Google Takes an Interest in Online Education

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Silicon Valley behemoth Google recently showed a new interest in online education through investment in Renaissance Learning, which provides cloud-based educational software and other reading and assessment tools. Google Capital, the company’s new investment arm, provided $40 million in capital for the expansion of Renaissance products.

Google began its foray into investing in 2009 with Google Ventures, which focuses on early-stage startups in Silicon Valley and beyond. Google Capital, on the other hand, will focus primarily on late-stage companies. David Lawee, the manager of Google Capital, stated that education would remain a primary focus for the division.

Based in Wisconsin, Renaissance has created learning software for decades and was publicly traded until 2011, at which time a British private equity firm purchased it. Today, the company provides cloud-based educational software and additionally offers solutions for communication between students and teachers both on the web and through mobile devices.

Lawee and his team targeted Renaissance because of its potential for having a real and immediate impact on the quality of education in the United States and around the world.

Chegg Employees Assist Community at Family Harvest Days

Chegg for Good is a social service and charitable offshoot of the popular online textbook rental and sales company Chegg in California. The company regularly sets aside paid workdays for its employees to volunteer in their communities. Chegg staff members recently worked with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties to distribute food during one of the organization’s Family Harvest Days in San Jose.

Family Harvest Days offer both high-quality food and educational programming to low-income families with children under 18. Volunteers at the events assist with set-up and food distribution, sign up new participants in the Second Harvest program, and help attendees carry food to their vehicles.

The Chegg employees were eager to unload and distribute the fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables, frozen turkeys, eggs, and milk that would make a big difference in the lives of San Jose children. Second Harvest clients joined in and helped out as volunteers before receiving their own much-needed supplies. Without the services of Second Harvest, many children and teens from food-insecure households would have few nutritious meals at home.

Rick Bolander, the managing director of Redwood City-based Gabriel Venture Partners, holds a board seat at Chegg and other corporations that have benefited from his entrepreneurial expertise.

Michigan eLab - Connecting Silicon Valley and Michigan Entrepreneurs

A group of business leaders with connections to Silicon Valley recently established Michigan eLab through the University of Michigan (U-M). The project originally developed due to the fact that graduates of the university lacked access to networking opportunities, venture capital funds, and experienced entrepreneurial mentors.

The four venture capitalists who jointly founded eLab now focus on coaching and assisting these graduates in turning their university research into functioning businesses. Of the four, three have a direct connection to U-M. Rick Bolander, the managing partner of Gabriel Venture Partners, graduated from the school’s electrical engineering program and went on to earn his MBA from Harvard Business School. In addition, Doug Neal has held high-level positions at Hewlett-Packard and other technology firms. In 2005, he relocated to Michigan and has worked with aspiring U-M entrepreneurs through business incubators like the university’s Center for Entrepreneurship, where he served as managing director until recently. Bob Stefanski received engineering and law degrees from U-M. He has also worked with the Center for Entrepreneurship and now practices law in Silicon Valley. The three U-M graduates are joined by Scott Chou, a technology-focused venture capitalist and a managing director at Gabriel Venture Partners.

To date, Michigan eLab has received funding that includes more than $2 million from the Pure Michigan Venture Development Fund, and it hopes to raise $40 million from its initial round of funding. The eLab serves to connect Silicon Valley venture capitalists with wide-ranging knowledge of the world with high-technology start-ups and Michigan-based entrepreneurs with promising ideas. The eLab also focuses on start-ups based on disruptive innovations that can create new market conditions within a field. With support from the university, it seeks to create a high-quality business ecosystem throughout the state in the cities of Ann Arbor, Detroit, Kalamazoo, and other metropolitan areas.

Detroit Schools Take a Step toward Closing the Digital Divide

The FCC created the National Broadband Plan in 2009 to outline targets for updating broadband infrastructure and access across all sectors in the country. With regard to education, one of the plan's key recommendations is to foster innovations that specifically enable wireless connectivity for mobile devices, so that students can more easily access the Internet at home or in school. This recommendation is based on research showing that online learning can substantially boost students’ achievement in reading and math, as well as motivate students toward better overall school performance.

