How this startup uses enCode Create products to power their business.
Company: Techfunic
Founder: Ann Andrews
Why did you start Techfunic and how long have you been in business?
I created Techfunic for my own children and it soon grew by word of mouth via friends and parents. My upbringing in India involved a lot of studying with friends, we called it combined study. I have 3 children, ages 16, 10 and 5.
To help my daughter who is now a junior in high school, I hired a tutor from India to work with her when she was in 9th grade in 2019. It worked very well. In addition to being easily affordable, the young tutors from India introduced her to the tips and tricks they had handy to work through Math practice that strengthened her concepts. Seeing a significant progress in my daughter’s grades within a span of six weeks, I realized how much this could benefit students (and parents) who were in the same situation as us. So I launched Techfunic in 2020. Soon after, New York University selected us as a social impact start-up that is changing the face of education and it has been a growth oriented journey ever since.
Why do you think teaching computer science to children is important?
Short answer: Tech is the new Math. We even patented our tagline.
Math is universally accepted as the basic requirement for an individual to be well-educated. Children learn math all through schools even if they do not intend to be mathematicians. Technology touches every aspect of our daily life — we cannot afford not to teach our children to code. At Techfunic we have found that teaching computer science to students in middle school helps them adopt a rational and analytical approach towards problem solving. Children who are exposed to Scratch, Java, or Python early are more likely to choose AP Computer Science in high school, study computer science in college, and go on to highly paid careers in Technology.
How has EnCode Create’s curriculum been helpful for you as you run your business?
Our tutors at Techfunic use Encode Create’s platform when building their lesson plans. Our students can quickly see their code come to life because the projects are all so visual and interactive. They get to focus on logic and problem solving. The platform helps has helped us deliver highly effective summer camp and boot camp sessions. The curriculum is very easy to assimilate. We’ve had children so excited to show off the games they’ve made to their friends and family.
Why do your students like EnCode Create’s curriculum?
The curriculum at EnCode Create promises to gently transition a non-experienced coder to someone who actually enjoys it! This is some of the most common feedback we have received from our students. Every week students look forward to the session and are truly happy to deliver their projects in the form of interactive games! EnCode Create’s platform allows our instructors to customize lesson plans to the skill and ability of each study group meeting the needs of each individual student.
What makes Techfunic different from other coding and computer science education companies?We’ve perfected our model for after seeing what works best for our students: two to three learners at a time, in the same age & skill band, working with a tutor every week consistently. When students engage and interact in small groups with a tutor from a different part of the world, they learn tolerance, diversity, inclusion and team spirit. When a student helps another student solve a math problem or work through the logic of a coding algorithm, it reinforces the concepts in their mind resulting in high memory retention and application. We offer a high quality tutoring program at a very affordable price.
What are Techfunic’s current learning offerings?Techfunic offers Coding programs for children ages 8-15 at an affordable monthly plan of $99 – $169. For 8-10, our Tech Junior plan has weekly classes where children work on no-code platforms such as MIT Scratch and Berkley Snap to create games. Our Tech Senior plans focuses on Java and Python programming – Java for app development and Python for data analysis. Children get access to EnCode Create’s platform and can learn by themselves outside of their weekly classes. Children who learn on EnCode Create during middle & early high school usually pick AP Computer Science in high school and we have a program that guides them through the curriculum. Even home-schooled students who may not have access to high school computer labs or a curriculum can take the course with us and complete the AP exam by themselves. At Techfunic, our tutors are hand-picked from India’s young engineering talent. You can take a trial here.