said. “It’s your life.”
– Terry Richardson’s Photographs Provoke and Reveal - NYTimes.com
February 2012
4 posts
Introducing Explore →
Our goal with Coursekit is to reshape education for the Internet Age. We exist to restore the sense of magic that comes with learning something new. Where does knowledge come from and how do people share it? That’s the elusive question we’re trying to answer.
In that spirit, we’re introducing Explore. Explore is about the evolving definition, process, and promise of learning. It’s a...
nycedc:
“Cohen’s eight person start-up [Coursekit] is just one of hundreds of start-ups choosing New York City’s ‘Silicon Alley’ over its older California cousin.
Total technology employment in New York City increased 28 percent from 2005 to 2010, and now accounts for more than 90,000 workers at more than 7,100 high tech establishments, according to the New York City government Economic...
Anthony Shadid, a New York Times Reporter, Dies in... →
Powerful.
Anthony Shadid, a gifted newspaper correspondent whose graceful dispatches for both The New York Times and The Washington Post covered nearly two decades of Middle East conflict and turmoil, died, apparently of an asthma attack, on Thursday while on a reporting assignment in eastern Syria. Tyler Hicks, a Times photographer who was with Mr. Shadid, carried his body across the border to...
3 tags
January 2012
8 posts
The World's First True Global Class →
NYU Stern professor Aswath Damodaran is teaching his courses to the world this semester. These are the first true classes taught at scale because there’s an actual community being created. We’re totally psyched. From his blog:
I am running an experiment this semester with the classes that I am teaching at the Stern School of Business: Corporate Finance, a first-year MBA class, and...
Of Coursekit!
carambula:
The rumors are true. I’m the Creative Director at Coursekit and we’re going to change education. Expect more from me on this and all the topics surrounding it soon. That, however, can wait.
What can’t wait is this: our already impressive team needs more of the very best design and engineering talent around. It will be the most fun you’ve ever had disrupting a major industry, I’d...
Coursekit Blog: Welcome Aaron and Katie! →
coursekit:
Today, I’m absolutely delighted to welcome two amazing new designers to our team.Aaron Carámbula and Katie Koch hail from different parts of the design world, but together will form the base of an insanely talented design team.
So excited to work with them.
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“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of...”
– Henry David Thoreau (via lalibrairie)
NYTimes: Coursekit Raises $5 Million to Reinvent... →
The next chapter!
Coursekit:
Great article about our newest financing. We’re thrilled to have our new partners on board.
From our press release:
“We have networks for our personal and business lives, but there is no education network. That is Coursekit’s mission: to be the fundamental platform for learning,” said Ted Maidenberg of The Social+Capital Partnership. “We have seen first hand...
3 tags
One of the Most Creative Addresses on Earth
I recently took the team to watch a documentary about the Eameses, the story of a design powerhouse that shaped culture and form in mid-century America.
I left the theatre convinced of the magic of putting insanely talented people together in the same room.
The Eames office on 901 Washingtion Blvd. in Venice Beach, CA was “one of the most creative addresses on earth,” recited the...
December 2011
7 posts
2 tags
The Ingenious Business Model Behind Coursekit, A Tumblr For Higher Education bit.ly/tOpQBR
— Fast Company (@FastCompany) December 12, 2011
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Fast Company: The Ingenious Business Model Behind... →
Coursekit:
Cool article about us in Fast Company:
Blackboard, and other LMS, are like the BlackBerry—they rely on wholesale adoption by large organizations, much as the PDA was once approved by corporations and issued en masse to their employees for free or at a discount. Coursekit is more like the iPhone: designed to appeal directly to the end consumer. In this case, Coursekit is betting...
Coursekit Is Taking Over
We have 82 Campus Founders representing Coursekit on 48 campuses. Enthusiasm is flowing. Pretty inspiring.
Coursekit Blog:
Students around the country are spreading Coursekit Love like wildfire!
Spotted Here: Auditorium Coursekit Chalkboard Art at Yale
Check out more of the best we’ve seen below! And if you you see anything Coursekit related at your school, send it our way!
Read...
November 2011
5 posts
Introducing Coursekit →
We have ambitious goals.
We’ve just wrapped up our pilot with courses at 30 schools (check out our instructor “Case Studies”). 82 student ambassadors at 48 campuses around the country are getting the word out.
Now, for the upcoming semester, we’re going worldwide. As of today, any instructor can create a Coursekit in just a few minutes and make their course come alive.
...
Lessons from Building the Apple Store →
Good HBR blog post by former Apple VP Retail Ron Johnson (and future JC Penney CEO):
Think about this: Any store has to provide products people want to buy. That’s a given. But if Apple products were the key to the Stores’ success, how do you explain the fact that people flock to the stores to buy Apple products at full price when Wal-Mart, Best-Buy, and Target carry most of them,...
3 tags
The Rising Tower
Terrorists fly planes into the World Trade Center. The tallest buildings in New York, symbols of capitalism, marks of what this country stands for, collapse under fire and smoke. Thousands of lives are lost. The country is devastated.
In most places, this calls for a de-facto grave, a somber hole in the ground to mark the atrocity. But here we do it differently. We rebuild. And we come back...
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Represent Coursekit at Your School
Coursekit will be available to any instructor in the world, for free, in a few weeks. To help spread the word at schools, we’re hiring “Campus Founders” to evangelize the product and represent us. These are students who are passionate about improving the academic experience.
It’s an awesome way for students to get a taste for life at a startup while making some money....
October 2011
3 posts
A Sister’s Eulogy for Steve Jobs →
The novelist, Mona Simpson’s beautiful eulogy on her brother Steve Jobs:
Steve’s final words were:
OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.
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6 tags
September 2011
9 posts
2 tags
