Julie Lee is the founder of edtwist. Courtesy of Julie Lee
In 2011, Julie Lee , a founding member of digital music platform VEVO, was in Singapore for the launch of VEVO UK. Vevo now boasts some 10 billion views each month. To get there, Lee was on the road — a lot. Julie Lee is the founder of edtwist. Courtesy of Julie Lee
In the hours after the star-studded launch, Lee called home, and her 4-year-old son asked her a question that changed the course of her career : “Why are you working, Mommy?”
She didn’t have a good answer, so on the long flight back from Singapore to Los Angeles, she solidified her plans to leave VEVO and take a much-needed break. “After I left VEVO, my family and I decided to just pack up and focus on family for a little bit and for me to really get to know my son because at the time I didn’t really know him that well, unfortunately,” Lee told me. So they traveled the world for a few months, and she fielded a lot more questions from that same fearlessly inquisitive 4-year-old. “Kids have this innate ability to ask because they’re not embarrassed,” Lee said. Grownups, not so much. The Internet has made things easier for those in search of information, but distinguishing the good from bad, the true from the false, is really tough, Lee said. So she decided to create edtwist, a collaborative research platform that gives knowledge networks such as libraries, schools and NGOs, as well as individuals, a simplified research tool that allows you to find quality content, curate that content and use that content to grow ideas as a community. “When somebody doesn’t know an answer, they don’t have to fear it and they don’t have to say it’s too hard to search for that information,” Lee explained. Created in 2013, edtwist has since raised seed funding from angel investors including Gotham Gal Joanne Wilson; Ted Kang, founder/managing partner of Kylin Management LLC; Peter Halt, CFO of Rovi ; Luke Kallis, head of West Coast sales for Snapchat, and Michael Lum, co-founder/CTO of Gradient X. There is risk in the edtech market, Lee admits — even venturing into this space after stints at Sony Pictures, Universal Music Group and then VEVO has been the biggest risk of her career, she said — but the market is worth more than $8 billion . Not a bad space to play in. We spoke with Lee ( recently named a Woman of Influence by our sister publication, L.A. Biz ) about her workplace essentials, her unexpected mode of transport and the boss who humbled her “tremendously” (and why that was a good thing). What's essential in your workplace setting: A computer and a network (laughs). I can literally work anywhere as long as I have a computer and a network. For longevity, productivity purposes, I am very conscious of having a good working environment. So one of the things I recently picked up is a little ergonomic stand for your laptop, literally like $10 on Amazon . You fold it up and put it in with your charger and I take it everywhere I go. It’s very small, light. It’s become an invaluable thing that I take along with me. What are you anal about at work: I’m a stickler with time. Not only do I work; I’m a mom. I have a family, so there’s a lot of things that tax my resources around the hour restraints. Therefore I try to be very careful in terms of how I manage my calendar. I literally have five calendars integrated into a single iCal so I know where I need to be. When I started edtwist, I wasn’t very good at that. When I was at Vevo, I had an assistant who took care of that. [In the early days of edtwist], I found myself skipping calls because I forgot to set the alarm on [my calendar]. But now I’ve gotten a lot better, and if I need to be somewhere, I allocate travel time into it so I’m never late. What would your colleagues be surprised to learn about you: Often times, when people see a woman as an executive, they kind of have an image of who that person is and how they live in terms of being a little more posh in nature, being more brand-oriented, sporting the latest look, if you will. So a lot of people are very surprised to learn that I’m a gardener. I’m a hiker. I live in the middle of a mountain (in Topanga, Calif.), and therefore I drive a truck. A pickup truck. That usually throws people off. And I also like to do flower arrangements, and a lot of people are like, ‘I don’t get it.’
The worst meeting you’ve ever been in: I recently met with a venture capital company during our fundraising where I actually knew the person pretty well and, as opposed to talking about edtwist, they were trying to talk to me about doing something else — “You came from Vevo; why wouldn’t you be doing a multichannel network?” — without really taking into account what I wanted to talk about and without really thinking about what was driving me. It made for a very awkward meeting, and I would say it was probably one of those meetings where I just wanted to walk away and I had to figure out how to end graciously. Edtech is a high-risk area that many VCs are still very nascent on. I think they just see creator execution risk related to edtech, which I totally get. Then again, they see a female and Asian and they start profiling you. What’s your eye-roll job interview answer: When I look for a candidate, I actually don’t look for candidates who know everything, but the most important thing for me in a candidate is someone who has an attitude of being able to learn new things. That’s become more important with startups because you’re innovating and there isn’t really a solution that’s there. What makes me roll my eyes is someone who comes in with great credentials … and they hang their laurels on that. And therefore, when you ask them a question that you know there is no answer for, they start making something up, thinking they are making themselves look really smart when in fact they don’t. That usually is a big turnoff for me. How do you indulge: I love being part of nature because I think nature is really the inspiration for a lot of things, even in innovation. It’s also a good way to unplug. So my indulgence is actually going on a hike. It lets me sweat, but also when you go on a hike, I often find myself without a wifi connection. I’m not constantly on my phone so therefore I can think better. How do you know it’s time to step away: When you are a startup entrepreneur, you have so many things to be doing that you can refocus your energy. So I don’t find myself having to unplug that often. But having said that, I know that I have to get up and run when you find that your body’s starting to curl up a little bit. Your elbows and your back and your shoulders start curling up and you realize you haven’t stretched in the past five hours, and that’s not good. If I can’t go on a hike, I’ll go out and do some jump ropes or something. That’s quick. It takes like 10 minutes, and I get a sweat out. The best boss you ever had did what: My best boss is actually my first boss out of school, from Ernst & Young, and my mentor still, and the thing that he did was to humble me tremendously. It’s probably the best thing he’s done for my career. I immigrated to the U.S. when I was 11 and because I didn’t know a wink of English, my parents actually put me down a year. So throughout my childhood, I kind of felt like I was a year behind. So when I started university, it was the only time I knew that I could accelerate at the pace that I would set. So when I started my career, I was so cocky. I was that person I would never hire. And I remember my first boss, he sat me down and he told me that he thinks I’m really smart, but I also need to recognize wisdom that you gain through experience and that can’t be thwarted by whatever facts I think I know. He wasn’t adversarial about it; he literally took me out to coffee near our office. And while we were walking, he just casually said that to me. At first I was taken aback and kind of embarrassed, but it was also really true. Describe your high school self in 3 words: Awkward. Driven. And I’m not sure what the word is, but I did not want to be in high school. The 3 words you’d pick now: I think I’m still awkward (laughs), but I think I am so much more focused in terms of energy for life now than I was in high school. I feel, ‘This is it. It’s good.’
What does your family teach you: My family teaches me to be humble. They teach me about unconditional love. And my son teaches me to slow down. Who’s the last person you talk to before you make a big decision: My husband — although my son likes to interject himself. He’s 8 going on 80. The funny thing is [my husband] actually doesn’t give me any advice; he just listens in a way that I can hear myself talk and also hear myself say the answer. It’s very strange. I remember when I left VEVO, I was mulling on edtwist, but at the same time I started getting offers to join another multinational company. I was haggling over my comp package and my husband was listening. After I hung up the phone, I was like, ‘I can’t believe how unreasonable they are.’ And he’s like, ‘Are you sure the want the job? And I said, ‘Of course.’ And he said, ‘Huh interesting.’ And that’s all he said. And of course then I start getting mad at him. (laughs)
But that’s why I was haggling over an incredibly good comp package — because I didn’t want the job. I wanted to start edtwist. What was the biggest risk of your career: Doing what I’m doing right now. I’ve done startups with millions of dollars in the bank as I’ve rolled it out. This is the first time I’ve bootstrapped. I’ve found angels. I’m constantly fundraising. And this is the first time I’m going in knowing there is such huge opportunity but also such huge risk. Related Content

