Getting 15 year olds to do their homework isn't easy, but Boston test prep startup Testive is showing signs it has passed the test. The team's $500,000 bridge round, announced Friday, serves as proof of that.
"Our platform is now delivering score improvement five times the industry change," said Testive Co-founder and CEO Tom Rose, who launched the company at MIT with Miro Kazakoff in 2011. "And we're doing it at half the price."
Those kinds of metrics are sure to attract an impressive line of investors. Angels Jean Hammond, Dharmesh Shah, Bill Warner and Don McLagan participated in Testive's initial $500,000 round, secured in December 2012, and returned for the bridge round. Joining the group were Walter Winshall and David Gardner.
After spending the last four years relying primarily on word of mouth, Testive will use the financing to expand its marketing and sales outreach to parents, students and guidance counselors.
Testive, a Techstars Boston grad, unlocked its platform in April 2014, making its software free for everyone everywhere — a move that helped fuel that word of mouth. Guidance counselors can now recommend the platform to their students without conflict, because there is no price attached.
"We have video answers for more than 3,000 adaptive questions," Rose said. "That leads to incredible democratization."
Testive's adaptive learning algorithms are already able to identify students' strengths and weaknesses. With every question answered, the platform can adjust based on the user's ability level, thereby allowing them to study smarter.
"Content delivery is a terrible use of human time. Machines are terrible at caring."
Beyond that, the startup has a database of coaches eager to help students improve their test scores, as well as a library of comprehensive lesson plans and online learning tools.
"It's a misconception that information equals education," said Rose, noting that even in a world full of free educational resources, students fail to meet their goals. "Disciplined students can succeed on their own, it does happen, but it's really rare. The rest of the students need that support, but that support is expensive. What's missing from so many educational tools is motivation."
The motivation factor is what several call test prep's demise. Testive's tutors aren't paid hourly, however, they're paid for results, meaning they work hard to ensure that's what students are achieving. According to Rose, the startup's students complete 80 percent of their work. What's more, the average student who uses the platform improves his or her SAT scores by 150 points — "the difference between Northeastern and Harvard."
Students work one-on-one with coaches, who fill in where Testive's online platform left off. Coaches can create video answers to questions in advance, so that their mentees can watch lessons at their own pace, or rewind an answer if they happen to be struggling with a particular piece of content.
"Coaches provide the caring, not content delivery," said Rose, referencing how personalized the attention is that students are getting. "Content delivery is a terrible use of human time. Machines are terrible at caring."
Testive isn't, though; the startup has now served more than 130,000 students worldwide.
"This is a hot topic in the test prep industry," Rose closed. "You read that the tests aren't fair for those kids who can't afford a tutor. We're leveling the playing field."
Image via Testive
