Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Pitch

Math book publishing startup aims for multimedia education

By Lynette F. Cornell

Worldwide Center of Mathematics LLC
Headquarters: Cambridge
Phone: 617-245-0171
Email: brl@centerofmath.org
URL: www.centerofmath.com
Founded: 2008
Employees: 4


In the company’s own words:
“The Worldwide Center of Mathematics is a publisher of multimedia mathematics textbooks that wants to make textbooks more effective and affordable for students. The textbooks are produced as PDFs, which allow us to add a whole host of new features directly into the content, including full-length video lectures, shorter video tutorials, step-by-step problem solutions, interactive graphs and much more, all of which are designed to make the textbook a more effective learning tool for students.”

About the technology:
The textbooks are available in PDF format and integrate multimedia including videos, margin notes and interactive graphs. The company offers three purchasing models: digital editions for individual students, Textbooks as a Service (TaaS) and customizable digital textbooks. In the TaaS model, the school pays $10 to $20 per student per semester for access to each digital textbook, which the company said eliminates the waste created by unnecessary textbook updates and edits. This model is also intended to remove the school bookstore as the middleman, which the company said is the source of most cost markup for textbooks. The flagship product, a textbook called Differential Calculus, has already been produced and another book, titled Integral Calculus, is slated for release in January.

Partnerships:
The company has partnerships with Wolfram Research Inc. for visualization support, Firehoze Inc. for additional tutorial services and Equalis LLC to provide the community forum. It is currently working on partnerships with Apple’s iTunes University and WebAssign, an interactive homework system. The textbooks are currently being used by Northeastern University, as well as three high schools.

People behind the company:
David Massey, founder, director and author, is an award-winning mathematics professor at Northeastern University. Brian Lepley, director of business operations, holds a degree in finance and entrepreneurship and has previous worked in sales for Credit Suisse and as a trading assistant for Hellman Jordan Management Co. Ruairi Collins, chief technology officer, holds a master’s degree in interactive media and has previously worked in the areas of multimedia design, interactive advertising and video production.

The pitch:
The company is seeking $300,000 in funding to expand its selection of textbook titles, develop more features and supplements for the textbooks and increase its sales and marketing efforts. The company is also looking for business partnerships with developers of visualization software and course content producers. According to Lepley, the company is open to partnerships in all areas of education, not just mathematics, but the company itself will focus exclusively on mathematics in its textbook offerings.

The market:
The mathematics textbook market is worth $675 million and the overall textbook market is worth around $8 billion, according to Lepley.

The competition:
The company’s direct competitors are education publishing and technology companies, including Pearson plc, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co. and Cengage Learning Inc. The company also faces indirect competition from Flat World Knowledge Inc., an online and print publisher of open-source textbooks.