Inside the world of the woman upending the $8B edtech industry

edtwist , a Los Angeles, CA-based dynamic collaborative research platform, raised a seed funding of undisclosed amount. Backers included:
– Joanne Wilson of Gotham Gal,
– Ted Kang, Founder/Managing Partner of Kylin Management LLC,
– Peter Halt, CFO of Rovi,
– Luke Kallis, head of West Coast Sales, Snapchat, and
– Michael Lum, Co-founder/CTO of Gradient X. The company in using the funds to accelerate growth and expand the platform. Founded by Julie Lee, edtwist is a collaborative research platform that provides both knowledge networks such as libraries, schools and NGOs as well as individuals with a simplified research tool containing quality content, curation, and co-creation tools to grow ideas as a community. The company is also announcing a partnership with the Global Network of UNESCO Chairs on Children, Youth and Communities and United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the intellectual agency of the United Nations, to officially launch the #AgentsofChange* program at the 9th UNESCO Youth Forum currently taking place in Paris, France. The partnership was created to provide researchers with a simplified tool to work together and knowledge base to grow ideas to better themselves and the world. *UNESCO’s #AgentsofChange is a year-long program where the youth is given the tools and the stage to direct research and the change they want to see, culminating at the 2016 UN Assembly where select participants will have the opportunity to present their research on the World Youth Day 2016. The program activates youth as researchers to create awareness, educate and move the world to engage on the most pressing issues that face our society. These youth ambassadors, also known as change agents, hail from leading universities and NGOs and will work together to utilize the edtwist platform, creating boards and sharing their knowledge and research with their communities to help drive change. FinSMEs

