immersionED

In case you missed it, our April 2024 pitch event was hosted at the ASU Media and Immersive eXperience (MIX) Center and highlighted some of ASU's work in immersive learning technologies, including Dreamscape Learn and ASU ScaleU.    As a result of the event, we are thrilled to welcome immersionED, an immersive learning game for history classes, to the InvestU portfolio. The company is led by Chad Wilson, a former middle school teacher who was inspired to change the educational gaming industry when his students started comparing history classes to Assassin's Creed.    The company is currently piloting its first games with ASU students through ASU ScaleU and working with the Gilder-Lehrman Institute to scale across U.S. K-12 schools. We are excited to watch this company grow and impact the next generation of learners. #edtech

Growing up I felt blessed because my education heavily featured experiential learning including numerous study abroad programs. Through these learning experiences, I developed skills like problem-solving and self-reflection, key transferable skills that I needed in my career to thrive that are now more important than ever in this era of AI disruption. So as a junior in college, I created a 7-year career plan to build a background in business and education to properly prepare myself to start a company with a singular goal: make experiential learning accessible to everyone. That's why today is a landmark for me personally and, more importantly, for immersionED: we are officially announcing our broad launch via The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and their network of 35,000+ affiliate schools! 🙌   The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History was founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman, visionaries and lifelong supporters of American history education. The Institute is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to K–12 history education while also serving the general public. Its mission is to promote the knowledge and understanding of American history through educational programs and resources. The Gilder Lehrman Institute works with over 30% of the schools in the U.S. and is rapidly growing with 35k+ schools, 90k+ teachers, and 10MM+ students.   Having previously surveyed thousands of their schools with the majority indicating interest in using our games, we are launching Chapter 1 of the American Revolution Series as an affiliate offer in August via the Gilder Lehrman Institute’s network.   To learn more about immersionED's American Revolution Series, which is already in use at 50+ schools and generating rave reviews, check out the trailer below. Also if you or a teacher / school you know of is interested in trying our historical learning video games that are designed to actively teach skills like decision-making and self-reflection, please reach out!

When I talk about immersionED, I generally talk about the excitement of building something that I'm deeply passionate about that will positively impact students around the world, however, the day-to-day can be quite different. As a startup founder, I make difficult decisions throughout the day and go to bed with the weight of them upon me. As a solo founder, I've found this even more onerous as I lack another founder to turn to as a partner + sounding board. That's why I couldn't be more grateful for my 3-month experience with Techstars Chicago! 🥳 Through their program I not only learned about the do's and don'ts of the startup world (DO: JTBD-style customer discovery, DON'T: walk into glass office walls...iykyk 😆 ), but I also bonded with so many amazing people in the Techstars ecosystem. Now instead of feeling like I need to be fully self-reliant as a solo founder, I have a friend / advisor I can turn to with relevant expertise on every startup challenge I can imagine ever facing. In particular I'd love to give a huge shout out to our fantastic cohort of startups, our dedicated program managers, and our insightful advisors: Andrew Penner Aspen Buckingham Steven Jiang Benjamin Ayd Kevin Corbett Clay Curran Lance Hackney Oladiran Johnson Myles Jackson Joshua Silets Gabriel Bryk Farhan Junaid Christal Hector Nathan Youssef Reece Franklin Patrick McKernin Joseph Suta Edward Aguilar Sahan Reddy Eric Yan William C. Stanford, PhD Craig Silver Nat Froikin Austin Yancey, CEC, CCE, PCEC Neal Sales-Griffin Brad Schnitzer Lilliana Robinson Sophie Davis Ferrona Lie Kate Lee Patrick Flynn Logan LaHive Dan Cummings Mark Achler Paul Decker While the program officially concluded a month ago with Techstars Chicago '23 Demo Day (click below to see my elevator pitch from Demo Day!), I still speak regularly with my cohort, advisors, and program members and can't wait to reunite with them in a few weeks for some skiing and co-working in Tahoe! 🎿 Thank you Techstars for providing me with my startup support system and so much more! -Chad P.S. If you'd like to see the full presentation including the Q&A with the always incredible Rebecca Sholiton Kahnweiler, managing partner of LongJump, please DM me!