THIS WEEK’S STARTUP
There’s an app for writing
Alieo Games makes engaging games based on experiences and activities. Their first product Creative Online Writing (COW) is a gamified web app that provides a fun space for students to build fluency in writing and vocabulary by practising and sharing their work with classmates.
For teachers, COW uses text analysis to provide useful feedback they can use to customize their lesson plans to meet the specific needs of students. Students generally stay logged in for 40 minutes, during which they write an average of 200 words, read a couple of stories on the shared bookshelf and update their avatar.
COW is used in schools across Alberta, British Columbia, and one in Atlanta, Ga. Here’s more from co-founder and president Neesha Desai:
How did you come up with the idea for your startup? Was there an “aha” moment?
In October 2013, Kit (Chen) and I went to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference where we saw the keynote given by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. In her talk, one comment struck home — “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”
For Kit, this had her thinking about starting a business and was the catalyst for bringing the team together. After a Thanksgiving conversation with Chris (McMahen), where they developed the initial concept, Kit reached out to the rest of the founding team. It snowballed from there. People see real value in COW, which keeps motivating us to reach for the next step.
What has been the biggest challenge so far? What have you done to solve it?
Our biggest problem has been finding and capturing users. Every time we’ve done a demo or had a class test our product, the students and teachers have loved it. We’ll find the students are logging in during the breaks at school and during evenings and weekends at home. But we’re still working on how to make that first step easier for teachers — from hearing about COW to finally getting it in their classroom.
What advice would you like to share with others just starting out?
The hardest thing is to just stick with it. Even though everyone tells you that there will be this “trough of despair” they don’t always tell you how many of these moments there will be. It’s all about learning — and knowing — how to push through these moments. Grad school has actually been really great at preparing us. The other piece of advice I’d like to pass on is to realize you need to treat it like a business. It’s really easy to start off and have it turn more into a “club” as everyone wants to jump on board because it’s exciting and new. But people in clubs don’t have the same commitment and ownership as people who are treating it as a business.
What made you choose the path of entrepreneurship?
I don’t feel like I ever actively made the choice to become an entrepreneur. I had previously made a couple of games on my own, but would’ve adamantly stated that I would never be an entrepreneur. When we started Alieo, there was a lot of moments of, “well, let’s just see what happens.” After a while, it started to come together and I think we realized we were entrepreneurs.
What are your thoughts on our startup ecosystem?
Generally, we’ve been impressed with how welcoming everyone has been. We’ve had a lot of great feedback and help from the community. There’s always someone available who is willing to talk about their experience and help you push through the next hurdle — whether it’s business-related or solving a coding problem.
But, there have definitely been events we’ve attended that show it’s still a “boys club” with a “brogrammer” atmosphere. When an event organizer is so surprised to see females at an event that they point it out repeatedly, it shows there’s still a problem.
What do you and your startup need help with?
None of us have a business background, and while we’ve been successful so far, we’re definitely reaching our knowledge limits and so we’re currently hunting for a CEO to come on board and help move us forward. We’re also looking for marketing help.