edtwist Raises Seed Funding

October 29, 2015     0 Comments
Los Angeles-based Edtwist, a newly launched collaborative research platform, has secured an undisclosed amount of seed funding. The investors include Joanne Wilson of Gotham Gal, Rovi CFO Peter Halt, Luke Kallis, head of West Coast sales at Snapchat and Michael Lum, co-founder and CTO of Gradient. PRESS RELEASE
LOS ANGELES & PARIS – October 28, 2015 – Launching today, edtwist is a dynamic collaborative research platform that takes a fresh twist on research by integrating premium content sources in one place and providing people with tools to collaborate and collect quality information. The company is announcing seed funding to accelerate growth and expand the platform from angel investors including Joanne Wilson of Gotham Gal, Ted Kang, Founder/Managing Partner of Kylin Management LLC, Peter Halt, CFO of Rovi, Luke Kallis, head of West Coast Sales, Snapchat, and Michael Lum, Co-founder/CTO of Gradient X. With 90B searches conducted monthly in the U.S. alone, 7.8M app downloads per day (iOS), 1B websites, 1M Vines watched every minute, people are lost in the thick data smog caused by information overload. edtwist removes the information barriers by streamlining the connection to quality resources for individuals and knowledge networks such as libraries, museums and schools. edtwist is also announcing a partnership with the Global Network of UNESCO Chairs on Children, Youth and Communities and United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the intellectual agency of the United Nations, to officially kick off the #AgentsofChange program at the 9th UNESCO Youth Forum currently taking place in Paris, France. The partnership was created to provide researchers with a simplified tool to work together and knowledge base to grow ideas to better themselves and the world. “UNESCO is the perfect partner for us to launch the edtwist platform which is designed to bring people, ideas and content together in one place to grow as a community,” said Julie Lee, founder and CEO of edtwist. “As we speak, thousands of change agents from all over the world are using edtwist to identify and collaborate on research and brainstorm ways to activate change around the globe. I believe knowledge has transformative powers to change the world for the better and it’s exciting to help support in UNESCO’s effort in engaging youth to ideate together and share their findings to create a chain action for change.”
UNESCO’s #AgentsofChange is a year-long program where the youth is given the tools and the stage to direct research and the change they want to see, culminating at the 2016 UN Assembly where select participants will have the opportunity to present their research on the World Youth Day 2016. The program activates youth as researchers to create awareness, educate and move the world to engage on the most pressing issues that face our society. These youth ambassadors, also known as change agents, hail from leading universities and NGOs and will work together to utilize the edtwist platform, creating boards and sharing their knowledge and research with their communities to help drive change. “We are incredibly excited to partner with edtwist. The ability to bring together the best of knowledge, applied youth researchers, and passionate youth engaged for social change in one place – namely, edtwist – is a game changer. Half of the planet is under age 25 and desperately wants to be connected and engaged in making a better world. This partnership between edtwist and the UNESCO Chairs Network makes this a reality,” said Mark Brennan, UNESCO Chair in Community, Leadership and Youth Development. “Every two years at the UNESCO Youth Forum, thousands of inspiring youths from all over the world gather and tackle some of our society’s greatest issues, and we are thrilled to put the power of change in their capable hands. ”
ABOUT EDTWIST
edtwist is a collaborative research platform that enables both knowledge networks such as libraries, schools and NGOs as well as individuals, by providing a simplified research tool containing quality content, curation, and co-creation tools to grow ideas as a community. The LA-based company was founded by Julie Lee, one of Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Tech in 2010. To begin your collaborative research project, visitwww.edtwist.com or connect on Twitter @edtwistdotcom. ABOUT UNESCO
UNESCO is known as the “intellectual” agency of the United Nations. At a time when the world is looking for new ways to build peace and sustainable development, people must rely on the power of intelligence to innovate, expand their horizons and sustain the hope of a new humanism. UNESCO exists to bring this creative intelligence to life; for it is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace and the conditions for sustainable development must be built. ABOUT THE UNESCO CHAIRS
The UNESCO Chairs Network on Children, Youth and Communities delivers immediate responses to emerging needs and ongoing research, program development, and educational programs. The Network is unprecedented in size, spanning 6 continents, 10 geographic regions, dozens of universities and NGOs, and an extensive list of the world’s best multidisciplinary scholars/practitioners. All are committed to pooling their resources, both human and material, to contribute to the development of stable, civil, and just societies worldwide. Leave a Reply

