George Burgess (entrepreneur)

George Burgess is a well known young serial entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Gojimo, a UK-based provider of study assistance applications for students.^[1][2]

He was titled one of Britain's six most exciting young entrepreneurs by Forbes, and "One to watch on London's Tech Start Up Scene" by the Evening Standard.^[3][4]

Early life

Burgess grew up in London, United Kingdom. He was educated at Colet Court, St Paul's School and then began a degree at Stanford University before dropping out to work on his business full time. He currently lives in London.

Early Businesses

At 15 years old, Burgess ran his own eBay shop, becoming a powerseller and turning over £36,000 a year. He also ran a videography company with a friend while at school, which served five schools. By the age of 17, he had founded EducationApps, a startup publisher that produces educational content for mobile phones, and counts the BBC, Pearson, and Oxford University Press as partners.^[5][6][7][8] Media accounts have made light of his being caught emailing a freelance app developer by his Geography teacher Will Williams, who resultantly became his first business adviser.^[9] Having established EducationApps Ltd. the EducationApps range grew to over a hundred subject-specific apps.^[10]

Gojimo

In March 2013, Burgess dropped out of his undergraduate degree at Stanford University to pursue his revision apps business full time. Later that year, he raised over $1 million in seed capital from Index Ventures and JamJar Investments (the founders of Innocent Drinks) and launched the app at BETT 2014. Gojimo is now the UK's most successful exam preparation app and is expanding around the world. The content spans mainly across the secondary school public exams syllabus in the UK and USA such as GCSE A Level and the SAT.^[11] As of January 2015 the app has been installed over 500,000 times.

Burgess has grown the company from a team of two to fourteen. The app currently offers content for various subjects for UK exams: 11+ Common Entrance, 13+ Common Entrance, GCSE and A-Level; US Exams: SAT, ACT and AP; and international undergraduate and IGCSE qualifications.^[12]

The subjects offered vary between qualifications but include Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, History, Maths, Law, Politics, Religious Studies, English, Latin, Spanish, German, Psychology and Design Technology.

In addition to content which is generated by in-house writers and fact-checked by teachers, external publishers such as McGraw-Hill Education and Oxford University Press have created premium content for the app. There are currently 60,000 questions available across the different qualifications.^[13]

Gojimo was a finalist of the Best App Category of BETT 2015.

Public Speaking

George has given numerous talks on the subjects of young entrepreneurship, mobile learning and achievement. He spoke at BETT 2015, on the subject "What can businesses do to ensure they provide edtech products that improve learner outcomes?".^[14] He gave a keynote speech at Create 2014, and spoke at Skills 2014. He has also spoken to numerous university entrepreneurs societies.

In 2014 he was selected to participate in the UK's Great Tech Expedition to the USA, a tour initiated by London Mayor Boris Johnson and UKTI.^[15]

George is also occasionally invited to consult with policy makers, such as at a meeting at 10 Downing Street in January 2015 to discuss how the British Government can assist the growth of education technology.^[16] In November 2014 he spoke at the Institute of Directors on a panel shared with Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna on the subject of young entrepreneurship.^[17]

Further reading

Gardner, Jasmine (2010-08-06). "London's a real dream for teens". London Evening Standard (London). Retrieved 2015-02-02. 

Blakely, Rhys (2012-05-12). "Welcome to Silicon Valley’s feeder school". The Times (London). Retrieved 2014-02-02. 

Fildes, Nic (2014-01-30). "University dropout raises $1m to help students to revise for exams". The Times (London). Retrieved 2014-02-02. 

Moules, Jonathan (2014-01-30). "Exam revision app draws Innocent funding". The Financial Times (London). Retrieved 2014-02-02. 

JH Round-Turner, Charlie (2014-01-30). "21-year-old raises $1 million to help panicked students". CNBC (London). Retrieved 2014-02-02. 

Gardner, Jasmine (2014-04-16). "Part 3 of The Silicon 60: ones to watch on London's start-up scene". Evening Standard (London). Retrieved 2014-02-02. 

Chorley, Matt (2014-04-29). "Young, free and digital: Meet five web stars who turned an idea into businesses worth millions... and they are all under 25". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 2014-02-02. 

Prosser, David (2014-01-05). "Britain's Six Most Exciting Young Entrepreneurs". Forbes (London). Retrieved 2014-02-02. 

Mehrota, Anushka (2014-07-22). "Move over college students. Silicon Valley turns to high schools for interns". USA Today (London). Retrieved 2014-02-02. 

Smith, Chris (2014-10-29). "Student startups: could you be the next Mark Zuckerberg?". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2014-02-02. 

Gil, Natalie. "Changing the world: a job for young people". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2014-02-02. 

References