Today's Entrepreneur: Grant Hosford
No. 1 Mistake: Not testing carefully for who your early adopter customer will be
Today's Entrepreneur is Grant Hosford, Co-founder and CEO at codeSpark. codeSpark’s mission is to ignite curiosity about computer science and turn programming into play. The company was inspired by co-founder Grant Hosford’s young daughters, two STEM loving ninja girls who wanted to understand how computers work. codeSpark is backed by Idealab and Kapor Capital. Their award winning virtual world called The Foos teaches the ABC’s of computer science through a combination of structured challenges and creative play.
Hosford is a dad, an entrepreneur and an internet executive with a strong background in edtech, ecommerce, subscription services and consumer products. Specialties include new product launches, lean start-up based validation, online and mobile customer acquisition, customer life cycle and retention, campaign development and strategic partnerships.
codeSpark, Inc. self-categorizes in these areas: Children (Kids) products/services, E-learning, Learning tools, and Mobile games.
Here's a little about Hosford:
Achievements (products built, personal awards won):
I joined ZAAZ as the first non-founder executive, co-founded the web analytics practice there and helped the company grow from $0 to $10M+ in revenue.
At eHarmony I helped launch and run our publishing business which grew to 1B ad impressions a month and 10M UVs/month. It was also the #2 wedding network in the US.
I also ran the team that launched the first ever completely mobile brand for eHarmony called Jazzed.
My favorite startups: Uber, Dropbox, Tinybop, Clarity.fm and The Honest Company
What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?
It can be a very lonely journey, even with invested co-founders. But the personal satisfaction of success, even small achievements, is tremendous.
What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?
Two big lessons: There is no failure except for failing to learn. Start-ups should be learning machines that spend each day getting smarter as quickly and as cheaply as they can
Don't hire anyone unless they are the best you can hope to find for what they do. Period.
Grant is the CEO and founder of CodeSpark, a learning game company dedicated to making hard things fun. CodeSpark’s first mission is re-inventing Computer Science for the tablet generation.
Previously Grant was a Sr. Director at Idealab, one of the most successful tech incubators in the world. Grant was responsible for evaluating and testing early stage ideas so the best could be turned into companies. Idealab has started over 125 companies since 1996.
Before joining Idealab, Grant was a senior executive in the online dating industry. He was a founding team member at DinnerDate, a dating service (www.dinnerdate.com) backed by the founder of Planet Hollywood, Robert Earl and helped start several new businesses at eHarmony, including a 100% mobile dating brand and an online publishing business that grew to 10M unique visitors a month.
Previously, Grant was VP of Marketing at Blue Lava Group and Head of Business Development at ZAAZ, Inc., an award winning interactive agency that was acquired by Wunderman in 2006. For over a decade he's been using data to improve customer acquisition and conversion online.
Grant started his career in finance, working for Coopers and Lybrand and Brazilian investment bank Banco Pactual. He fell in love with the power of the internet in the late 90's and has worked in tech since 1999.
Grant did his education at Tufts University - The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the University of Southern California and Claremont McKenna College.
*Want to be included in our Today's Entrepreneur series? Email me: mitos@vator.tv
Mitos Suson
I produce Vator Events and enjoy the challenge. I am learning and growing a lot, being involved with Vator and loving every moment of it!
All author postsRelated Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs
codeSpark
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
- #1 Kids iPad App in 17 countries!
- #1 App for Kids 6-8 in 29 countries
- Parents’ Choice foundation Gold Medal – 2015
- Children’s Technology Review – Editor’s Choice for Design Excellence - 2014
- The LEGO Foundation named codeSpark one of 30 global companies “Re-imagining Learning"
- Verizon Apps for Class Regional Finalist ($45K in prize money so far – final selection of a national winner in the Fall)
- Many Apple features in many countries for:
- Best New Apps
- Top Educational Apps
- Top Apps for Kids 6-8
- Wow Your Kids!
- Best Coding Apps
- And more…
- Code.org
- Plan Ceibal (distribution to 150,000 K-2 students in Uruguay)
Grant Hosford
Joined Vator on
I'm a dad, entrepreneur and "data geek".