Hot startup Go Vocab arrives

Guest Post written by Michael Dowse founder of Go Vocab.

Earlier this year our start up, Go Vocab won the BNZ Startup Alley Competition.  Our prize consisted of flights to San Francisco, some spending money and time in the Kiwi Landing Pad. 2 weeks ago Jeremy and I left behind the wind and rain of a Wellington winter for the eternal sunshine and fog of San Francisco. We’ll be here in the SoMa district of San Francisco, in the thick of it all, for 2 months.

Go Vocab launched 18 months ago as an e-learning site for high school students learning languages. Students use Go Vocab to learn and revise Vocabulary, Pronunciation and Verb Conjugations. Teachers use Go Vocab to set homework and track students progress. We first launched 18 months ago and thousands of students in hundreds of schools across Australia and New Zealand are now using Go Vocab.

This trip is an amazing opportunity to scope out the US and Canadian markets for Go Vocab. As well as immersing ourselves in the San Francisco Bay Area tech community we want to show Go Vocab to some teachers!  Next week we’re taking Go Vocab on the road to attend Language Teacher Conferences in Portland and Vancouver.

As the name promises, the Kiwi Landing Pad has allowed us to land on our feet with desks, internet, even accommodation at Startup House right next door. Catherine and Reuben have also been helping us with everything from introductions to other e-learning startups to finding decent coffee.
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It’s only been 2 and a half weeks so far and already I can see that this trip will change how we run our startup. When we leave we’ll be taking with us a more global perspective on building a startup that can compete with the best in the world.
You can check out Go Vocab here: www.govocab.com