LA-based research startup Edtwist nabs seed funding

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LOS ANGELES and PARIS, Oct. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Launching today, edtwist is a dynamic collaborative research platform that takes a fresh twist on research by integrating premium content sources in one place and providing people with tools to collaborate and collect quality information. The company is announcing seed funding to accelerate growth and expand the platform from angel investors including Joanne Wilson of Gotham Gal , Ted Kang, Founder/Managing Partner of Kylin Management LLC, Peter Halt, CFO of Rovi , Luke Kallis, head of West Coast Sales, Snapchat , and Michael Lum, Co-founder/CTO of Gradient X . (Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151027/280815 )
With 90B searches conducted monthly in the U.S. alone, 7.8M app downloads per day (iOS), 1B websites , 1M Vines watched every minute , people are lost in the thick data smog caused by information overload. edtwist removes the information barriers by streamlining the connection to quality resources for individuals and knowledge networks such as libraries, museums and schools. edtwist is also announcing a partnership with the Global Network of UNESCO Chairs on Children, Youth and Communities and United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ), the intellectual agency of the United Nations, to officially kick off the #AgentsofChange program at the 9th UNESCO Youth Forum currently taking place in Paris, France. The partnership was created to provide researchers with a simplified tool to work together and knowledge base to grow ideas to better themselves and the world. "UNESCO is the perfect partner for us to launch the edtwist platform which is designed to bring people, ideas and content together in one place to grow as a community," said Julie Lee, founder and CEO of edtwist. "As we speak, thousands of change agents from all over the world are using edtwist to identify and collaborate on research and brainstorm ways to activate change around the globe. I believe knowledge has transformative powers to change the world for the better and it's exciting to help support in UNESCO's effort in engaging youth to ideate together and share their findings to create a chain action for change. "
UNESCO's #AgentsofChange is a year-long program where the youth is given the tools and the stage to direct research and the change they want to see, culminating at the 2016 UN Assembly where select participants will have the opportunity to present their research on the World Youth Day 2016. The program activates youth as researchers to create awareness, educate and move the world to engage on the most pressing issues that face our society. These youth ambassadors, also known as change agents, hail from leading universities and NGOs and will work together to utilize the edtwist platform, creating boards and sharing their knowledge and research with their communities to help drive change. "We are incredibly excited to partner with edtwist. The ability to bring together the best of knowledge, applied youth researchers, and passionate youth engaged for social change in one place – namely, edtwist – is a game changer. Half of the planet is under age 25 and desperately wants to be connected and engaged in making a better world. This partnership between edtwist and the UNESCO Chairs Network makes this a reality," said Mark Brennan, UNESCO Chair in Community, Leadership and Youth Development. "Every two years at the UNESCO Youth Forum, thousands of inspiring youths from all over the world gather and tackle some of our society's greatest issues, and we are thrilled to put the power of change in their capable hands. "
ABOUT EDTWIST
edtwist is a collaborative research platform that enables both knowledge networks such as libraries, schools and NGOs as well as individuals, by providing a simplified research tool containing quality content, curation, and co-creation tools to grow ideas as a community. The LA-based company was founded by Julie Lee, one of Fast Company's Most Influential Women in Tech in 2010. To begin your collaborative research project, visit www.edtwist.com or connect on Twitter @edtwistdotcom. ABOUT UNESCO
UNESCO is known as the "intellectual" agency of the  United Nations . At a time when the world is looking for new ways to build peace and sustainable development, people must rely on the power of intelligence to innovate, expand their horizons and sustain the hope of a new humanism. UNESCO exists to bring this creative intelligence to life; for it is in the minds of men and women that the defences of peace and the conditions for sustainable development must be built. ABOUT THE UNESCO CHAIRS
The UNESCO Chairs Network on Children, Youth and Communities delivers immediate responses to emerging needs and ongoing research, program development, and educational programs. The Network is unprecedented in size, spanning 6 continents, 10 geographic regions, dozens of universities and NGOs, and an extensive list of the world's best multidisciplinary scholars/practitioners. All are committed to pooling their resources, both human and material, to contribute to the development of stable, civil, and just societies worldwide. Media Contact:

edtwist Launches Collaborative Research Platform, Announces Seed Round From Angel.. -- LOS ANGELES and PARIS, Oct. 28, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

