BoomWriter - Collaborative Writing Platform

Our unique, collaborative approach inspires students to create, share and compete while generating original fiction, nonfiction and vocabulary focused content.

Kids Can’t Write!

This statement is not hyperbole and is clearly supported by the NAEP's "The Nation's Report Card" performance results. In both the 8th and 12th grades, only one sub-category has 40% or more of its students attaining or exceeding the level of Proficiency or higher when assessed in the area of Writing.

Our mission is to support all teachers in the area of writing instruction, BUT it is crucial that we do not contribute to widening the Achievement Gap. In other words, our solution MUST be as accessible to underserved communities as it may be to affluent suburbs. To accomplish this, we make BoomWriter  FREE for teachers to use to support and inspire their students writing efforts within the classroom...we then monetize the Halo effect of our products for sustainability.

We focus on three things to keep our solution on the Teacher's Digital Shelf:

Efficiency...If you don’t add value to a teacher's efforts to engage and instruct students, then classroom adoption will not occur. Time constraints and overall efficiency needs require a focus on how easily users are on-boarded and moved through the learning processes, not what content they are seeing. Again simple and intuitive will win.

Efficacy... It sounds obvious, but if a solution does not add measurable educational value then what is the point? There is a huge difference between those products and services that enhance at the core and those that are a luxury. Teachers will start at the core and look for solutions to aid the learners based on what they do today...curriculum, standards, processes. After that, if there is still room on the digital shelf they will fill it with solutions that could be seen as luxuries that will enhance their class needs.  The precious little shelf space that might remain, requires firms to clearly demonstrate efficacy results in a reasonable time so they can remain in place.

Engagement...You can have Efficiency and Efficacy but without Engagement a solution will be removed from the shelf very quickly. That engagement is not only targeted at students but at the entire education ecosystem - Students, Teachers, Administration, Parents. We measure engagement throughout our process and expect it to rise as users get closer and closer to their final destination. In our case one final destination is being published in a book alongside a famous author. That way we stay on the bookshelf (the digital one and our books on the physical one).

We have grown from one classroom in Brookline, MA to over 50,000 classrooms in 60 countries. We are very proud that we have maintained a model of free use in the classroom and we are having a significant impact. A great example of this is www.thewritingbee.org

Raising capital is a tightrope exercise for a company that operates with our business model and we are a for-profit entity but we have raised over $4m to help change the way kids around the world write and collaborate...

At the core of BoomWriter has a voting algorithm that enables us to scale peer appraisal of content from a few collaborators to thousands on a single writing project. We have embedded this IP into fiction, non-fiction and vocabulary-focused writing.

Collaborative technology is at the heart of our solution. It is scalable and intuitive for teachers and students.

With the growth of devices in the classroom in the last 3 years we have developed a fantastic relationship with Google and their Chromebook environment. That started with a partnership in Oakland Unified School District when Chromebooks had less that 4% market penetration...today they have almost 70%.

Growth, Growth, Growth.

We have a fantastic team. We have a proven solution. We have a 40% referral rate. Now we need to tell the world.

Our solution has the biggest impact in the communities where the need is greatest, which is why we make our classroom solution free to all teachers.

Unfortunately the EdTech world is very noisy and we need to bang a louder drum. That required partnerships and investment in our GoToMarket. 

That is our focus.

Please look at www.thewritingbee.org

This is Nathan, one of the winners of our first Writing Bee in 2017 who beat 757 fellow classmates. BUT the most interesting aspect is that his teacher was unaware how talented a writer he in fact is.

After Winning, Nathan's Mother conveyed his newfound ambitions that he would never have contemplated before participating in BoomWriter.

The future for BoomWriter is to help the Nathan's of this world to reach their full writing potential. From one to 50,000 classrooms in the last 4 years sets the stage for our exponential growth to reach millions of classrooms. 

Our Digital Shelf strategy is fundamental and it drives a high referral rate. We have spent very little on our marketing efforts, and through word-of-mouth we have spread far and wide.

The challenge is to retain and grow our user base. We invest heavily in product development and constantly update and enhance our user experience whilst measuring the results.

Over the next 3 years we will expand our data analysis tools to help educators make real time decisions, including AI, when it comes to writing and vocabulary use.

We have over 700,000 users in our ecosystem (includes students, parents, teachers, administrators).

In the next 3 - 5 years, even if our growth slows down (which inevitably it will) we will see over 10m users in our ecosystem.

If we can partner with organizations like MIT that could be much higher.

We are a mix of Technologist and Educators. 

We also have social media and product management skills as well as operations and data analysis capabilities. 

Our Education skills focus on transforming writing instruction in the classroom.

We are Free!

But we generate significant value.

One of our most valuable outcomes is INTELLIGENCE. Teachers, principals and superintendents make decisions about their education policy and practices and therefore need DATA. They would be happy to pay for that ability. Many parents would also be happy to pay for products and services that derive from the halo effect of their child’s participation in writing projects.

In our case we sell Books, Subscriptions and Data.

Collaboration is at the heart of our solution, just like it is at the center of the Solve community.

Solve membership fosters innovation and self support but also provides the security of the larger community charging in the same direction. 

This resonates with us as we amplify the work of our teachers.

As mentioned previously we need a louder drum beat in a noisy marketplace. The solve community enables us to promote and share our core ideas and increase the decibels of our own drum beat. Our impact will be much greater and accelerated with Solve than without.