Claudio Sassaki and Eduardo Bontempo were among the first entreprenuers in Brazil to abandon careers in the financial markets and take on a problem that seemed too big to ignore any longer - how could schools in Brazil best prepare students for the 21st century? We invested in Geekie in the company's early days when Claudio & Bontempo had built a free online platform, Geekie Games, to help millions of students in Brazil prepare the high school exit exam that significantly impacted college admissions. The tool leveled the playing field. Its been a wild ride since then.
With the experience of attending to more than 12 million students and 5 thousand public and private schools, I can affirm that one of Geekie’s greatest learnings is that technology in the service of education becomes more powerful when it is in the hands of teachers. With exponential technological advances, the challenge is to direct them toward taking education to a new level. This is not automation, but the innovative possibility to personalize - channeling the time of educators and managers to what is really important - and utilize resources and methodologies capable of supporting an education that is coherent with the needs of these students.