Ben Stewart is changing one thing he disliked about school. Stemming from his own boredom with common online learning platforms such as Kahoot and Quizlet, he decided to create a game-based learning platform in 2018 that now has millions of users.
Blooket is a website that offers customizable trivia and review games in a variety of formats to keep students engaged. Teachers can use the site to host games for the entire class or students can play on their own for independent study.
Stewart was a junior in high school when he decided he could use his interest in game development to improve the way teachers and students engage in review. But he first had to teach himself to code. By the end of his senior year, he launched his first iteration of the site.
Today it has more than seven million users.
“My life kind of changed from a little hobby project that no one cared about to a quite profitable, successful and fun business that I was enjoying running,” Stewart says.
This year, Stewart is taking a gap year to dedicate himself full-time to growing Blooket.
Stewart says the business became profitable early on due to the low investment costs. In the first two years, he says, he only spent about $200 on the business.
To generate revenue, Blooket offers a plus plan for teachers that costs $2.99 a month and provides enhanced features such as detailed game reports, early access to new game modes and other bonus features. All student accounts are free and a free option is available for teachers as well.
“By far the most rewarding part is — it's not the ability to work for yourself or the money — looking on Twitter and seeing kids playing it, seeing them jumping around and screaming in a classroom and knowing that's because of something that I created,” Stewart says.
Bio
Age: 20
Birthplace: Newark, Delaware
Education: majoring in computer science at Duke University (currently taking a gap year)
Q&A
What was your first job? Self-employed at Blooket.
How do you destress? Play games with friends and just hang out and try to stop thinking for a little bit.
What advice would you give a new entrepreneur? Find something that you're really passionate about and go really hard on that. Entrepreneurship is going to be a really tough and really long process. It’s certainly not going to happen overnight, so if you really want to stay with it and be successful, you're going to need something that you really care about.