early-childhood
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TeachTown Started With Autism Software. The Bigger Business Was the Whole Classroom.
The Woburn-born edtech company found its real market by moving beyond screen time: scripted lessons, physical books, teacher training and automatic data for the students general-ed publishers tend to overlook.
The Three Moms Who Built a Projector to Un-Glue Kids From Tablets
Three mothers, one pandemic, and a stubborn belief that kids deserve stories on the ceiling instead of screens in their hands. Tikino turned that idea into a profitable hardware company - without spending a euro on ads.
The Assessment That Never Asks a Child to Sit Still
GOLD is an online, research-based observational assessment system from Teaching Strategies that lets teachers document authentic observations of children from birth through third grade during everyday classroom activities. Built around 38 color-coded, research-based objectives, it turns notes, photos, videos, and work samples into whole-child data that connects directly to instruction, families, and program-level reporting.
Maka Kids
Maka Kids is a Detroit-based children's media company building an ad-free, algorithm-free streaming app for kids ages 0 to 6. Founded in 2023 by Isabel Sheinman and Tanyella Leta, the company designs screen time around child well-being rather than engagement. Every piece of content is scored against Maka Imprint, a patent-pending developmental framework built over two years of research with the Yale Child Study Center that maps seven domains of early childhood development across more than 650 indicators. Maka raised $3 million in seed funding led by Michigan Rise in May 2026.
Isabel Sheinman
Isabel Sheinman is the co-founder and CEO of Maka Kids, a Detroit-based children's media company building an ad-free, algorithm-free streaming app for kids ages zero to six that is optimized for child well-being rather than watch-time. Before Maka, she co-founded NABU, a global literacy nonprofit that has put early-grade reading materials in front of more than 15 million children across 26 countries. With a decade spent at the intersection of education, technology, and social impact - and a resume that runs through Georgetown, NYU Stern, and Mastercard - Sheinman is wagering that the most valuable thing a screen can offer a small child is restraint.
Jennifer Carolan
Jennifer Carolan is co-founder and general partner at Reach Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm she helped build from the ground up to become the most active dedicated edtech investor in the US. A former K-12 history teacher in Chicago who spent nine years learning venture capital at NewSchools Venture Fund, she has since deployed four funds totaling over $500M across 100+ education technology companies. Her portfolio has produced five unicorns including ClassDojo and Handshake, and she continues to teach at Stanford while backing the entrepreneurs she believes are removing the obstacles standing between people and opportunity.
Wayee Chu
Wayee Chu is Co-Founder and General Partner at Reach Capital, a San Francisco-based venture firm with $570M+ under management and 140+ portfolio companies across learning, health, and the future of work. A daughter of Chinese immigrants who came to the US for education, Wayee spent eight years at NewSchools Venture Fund - co-founding its Seed Fund in 2006 - before building Reach Capital into one of edtech's defining early-stage firms. She is a founding member of All Raise, sits on the SFMOMA board, and was named an ASU+GSV Power of Women honoree in 2025. Her portfolio spans Replit, ClassDojo, Clayful, Gradescope, and dozens of other companies reshaping how people learn and work.