Five years into the plan’s implementation, numerous innovative educational technologies are being tested in classrooms and homes across the country. Educational wireless provider Kajeet has developed a technology called SmartSpot, which enables students to connect to fast 4G LTE networks using any Wi-Fi-enabled device. Affordable for schools and families, the technology is designed to be safe for children who go online for their studies.

A total of 450 SmartSpot devices have been deployed to eight schools in Detroit, Michigan, for the current school year. These schools provide a stark example of the digital divide in America: roughly 70 percent of these students have no Internet access at home. This greatly limits how teachers can integrate valuable online resources into coursework. SmartSpot will remove this restriction, thereby providing teachers with added flexibility and motivating students toward success in school.

Tony Fadell - Entrepreneur, Designer, and Disruptive Innovator

Even before graduating in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan, Tony Fadell showed an entrepreneurial knack as chief executive officer of Constructive Instruments, a company that produced multimedia software for children. Upon graduating, he followed a rapidly rising career trajectory in disruptive consumer electronics. By the end of 2001, he had produced the initial concept and design for the groundbreaking Apple iPod, and he eventually became senior vice president of Apple's iPod Division.

Mr. Fadell cofounded Nest Labs in 2010 and currently serves as chief executive officer. His company devotes itself to reimagining mundane household products, with the goal of improving efficiency through elegant design. The Nest Learning Thermostat, for example, presents a simple and sleek interface and intelligently adjusts itself according to a homeowner's schedule.

Mr. Fadell is a proven innovator, and his views on disruptive technology are highly sought after. In a number of interviews and talks in recent years, he has stressed the relationship between a disruptive technology and marketing. At the 2013 LeWeb conference, in Paris, he noted that for a disruptive technology to be successfully pushed to market, the consumer must understand the problem that the technology is trying to fix, and how fixing it provides a genuine benefit. This education process should be the goal of marketing.

Programming Literacy for 21st Century Learners

Rick Bolander, who currently serves as managing partner with Bay Area-based Gabriel Venture Partners, has worked with numerous start-up corporations with technology-centered business models. His client list has included Chegg, Netscaler, and Kajeet, Inc. Deeply committed to demonstrating the positive social aspects of disruptive technology, Rick Bolander understands the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) literacy for today’s students.

Recently, many educators have focused attention on multimedia literacy, the skills associated with understanding and manipulating virtual, aural, visual, and physical components to express ideas and create original content. Experts predict that these abilities, as well as the skills associated with interactive devices such as those found in computer gaming, will play a major role in personal and career success in coming decades.

Some commentators in the field have even extended the concept to include programming, the ability to create logical and comprehensive instructions for digital technology applications, as the key “literacy” for today’s generation. These experts believe that, just as reading and writing defined literacy for previous generations, future generations will consider the ability to program a primary type of literacy.

Many of today’s young people are already learning math and logic skills associated with programming through various in-school and extracurricular activities. Scratch, a program conceived at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, develops the visual programming skills needed to create animated characters and stories. Lego’s Mindstorms kits combine the popular building set with robotics through the use of command-box programming, and the Arduino is a simple introduction to open-source electronics programming using a language analogous to C++.

Rick Bolander on Kajeet’s Recent Accolade from Education.com

An entrepreneur with significant experience in the technology sector, Rick Bolander has served as a member of the board of Kajeet, Inc., for six years. In this position, Mr. Bolander contributes to the venture’s strategic decisions and closely follows the company’s press.

Shortly before the 2012 holiday season, Education.com released its annual Gift Guide. The website’s experts tested hundreds, if not thousands, of products for children of all ages. After combining the “fun” factor with parent and teacher approval, Education.com posted its final list. Alongside several books and games, the website ranked the LG Optimus Elite Android Prepaid Phone by Kajeet, Inc., as one of its top recommendations for fifth graders.

A cell phone company dedicated solely to creating telecommunications products for children and teenagers, Kajeet has developed a unique suite of services for this educational, child-friendly phone. With Kajeet’s LG phone, parents can closely monitor each child’s call, text, and Internet activity. The phone also features technology that allows parents to schedule black-out times, filter certain websites, and even enable a GPS tracker. Overall, as Education.com determined, Kajeet’s technology is sure to satisfy both child and parent.

