Santa Cruz Works is excited to share some of the startups that have been accepted into the 5th cohort of our Santa Cruz Accelerates Program. Each week, we will share an article highlighting 2 startups from the program.

Edily

Team

• Jackson Foster, CEO and Co-Founder

• Jonathan Ho, Chief Academic Officer and Co-Founder

The Problem

The way kids learn is changing. Around 72-80% of Gen-Z learners say they use YouTube as a resource for learning new things, and many prefer YouTube/ TikTok to traditional in-class learning. However, there are key problems with user-generated platforms related to learning:

1) Content is not focused or organized for learning (no curriculum)

2) Platforms don’t assess content effectiveness for learning; algorithms emphasize addiction, not education, missing out on a massive opportunity to curate the best, personalized lessons on a particular subject

3) TikTok is facing scrutiny across the country given data privacy concerns.

Edily’s Solution

Edily is a mobile app for educators and high-school / college students featuring education-focused videos that are engaging and fun! Every video on the platform is created by our users, promoting our mission “To empower creators, educators, and learners to take ownership over the education experience”. Edily solves for the problems above by 1) organizing each video into a lesson area and scaffolding those lessons together into curriculum (learning maps) and 2) curating the best videos using an algorithm that emphasizes quality of the video for learning!

We want Edily to be a great place for educators to get creative and earn recognition. We reduce the time to create videos by providing tools for creators to make better content for education. We will also allow amazing educators to make money by selling live sessions for tutoring, Q&As, group lessons, and more.

Finally, we will create communities where kids can find other students with similar interests around the world and share their love and excitement for learning about a new topic. We will allow students to build fun education-inspired memes and videos, and engage in friendly competitions and games related to concepts they are learning. Edily will change the way teens experience education online, encouraging kids to be participants in their education, while creating effective, engaging learning.

“As natives of Northern California, we are excited to be a part of the SCA5 cohort. We are constantly amazed at the deep knowledge, wisdom, and experience locally available for new startups, and we look forward to getting support as we take Edily to the next level.” - Edily Team