Kim Taylor (entrepreneur)

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Kim Taylor
Born1981or1982(age 42–43) [1]
Madison, Wisconsin, US [2]
Alma mater Arizona State University
OccupationEntrepreneur

Kim Taylor (born 1981or1982 [1] ) is an American entrepreneur. [1] She founded the online college manager company Ranku [3] and the recruitment technology company Cluster, the latter of which she is serving as its CEO. [4]

Career

Taylor attended college at a Marquette University in Wisconsin, during which she spent a year as an NBA dancer with the Milwaukee Bucks which went to the East conference finals. [5] [6] She then transferred to Arizona State University to study journalism, during which she covered football games for The Arizona Republic . She graduated from Arizona State in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts, [7] [8] and continued working with The Arizona Republic. [5]

In 2008, she was working with an online publisher in Chicago but started having interests in online education. [5] In 2012, she joined the cast of entrepreneurs in the reality television series Start-Ups: Silicon Valley where she worked as an account manager and head of sales for Ampush Media. [9] During the series, she quit Ampush and created a startup business called Shonova which focused on the fashion industry. [10] However, Shonova lasted a few weeks before she gave that up. [5]

In June 2013, Taylor joined Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, a partnership between Kaplan, Inc. and Techstars which hosts, mentors, and funds startup companies in education technology and product innovation for a three-month program in New York City. [11] [12] As part of joining EdTech, she co-founded with childhood friend Cecilia Retelle the online degree company Ranku and served as the Chief Executive Officer. [13] [14] [15] She named it after the Japanese rending of the phrase rank. The goal of the company was to enable non-profit universities that offer online degrees to compete with the larger for-profit online degree companies such as University of Phoenix. [16] Mark Cuban was the lead investor in Ranku. [5] [17] Business Insider named Taylor one of “Silicon Alley Top 100 Coolest People In New York Tech” in 2013. [18] In 2016, Ranku was acquired by John Wiley & Sons. [19]

Taylor founded the company Cluster, which aims to help job seekers in the manufacturing industry. [4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Huspeni, Andrea (October 2, 2013). "How This Young Founder Went From Reality Star to Disruptive Entrepreneur". Entrepreneur . Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  2. ↑ Green, Stanley (November 12, 2013). "Kim Taylor Picks Up A Further $650,000 In Funding For Ranku". Jewish Business News . Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  3. ↑ Newton, Derek (September 26, 2016). "5 Questions with Ranku CEO Kim Taylor". EdTech Chronicle. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Newton, Derek (April 19, 2018). "Finding Entrepreneurial Solutions To The Career Education Pipeline Problem". Forbes . Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Dickey, Megan Rose (September 27, 2013). "Meet Kim Taylor, The Silicon Alley Star Who Wants To Fix Online Education". Business Insider . Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  6. ↑ Stanger, Melissa (November 2, 2013). "The Sexiest Startup CEOs Alive!". Journal Star . Peoria, Illinois. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Kim Taylor" . LinkedIn . Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  8. ↑ Cook, John (April 30, 2014). "This reality TV star and online education expert is moving her Mark Cuban-backed startup from NYC to Seattle". GeekWire . Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  9. ↑ Dickey, Megan Rose (November 16, 2012). "Spoiler Alert: Bravo Reality Star Kim Taylor Quits Her Ampush Media Job To Start A Company". Business Insider . Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  10. ↑ Delevett, Peter (December 24, 2012). "Bravo's 'Start-Ups' gets quiet send-off, but one cast member pronounces it a success". The Mercury News . Bay Area News Group . Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  11. ↑ Dickey, Megan Rose (June 18, 2013). "Reality TV Star Kim Taylor Has A New Startup, And It Got Her Into A Top-Notch Accelerator Program". Business Insider . Retrieved October 10, 2018.
  12. ↑ Messina, Judith (March 10, 2014). "Accelerator's Equity Grab – Pick the Right Platform" (PDF). Crain's New York Business . 30 (10): 16.
  13. ↑ "FTC Announces Agenda, Panelists for Upcoming Lead Generation Workshop". Federal Trade Commission (Press release). October 19, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  14. ↑ Wood, Molly (August 27, 2014). "Bringing Tech Culture to the Staid College Quad". New York Times . Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  15. ↑ Dickey, Megan Rose (June 20, 2013). "Ex-NBA Dancer Ditches Fashion Startup And Instead Launches An Online Education Startup". Business Insider . Retrieved October 10, 2018.
  16. ↑ Delevett, Peter (June 18, 2013). "Kim Taylor of "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley" fame launches new startup - but not in Silicon Valley". Silicon Beat. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Mark Cuban's latest venture". CNBC (online video). September 6, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  18. ↑ Dickey, Megan Rose; D'Onfro, Jillian (October 24, 2013). "SA 100 2013: The Coolest People In New York Tech". Business Insider . Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  19. ↑ Costine, Josh (September 15, 2016). "Ranku's eCollege optimizer bought by edtech giant for ~$25 million". TechCrunch . Retrieved October 9, 2018.
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