Technology Has Positive Impact on Family Life

While some observers worry about technology’s increasing presence in our lives, others praise its power to keep families connected in real time. A 2010 survey commissioned by the publisher of Parenting magazine and the producers of BlogHer, Inc., found that most of today’s mothers believe that technology plays a vital role in their own and their families’ lives.

For example, almost three-fourths of the more than 1,000 mothers questioned said that technology-based activities can provide positive family experiences, and 83 percent appreciate technology for its ability to improve their overall quality of life. And while almost all parents who participated in the survey said they set limits on the amount and kind of online content their children access, only 5 percent reported that their child had shown signs of addictive behaviors related to technology.

In 2011, the California-based Barna Group published The Family & Technology Report, which drew on interviews with parents of 11- to 17-year-olds across the country. Among its findings, the report concluded that the majority of parents believe the effects of technology on their families have been neutral or positive rather than negative. Additionally, only about 25 percent of respondents said they experienced family conflicts over media limits.

Rick Bolander, an experienced business executive in the venture capital field, has devoted particular attention to assisting technology start-ups such as Kajeet, Inc., a mobile communications company serving young people and their families. In addition to his position as Managing Partner of San Francisco-based Gabriel Venture Partners, he is a member of Kajeet's Board of Directors.

Rick Bolander on the Advantages of GPS Technology in Children’s Cell Phones

Through his guidance of Kajeet, Inc., Rick Bolander has helped thousands of parents find peace of mind by way of their children’s cell phones. 

For the last seven years, Kajeet has developed and sold cell phones designed specifically for children. The company’s unique cellular technology offers parents the opportunity to limit phone usage, schedule black-out times, and restrict access to certain websites. Moreover, Kajeet allows parents to subscribe to a GPS locator service for just $7.99 per month. Using the company’s interactive mapping service, parents can view a child’s phone location in real time.

This tool can be especially important in emergency situations when locating a child is critical. It is also useful to help cultivate trust between parents and children. While experts caution parents against using a GPS locator as a preventive measure for teenagers, they do recommend this service as a way to rebuild trust after a negative incident. No matter how parents choose to use this convenient service, they will enjoy lessened anxiety about their children’s whereabouts, knowing that they can activate the locator device at any time.

In addition to his role on Kajeet’s board of directors, Rick Bolander also manages Gabriel Venture Partners and Michigan eLab.

Rick Bolander on Michigan eLab’s Commitment to Technology Commercialization

The co-founder of Michigan eLab, Rick Bolander also serves as the firm’s Managing Director. A longtime entrepreneur himself, Mr. Bolander now uses his experience and network to help University of Michigan students, faculty, and partners achieve their entrepreneurial goals.

In addition to sponsoring entrepreneurial training, Michigan eLab provides promising startups with the full venture capital support they need to achieve final liquidity. The eLab also works with a team of technology commercialization experts who identify and transfer recent innovations from the laboratory to the market. Once this team has selected a potential technology for commercialization, its experts guide researchers or university officials through several key steps.

First, the team ensures that the technology is patentable by researching relevant “prior art,” or previously extant information about an innovation, if any. Next, experts evaluate the product’s marketability and technological merit before applying for a patent. Finally, the technology commercialization team seeks out a licensee, or a company interested in purchasing the rights to the innovation. Alternatively, the team at Michigan eLab helps the researcher build his or her own startup company as a way to market the technology.

Managing a High-Tech Startup, by Rick Bolander

You have a great idea, but you still need to know how to turn your great idea into a successful business over the long term. As a venture capitalist who has worked with numerous high-technology start-up companies, I’ve listed a few basic points below that can assist any entrepreneur in finding success.

1. First, understand the nature of what you are selling. Are you carving out a brand new field or niche industry? Are you improving on an existing product or service in the market? This understanding will assist you in determining the right positioning and branding strategy for your company.

2. Invest wisely in researching potential consumer markets for your product. Is there room for it to grow and develop within its industry niche?

3. Plan which aspects of your company you will and will not outsource. For example, many new businesses can reduce overhead by outsourcing their information technology, human resources, and legal departments. On the other hand, you usually won’t save money by outsourcing operations such as product development, which go to the core of your brand identity.

4. Hire personnel who have significant experience getting startups off the ground successfully, and create a strong management team whose members possess complementary skill sets.

