LearningJar & BloomBoard Win SXSWedu's LAUNCHedu

LearningJar (Higher Ed), a platform for informal learning, and BloomBoard (K-12), a social, professional development platform, won the LAUNCHedu challenge at SXSWedu in Austin, Texas Wednesday among six higher ed and six K-12 startup projects. Both groups were awarded a trip to San Francisco to meet with venture capital firms, a consultation with the Advisory Board, and a one-on-one media relations consultation.
Runner-ups at LAUNCHedu included the following:
K-12

KinderTown: http://kindertown.com
Reading Kingdom: http://readingkingdom.com
Chromatik: http://chromatic.com
LearnBoost: http://learnboost.com
ScholarCentric: http://scholarcentric

HiEd

College Solved: http://osu.collegesolved.com
Einztein: http://einztein.com
Doceri: http://doceri.com
Gylo: http://gylo.com
Matygo: http://matygo.com

LAUNCHedu hosted an open application process for startups to apply to participate. A panel of judges narrowed the pool to 12 eligible participants to live “lightening rounds,” which were short presentations of their startup concept, at SXSWedu Wednesday.
During the lightning rounds, the audience was encouraged to ask questions, make comments, and vote using a special learning management system (LMS). The audience votes combined with the judges’ feedback narrowed down the list to six groups that presented longer pitches during a final session.

BloomBoard and Chromatik are portfolio companies of Learn Capital where Tom is a partner