The Long Road to Edutainment: Tabula Digita CEO Ntiedo Etuk (Part 7)

SM: At this point it does not seem as though it would be difficult to raise more money. Are you going to be raising more money? NE: The answer to that is maybe. I will definitely raise money as I see the consumer side take off.

The Long Road to Edutainment: Tabula Digita CEO Ntiedo Etuk (Part 6)

SM: Which other districts besides New York City have you been successful in? NE: Up until this point, we have been very focused on four major areas: New York, Florida, Illinois and Texas. Those four states plus California are where most education dollars are spent.

The Long Road to Edutainment: Tabula Digita CEO Ntiedo Etuk (Part 5)

SM: For your first product, what was your target segment? NE: It was middle school. We went after the pre-algebra and algebra crowd. We went after math because we knew that math and science would be critical problems for the country. Additionally, it is very easy to measure if you get an answer right or

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The Long Road to Edutainment: Tabula Digita CEO Ntiedo Etuk (Part 4)

SM: Did your contract with the Princeton Review get the company established financially? NE: In the middle of September we finally got the contract completed. On September 15th we were finally done, but they told me they were not going to transfer the money until October 1st. By September 30th we had drained everything.

The Long Road to Edutainment: Tabula Digita CEO Ntiedo Etuk (Part 3)

SM: Did you talk with venture capitalists? What was your funding strategy? NE: When I spoke with venture capitalists, they were not sure that there was a niche for educational software. They did know that people spent a tremendous amount of money on test preparation. They thought it would be interesting if we tied our

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The Long Road to Edutainment: Tabula Digita CEO Ntiedo Etuk (Part 2)

SM: Where did you go to work after Columbia? NE: Citigroup, which is where my H-1B [visa] was from. I worked in an R&D group they set up called the Payment Innovation Group. It was challenged to come up with $100- million profit opportunities. I did that for about a year as part of their

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The Long Road to Edutainment: Tabula Digita CEO Ntiedo Etuk (Part 1)

Ntiedo Etuk is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Electrical Engineering. He also holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, where he was a Beta Gamma Sigma graduate. He has managed the creation, implementation and analysis of various consumer products for Bank One and Citigroup. With Citigroup he was selected to work directly with

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Venture Capital in China: David Chao of DCM (Part 7)

SM: Was there something I should have asked you but didn’t? DC: I would like to add some thoughts on innovation. I think in certain cleantech markets, China might be ahead of the curve. There are fewer regulations in China. If Menlo Park were going to put a smart energy grid storage in place, residents would most

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