5. Remember that the way you organize your new company can ultimately be as important as the quality of your product. Venture capital firms and other potential funders will use the quality of your operations as a key factor in any investment decision related to your company.

About Rick Bolander: The Managing Partner at San Francisco-based Gabriel Venture Partners, Rick Bolander co-founded the firm in 1999. He and his team have worked with companies such as Kajeet, Inc., a mobile phone service for young people, and Netscaler, which developed a cloud-based performance operations program for businesses.

Rick Bolander | Crain's Detroit Business

Silicon ... Michigan? Founders of VC fund whose hearts are here hope to build bridge to the Valley By Tom Henderson


Michigan eLab founders (standing, from left) Rick Bolander, Doug Neal and Bob Stefanski gather with staff in incubator space that the venture capital firm uses in Ann Arbor.        

The business model for one of the state’s new venture capital firms can be summed up as simply as this: Silicon Valley meets Michigan. That refers to Michigan, the state, and the University of Michigan, the university with $1.3 billion in research spending a year and spinoff companies looking for...Read the rest of this entry...

Rick Bolander Discusses Gabriel Venture Partners’ Investment Focus

An experienced finance professional and venture capitalist, Rick Bolander currently works as a Managing Partner of Gabriel Venture Partners (GVP) in Redwood City, California. Founded in 1999 by Bolander and Phil Samper, GVP presently manages some $260 million in assets. The firm focuses its investment activity on early-stage startups, primarily those with passionate founders who offer new business models and next-generation technologies. Throughout all of its business activities, GVP makes use of a capital efficiency model, which focuses on small and early deals with a high potential for rapid growth and exits in the short term. In general, GVP seeks out those companies which will require less than $15 million in venture funding to reach an exit point or achieve cash flow positive status. Rather than seeking out long-term opportunities for billion-dollar valuations and very large initial public offerings (IPOs), GVP’s model allows for resiliency and diversification. To learn more about Gabriel Venture Partners, visit www.gabrielvp.com.

Rick Bolander: Kajeet’s Support of Right Back on Track (Part Two)

Part One of this article discussed the mission and municipal partners of the New York City Dropout and Truancy Prevention Network's (DTPN) Right Back on Track Mentoring program. Kajeet, a technology company focused on the emerging need for kids’ smartphones, is engaged with the program as a partner. The DTPN initiative emphasizes phone-based coaching and mentoring as a way of motivating at-risk teenagers to stay in school. Participating students carry mobile devices with them that have full text, data, and talk capacities. If they do not show up for classes and events as expected, the assigned mentor reaches out to the student through the phone and checks his or her location and expected arrival time. The strength of the program is that it combines the power of a mentoring relationship with greater communication capabilities. Kajeet assists in DTPN’s battle against student truancy by offering cost-effective, contract-free communications options. Augmenting its patented parental online controls are satellite-enabled device locators that allow parents to keep track of their children’s whereabouts. Rick Bolander, a leader at Kajeet, fully supports the company’s efforts in providing teenagers with empowering technologies.

Rick Bolander on School Guard: kajeet's Latest Tool for Child Access Management

With a focus on providing parents with the tools they need to supervise their children's mobile phone usage, kajeet, Inc., has revolutionized the smartphone industry with innovative products that empower kids and parents alike. The company's newest service, School Guard, brings these tools to administrators and teachers interested in better managing bring-your-own-device programs. Many schools have encouraged students to use their tablets and mobile devices in order to enrich the learning environment, and kajeet has made it possible for schools to manage students' usage of Android-based devices by creating Internet access policies. School Guard enables schools to approach Internet filtering with a granular methodology, providing the flexibility necessary for administrators to tailor the system to their own needs. Using kajeet's technology, teachers can create individualized policies for their own classrooms, and parents can join with their children's schools to manage Internet access at home. For more information on kajeet, visit the company's website at www.kajeet.com. About Rick Bolander: A Member of the Board of Directors for kajeet, Rick Bolander also serves as the Managing Partner and cofounder of Gabriel Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focused on innovative technologies and companies in the information technology sector.

Rick Bolander: Driving Early-Stage Success at Persistent Systems

With a reputation for nurturing successful early-stage ventures in the information technology, clean tech, and communications spheres, Rick Bolander serves as Co-founder and Managing Director of Gabriel Venture Partners (GVP). He has sat on the boards of a number of funded ventures, including IPWireless, NetScaler, Tut Systems, Inc., and Persistent Systems Ltd.

