2. QuickTime™ and a
Apple Intermediate Codec decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

3. Our Team
Michael Bernstein - Former public radio producer - worked
for NPR,American Public Media
Gaelen Hadlett - Programmer at Daylife, MA in Neuroscience
of Education,Teaches programming and robotics at public schools in
Brooklyn
Marisa Kaplan - NewYork City teacher and coach, curriculum
developer

4. Teaching Literacy
is Difficult
Only 1/3 of 8th graders are
proficient in reading and
writing
US literacy rates have barely
improved over the last 40
years

5. Our Solution
• Make teachers’ lives easy
• Connect students to write
to each other
• Provide platform and real-
world Common Core-aligned
curriculum
MAKE LEARNING SOCIAL

6. research-based approach
• Students engaging in
“authentic writing
activities” experience
greater growth in their
ability to write. (Purcell-
Gates, Duke 2006)

7. Student dashboard

8. Student dashboard

9. Teacher dashboard

10. results
• Built MVP - piloted in 180 schools
• $0 spent on marketing - 76% referral rate
• Product-to-Market Fit - 85% of teachers would be
disappointed or very disappointed if they could no longer
use our product
• Monetized - $99 per class / $1450 per school / $TBD per
district; 25%+ conversion rate with MVP

11. growth

12. Market
• 132,183 Elementary and
High Schools in US +
estimated 100,000 schools
with English language
programs worldwide
• US K-12 schools spend $8
billion on instructional
content (will grow to $17
billion by 2023)
• 3rd party collaboration
platform for education
publishers and e-learning
companies
PRIMARY SECONDARY

13. Milestones
Built Beta
Scaled Piloting
Monetized Product
Brought on Tech
Co-Founder
Release
v1.0
Sales + Marketing
Licensing / Distribution

14. Our users
“PenPal News is the future
of global education and
dialogue.”
- Miguel Alvarez
English Teacher, Mexico
“The perspectives shared between students are extremely
impactful, and leave a huge mark on what you think about
the world and how you live your life. - 8th grader,
California