Founder Spotlight: Grockit's Farbood Nivi
Backed by nearly $11 million from investors that include Reid Hoffman, Mark Pincus, and Benchmark Capital, San Francisco-based Grockit is teaching kids to study for standardized tests through social games online. It’s the kind of approach that some seasoned educators might sniff at. Yet the educational world is precisely where Farb Nivi, Grockit’s 32-year-old CEO, has spent most of his adult life. Indeed, he believes that schools across the nation are ready for some modernizing, via a “benevolent takeover.” (“Sounds better than a hostile takeover, right?” says Nivi.) Yesterday, Nivi and I talked about Grockit’s origins, how a teacher lands an all-star line-up of investors, and how long it takes to recuperate when you’re knocked from your Vespa by a minivan.