An established India-headquartered firm focused on technology services and the software-product life cycle, Persistent Systems has partnered with diverse technology brands over the past 22 years. The firm collaborates integrally with corporate clients to develop top-tier solutions spanning the consumer products, health care, life sciences, and financial sectors. Services extend through all stages of a product’s life cycle, including concept, design, engineering, and ongoing support and maintenance. The firm has entered into high-profile partnerships with industry leaders such as IBM Corp., Microsoft, and Cisco Systems, Inc.

With GVP, Rick Bolander is currently active on the boards of the tween-focused safe mobile education and mobile-services provider Kajeet, Inc., and digital textbook rental firm Chegg Inc.

Objectives of the National Venture Capital Association: An Overview

As cofounder and Managing Partner of Gabriel Venture Partners in Redwood Shores, California, Rick Bolander takes part in several key conferences each year and is involved with numerous industry groups. Among these, Rick Bolander holds membership in the National Venture Capital Association, the foremost trade organization representing the interests of venture capital professionals across the United States.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the National Venture Capital Association plays an active role in lobbying efforts for individuals and companies in the venture capital industry and frequently argues on behalf of innovation in public policy debates. With a focus on the ongoing development of professional and ethical standards, increased cooperation between corporate and governmental entities, and new sources of revenue for the economy, the National Venture Capital Association helps venture capitalists lead the country into a renaissance of ideas and industry.

Kajeet Featured in a September Issue of the New York Post

by Rick Bolander

Among kajeet’s recent accomplishments, it earned featured coverage in the September 1, 2012, issue of the New York Post, which praised the mobile service as one of “the hottest gadgets for kids this season.” Citing the service’s low cost, global positioning system tracking, and time-limiting function, the New York Post declared kajeet the favorite no-contract, Android-powered smartphone among parents and children alike. The article represents the latest in a string of victories for kajeet, as it takes the child- and parent-friendly phone service into the future.

About the Author: A Board of Directors member for kajeet since 2007, venture capitalist and early-stage technology backer Rick Bolander has facilitated the company’s growth from a promising concept in safe parenting into one of the most highly touted pay-as-you-go mobile phone services for children. Indeed, Rick Bolander and his colleagues have steered kajeet toward a number of key partnerships, media appearances, and professional hires to foster the company’s continued development in mobile markets in the United States and abroad.

Kajeet Announces Free Mobile Hotspot Access

Based in Northern California, Rick Bolander co-founded Gabriel Venture Partners. An active technology investor, Bolander serves on the Boards of Directors for multiple enterprises, including Kajeet, a cell phone provider that offers parental controls.

Kajeet furnishes an array of mobile devices to its customers, including Android models. Individuals who purchased Android units and Kajeet mobile web add-ons may now connect to the Internet on the go and, even more usefully, may use their Kajeet devices as wireless hotspots. Kajeet users can share this wireless connection with nearby friends and family who are using other devices such as laptops or tablets. This mobile hotspot is secure and password-protected, and connecting to the web in this fashion costs nothing extra. Of course, the device holder must have previously purchased a Kajeet mobile web add-on and is responsible for data usage under his or her normal monthly plan.

The Android devices eligible to take advantage of this feature include the Samsung Replenish, Galaxy tablet, Conquer, Kyocera Milano, LG Optimus S, and the HTC Evo Shift.

Rick Bolander: Chegg for Good and Music Education

A Director on the Board for Chegg, a textbook rental and educational services company, Rick Bolander has advised the company in its efforts to attract college student clients. Along with providing tutoring assistance and an online marketplace, Chegg conducts community service and outreach under Chegg for Good.

In August of 2012, Chegg announced a contest for college students which offered the opportunity to win money for their music departments as well as a concert from singer Taylor Swift. The company encouraged participants to vote for their universities every day for a month to win the tally. The schools with the top five volumes of votes will each receive a $10,000 grant for their music departments. The winning institution earns the chance to host Taylor Swift.

In announcing the contest, Chegg cited the benefits of music education, including a stronger ability to communicate, a greater sense of camaraderie with classmates, and qualities of cooperation and self-confidence.