In her previous post, Jenny Dance told us how she came up with the idea for a pronunciation app and got it published by OUP. Now, she tells us about the main challenges in bringing the app to market, how she overcame them and what she learned as a result. Inspiring reading for anyone thinking of taking the plunge and developing their own ELT product.
One of the great things about running ELTjam HQ from a co-working space is the different people and businesses working alongside you. We were amazed the other week to find that, unbeknownst to us, fellow co-worker and entrepreneur Marcel Goya has been working away on LinguSocial, a platform for voice translation that could change everything.
John Pettigrew has gone from working for publishers to bring his expertise to his own company, Futureproofs, a web-based platform that helps teams of authors, editors and designers to make sure that the books they work on are correct before they’re published.
We’ve been featuring ELT Entrepreneurs and EdTech start-ups for a few months now and we have tended to focus on those who are quite far down the line in terms of their business and product. But what do they look like at the beginning of the journey? Last May, ELTjam co-organised an EdTech Start Up Weekend with the Judge Business School. At the time we commented on how few educators there were in the room and it was no surprise that it took educational insight more than tech to come up with the idea that won: Bright Stream.
We’ve looked at a few publisher-backed incubators and accelerators on the blog, but this is the first time we’ve encountered one that is backed by the UK Government itself.