Tech
Check out the pitch deck that persuaded Stripe backer Union Square Ventures to invest in a 22-year-old’s virtual high school
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- Virtual high school startup Sora recently announced it had raised $2.7 million in a seed funding round backed by the likes of Twitter and Stripe investor Union Square Ventures.
- Cofounder Garrett Smiley, 22, says the school’s mission is to create a “super high-quality community” with alternative classes on subjects such as “the physics of sharks” and the workings of Iron Man’s suit.
- Business Insider got an exclusive look at the pitch deck Sora used to bring investors on board.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Earlier this week, Atlanta-based edtech startup Sora announced it had raised $2.7 million in a seed funding round backed by the likes of Twitter and Stripe backer Union Square Ventures and Village Global.
Founded in 2019, long before COVID-19 forced millions of students around the world to switch to remote learning, Sora is effectively an online private school, which offers students one-to-one tutorials and helps them design their own personalized curricula.
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While students do have to complete standard courses in subjects like maths and English, the platform emphasizes lateral thinking, with seminar titles such as: “Could we build the ‘Iron Man’ suit?” or “The physics of sharks.”
The firm was set up by Garrett Smiley, a 22-year-old Atlanta native, and friends Indra Sofian and Wesley Samples. The school currently has 39 participants, each paying between $300 and $800 a month.
“We don’t believe schools are in the business of content creation anymore, just typing in Google search engine search specifically you’ll probably find world-class resources to learn a subject,” Smiley told TechCrunch. “So for us, to be a super successful school, we knew our role was creating this super high-quality community.”
Business Insider got an exclusive look at the (redacted) pitch deck Sora used to bring investors on board. Check it out below:
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