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Name and Title: Paul Mishkin, Founder and CEO
Venture name: IXL Learning
Description, product/service, value: IXL is an online problem bank for practicing Math and English Language Arts skills. IXL prevents confounding effects of familiarization through a procedurally generated question bank. Their problems and questions are structured around provincial outcome. IXL uses an algorithm called Smart Score to provide a measure of students’ progress towards mastery and considers many important factors. The program has built in rewards for students to encourage practice. The value to educators is increased student motivation, decreased prep requirements, and clear assessment data linked to provincial curricula.
CEO- Background, skills, motivation: CEO Paul Mishkin came to the educational computing industry from a computer science background with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Harvard and graduate work in educational software design, also at Harvard. Mr. Miskin founded IXL in 1988 after leaving his position as a software developer for Oracle. The company’s initial product was Quia Web, a tool for designing online activities for students. Mr. Mishkin appears to have a solid foundation in the technological side of educational computing and significant experience in this industry.
Team Quality: The executive team reads as a bit of an all-star list including numerous Ivy League graduates, 30 year veteran accountants, and individuals with experience in a number companies that sell products directly to schools. My biggest concern is that not a single executive is identified as having classroom teaching experience or any formal training with regards to classroom teaching. While the CEO has some background in educational software design, the executive is sorely lacking in the real world experience of classroom teaching.
Individual reflection: With regards to my own entrepreneurial potential, the success of Mr. Miskin’s ventures has increased my own confidence. While I may not have his technical savvy, I feel that I have significant experience and training that would be of benefit in starting a new venture. Having some background in programming, I can see some of the challenges IXL would have come across and feel confident that while I may not be able to personally build the solutions, I have enough expertise to recruit and manage those who could. It is clear that the IXL team has been recruited with a balance between innovators and proven veterans. I believe that I would take a similar approach in building my own team.