Seeking Parents to Co-Found an Early Childhood App
Hello - I am building K-Ready, a digital coach that can turn any caring adult into an effective early-child educator. You can check it out at kready.com
After a decade of building edtech apps to support students who have fallen behind, I'm now focusing on helping kids enter school prepared, as children who enter Kindergarten ready are more than three times likely than their underprepared peers to read and perform math at grade level in the third and eight grade. K-Ready guides parents and caregivers on teaching early math and reading skills to their own children in under 5 minutes a day.
I'm a Content /Marketing person who previously led product/tech teams, (including an AI research lab) and then learned enough to build my V1. Joining this community and reading your stories gave me the confidence to build V1 myself. Now, I can proudly call myself an IndieHacker!
I'm open to collaborating with anyone who shares my passion for child development (especially parents), and people with complementary skills in areas such as AI Research, Software Development, Education, or Content.
Even if you're not interested in co-founding, I would love to get your advice and feedback on my V1. You can try it out at Kready.com
Also, if you have a project that you'd like me to try out, please send it my way. I love beta testing.
This is a wonderful idea as a parent of 2 Ks, I think the product has a lot of potential . My main observation is the UX needs to be made a bit more fun and engaging for children that age to take the quiz, i tried with my own kids and they got bored quick.
Thank you! Sounds like you started (or completed) the first part of K-Ready, which is the K-Ready Screener. You hit on an important issue. The Screener is not inherently fun. I will look for opportunities to improve the design, however, I If add more interactive elements that could get the way of accurately interpreting what a kid knows or does not know.
The screener's purpose is to as accurately as possible, identify the specific math and reading skills the child needs to develop, so that K-Ready can provide a user-specific journey. It's similar to the kind of assessments kids take at school, but made to be administered by non-educators. (Just so we are clear, the kids does not take the quiz, the parent administers the screener)
Maybe once every 10-15 sessions, the app might recommend a re-screening or screening in a different skill area so it can hone in or validate what a kid knows or needs to know.
Do you think that if I help parents understand the intent screener, the purpose behind its design, and that it takes less than 5 minutes, they would be OK with the boring screener?
Or, do I need to maximize for Kid enjoyment for every step?
Really interested to hear what you tink about this @codeadict
Im probably not much help with my 2 year old and basic experience. But i think this sounds like a great idea!
Thank you @ZacTooKhoo - it’s never too early to start getting the kids ready for Kindergarten. Regardless, as another IndieHacker, I’d love to get your feedback. Please go to KReady.com and try out K-Ready
Just walked through the app. Couple of thoughts:
Hi Daniel,
I'm a dedicated father to my seven-year-old daughter and an experienced software engineer and manager of product teams. Additionally, in recent years, I'm an aspiring business nerd. The same way that you are enjoying the new challenges of learning software development, I'm enjoying learning business. If that sounds like the type of person you are looking for in a cofounder, I'd love to chat.
Steven Asher
Lets definitely connect.
I'm a parent, I'd be happy to offer feedback if you're looking for a tester.
Best of luck.
That would be wonderful @SEO_Potato - Thank you. I really appreciate it. Would love to get your perspective using it across the Atlantic. How old is your child? If your child is younger or older than the target (3-5), I can add in some assessment and activities at their specific age and stage.
I'm looking to assemble a group of pilot users. Based on the child 's specific development needs, I will add content and set it up for automatic daily delivery.
The experience I am going for is that parents hardly ever visit the the site. Rather, they sign up and get short developmental screeners and activities sent via email or SMS. In the background, we are updating child's learning profile, using the short development screners to identify the most critical skill that the child needs to demonstrate to be 'Kindergarten Ready.'
As we provide activities to parents, we order those in a way that will maximize impact (For example, the best order to learn letter sounds).
I'm looking for feedback on a few areas
(1) The user experience of completing the initial K-Ready Screener
(2) The user experience of the existing activities which include
- Digital Flashcards
- Screen Free games (mostly pencil and paper activities)
Also, I love trying out other people's projects and providing feedback. I'm very excited for you to try out Kready.com - And if you have a project you want me to try out, please send it over!!!
I have a 2 year old (turning 3 soon) and a 6 year old. Smart idea.
Would be great for nurseries/day care to send these out to prospective parents, lots of avenue you could nurture them into this ecosystem. Well done.
@HackBerry Hi Daniel, are you looking for development partners?
Hi @mmdesignsldn - I’m an #IndieHacker and #buildinginPubic. For previous projects I’ve used design shops like yours. This time around, I am challenging myself to build V1 by myself. Being closer to the product really shortens the feedback loops. I’m also really enjoying learning along the way. Feel free to try out K-Ready at Kready.com and share your feedback. If you your team members have kids, I would love them to try it with their kids
Hi Daniel,
What is the business model? Parents pay to take the assessment?
Hi @paulmatthew - For Parents - Intro assessment free. Personalized learning resources and follow up assessments by subscription.
Also exploring selling to school districts and municipalities so we can provide parents access at no cost and facilitate wide scale adoption and community wide improved school readiness.
Would really appreciate if you could try it out and offer some feedback.