Many ask who's behind PlaySay so here we are, exposed! In 2011 I was blessed to raise venture capital (VC) from the most active venture capitalists in the education space of the USA which enabled me to assemble a phenomenal team. We launched as a TechCrunch Disrupt Finalist in September of 2011 and are about to launch our best product yet on May 1st.
Ryan
By age 16, I had sold over $20,000 worth of kitchen knives to strangers. By age 21, I managed over 20 employees at a marketing research firm. Within one year of receiving my BBA and by age 24, I led the international business of a Japanese marketing firm in Tokyo, Japan with Fortune 500 and major multinational clientele. My areas of business expertise are sales, business development and management. By age 26, I founded PlaySay Inc. out of my own need to learn Japanese and had raised seed funding from the Director of PayPal, Japan. By age 28, I raised funding from the most active venture capitalists in the education space of the USA and had also closed deals with the largest foreign language learning publisher of the USA as well as the largest foreign language dictionary publisher of the world. I assembled a phenomenal team in 2011 and as a TechCrunch Disrupt Finalist we launched the world’s first method of communicating in a foreign language through pictures.
Ryan - LinkedIn | Personal Website
Bob
At PlaySay, Bob Laws unites his artistic, scientific, and academic experience in the development of innovative language-teaching concepts and products, including the visual language construction methodology that he debuted with PlaySay as a TechCrunch Disrupt Finalist in 2011. Bob graduated Magna Cum Laude from Georgetown University with degrees in Spanish and Linguistics, earning awards for his academic achievements in those fields. As an undergraduate, he conducted independent linguistic research on stroke patients at the Cognitive Neuropsychology Laboratory at Georgetown University Medical Center. He went on to earn his M.S. in Theoretical Linguistics from Georgetown in 3 semesters, with a 4.0 GPA. As a graduate student, Bob taught web design and development to teens looking for a future in the tech work force. He also created and managed web projects for Georgetown University, which prepared Bob to become the sole web content manager for the Society of Neuroscience. Both experiences held Bob responsible for content viewed by millions of users annually. Bob is fluent in Spanish and is an award-winning oil painter, selling paintings at auctions by age 18.
Bob - LinkedIn | Personal Website
Dan
While still a university student, Dan developed software for Lockeed Martin and Kona Blue, and created a new Linux process scheduler which improved overall operating system efficiency by up to 6%. Upon graduation with a BS in Computer and Electrical Engineering in 2010 from Rutgers University, Dan became the Lead Designer for RULost, the award-winning and bestselling iPhone App team from Rutgers University. Under Dan’s direction, RULost’s app usability received praise from students and faculty alike for its intuitive design and ease of use with an overall app rating of 4.5 stars out of 5. In 2011, Dan joined PlaySay and developed three major language-learning products while maintaining existing products from previous engineers. Dan uses PlaySay to maintain and improve upon the the three years of Spanish instruction he received in high school.
Dan - LinkedIn | Personal Website
Tony
Tony received a BS in Computer Science and Information Engineering in Taiwan and an MS in Computer Science and Information Engineering from one of the top three universities of Taiwan. He also received an MS in Very Large Information Systems from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). His research experience includes speech signal processing, natural language processing, machine translation, and web application systems. Tony’s team won second place at the official 2011 CMU Facebook Hackathon. Tony has been studying EFL/ESL for more than 10 years and he is dedicated to developing software that helps people to learn a second language.
Tony - LinkedIn
Advisors
We work closely with our advisors, Randy Breen (CEO of SGN), Sameer Gulati (Sr. Product Manager at Zynga), Billy Leung (Sr. Producer at Zynga) and Chris Henley (VP of Engineering at Grockit).
Investors
We're angel-backed by the former Director of PayPal, Japan, Kevin Yu and are venture-backed the most active venture capitalists in the education space of the USA, Novak Biddle Venture Partners.
Partners
We have partnerships with the largest language learning publisher of the USA, McGraw-Hill, along with another big name publisher to be announced on May 1st.
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