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Admit it: When you think of online research, it’s usually just a fancy way of saying you’re going to Google something — I’m guilty, anyway. Los Angeles-based Edtwist isn’t trying resist that, exactly, but it has created what founder and CEO Julie Lee said is a more collaborative and “learning-centric” environment, one where students and other researchers can work together to sift through the Internet’s “data smog” and find useful information. Lee said she spent a decade working in digital media for companies like Vevo and Universal Music Group, but after becoming a mother in 2007, she wanted to create a startup that improved education and learning. So when you’re working on a research project, whether it’s school-related or not (“We want to help all virtual researchers,” she said), you can use Edtwist to search across Google, YouTube, Wikipedia and Edtwist itself for related content. Then you create a topic-specific “board” where you save all that information. Lee said there are other content partnerships in the works, so you should eventually be able to search even more broadly. Edtwist isn’t just for finding and saving links. Things get more interesting once you give other users permission to collaborate on a board, sharing their own links and commenting on the ones you’ve posted. (Here’s a collaborative board of selfies created by a writing class at USC. Why selfies? Something something education, something something millennials. ) And you can also share your board on social networks like Facebook or Twitter to ask for more help. Related Articles
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You can sign-up on the Edtwist site  right now, but one of the main ways Lee plans to reach users is through partnerships with libraries and other “knowledge networks.” She argued that one strategy for libraries to stay relevant and “reach as many learners as possible” – despite the shift to online reading and research – is by creating a branded, curated version of Edtwist, available online. The startup has also partnered with UNESCO for its #AgentsofChange campaign, where the agency is giving young people an opportunity to direct research — and, in the case of a few select participants, an opportunity to present their research to the UN Assembly next year. If you want to see the early stages of that collaboration, check out the UNESCO account on Edtwist . GET IT HERE
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What is this? Amazon Shop buttons are programmatically attached to our reviews. TechCrunch receives revenue for shopping activity generated by the links. Because the buttons are attached programmatically, they should not be interpreted as editorial endorsements. The startup has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from investors including Joanne Wilson of Gotham Gal, Ted Kang of Kylin Management, Rovi CFO Peter Halt, Snapchat Head of West Coast Sales Luke Kallis and Gradient X co-founder Michael Lum. Featured Image: Paramount Pictures

Edtwist Helps Students Organize And Collaborate On Their Online Research

Seed

edtwist is a collaborative research platform that enables both knowledge networks such as libraries, schools and NGOs as well as individuals, by providing a simplified research tool containing quality content, curation, and co-creation tools to grow ideas as a community.

Date	Round	Amount	Investors	Valuation Valuations are submitted by companies, mined from state filings or news, provided by VentureSource, or based on a comparables valuation model.	Revenue	Sources
10/29/2015	Seed		Joanne Wilson, Luke Kallis, Michael Lum, Peter Halt, and Ted Kang	$XXM	0 FY undefined	1
	Other Investors		Subscribe to see more	$XXM	0 FY undefined	10

Date	10/29/2015
Round	Seed	Other Investors
Amount
Investors	Joanne Wilson, Luke Kallis, Michael Lum, Peter Halt, and Ted Kang	Subscribe to see more
Valuation	$XXM	$XXM
Revenue	0 FY undefined	0 FY undefined
Sources	1	10

First funding	Last Funding	Investor	Rounds	Type	Location
10/29/2015	10/29/2015	Michael Lum	1 Seed	Angel Investor (Individual)
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	Joanne Wilson	Subscribe to see more	Angel Investor (Individual)	New York
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	Ted Kang	Subscribe to see more	Angel Investor (Individual)
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	Peter Halt	Subscribe to see more	Angel Investor (Individual)
00/00/0000	00/00/0000	Luke Kallis	Subscribe to see more	Angel Investor (Individual)

First funding	10/29/2015	00/00/0000	00/00/0000	00/00/0000	00/00/0000
Last Funding	10/29/2015	00/00/0000	00/00/0000	00/00/0000	00/00/0000
Investor	Michael Lum	Joanne Wilson	Ted Kang	Peter Halt	Luke Kallis
Rounds	1 Seed	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more	Subscribe to see more
Board Seats
Type	Angel Investor (Individual)	Angel Investor (Individual)	Angel Investor (Individual)	Angel Investor (Individual)	Angel Investor (Individual)
Location		New York

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