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Clever (YC S12) Launches A Twilio For Educational Data

95 points by templaedhel 14y ago

greattypo 14y ago
We built Clever because we realized that integration with legacy school systems was serious overhead for anyone building cool educational software. If you've run into this problem personally, we'd love to meet you. Our API docs are at: http://getclever.com/developers/docs http://getclever.com/developers/docs
- hdctambien 14y ago
  I've been integrating Clever into my project and it's been really nice to work with. Slick API and really easy to get up and running!
- barake 14y ago
  Everything listed on your site is for K12 - any plans to support higher ed packages?
  - 2arrs2ells 14y ago
    We're currently K-12 only. Higher Ed is something we'd love to do, but there's a lot to do in K-12 first.
- andrewtbham 14y ago
  There is definitely a need for something like this. I have worked with SIS's in the past and they're awful. I thought SIF might be the answer, but it was not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schools_Interoperability_Framework http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schools_Interoperability_Framew...
- JEVLON 14y ago
  If this leads to http://www.blackboard.com/ http://www.blackboard.com/ disappearing, or being updated, then I thank you.
rokhayakebe 14y ago
Not just big data, but big data standardization.
Johnyma22 14y ago
It's this years school MIS that claims not to be an MIS.... The last one was Instructure Canvas. The problem isn't a technical problem yet companies try to solve it with a new piece of technology. The problem is two fold: 1) Legacy MIS' are a nightmare to migrate from. Legacy MIS' have horrible tie ins and proprietary data storage. Clever isn't open source. So despite it having an API the software is still proprietary. Clever doesn't solve this problem. Getting your data out of the legacy MIS will still be a nightmare and the resources required to move data from each MIS available in the market at the moment will be extremely costly. 2) Training to use a new MIS often outweighs the cost of the software itself. Because the training costs are so high any monetary saving from moving to lower cost MIS' is canceled out. Clever isn't what the market needs. Y-Combinator doesn't have the resources to compete w/ Capita/Pearson/RM/Serco just to name the leaders in the UK market. Imho it is a naive effort unless they are going to sink a lot of resources in. I do wish Clever the best of look but Y-Comb should know that this is a really mature market place and making software that's main pitch is "REAL TIME LEARNING" shows a complete misunderstanding of the market.
- rgarcia 14y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. Just so you know, we're not creating an MIS or SIS, so we're not trying to do either (1) or (2).
  - solsenNet 14y ago
    > It's this years school MIS that claims not to be an MIS. it seems like you are claiming not to be an MIS!?!
- vecter 14y ago
  It seems that you're saying "Startup X shouldn't compete with market owners Y because companies Y own the market", which is pretty ludicrous.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- websirnik 14y ago
natrius 14y ago
I don't think "a Twilio for educational data" does this product justice. It sounds more like the missing API for every schools' internal data systems, and it's a great idea.
- jaredsohn 14y ago
  I don't get why they are referring to this as a Twilio for x either; it seems like they're just saying that it is an API that abstracts away some things, which quite a few do. Just last week I met someone from Code for America where they talked about creating an API for working with local governments. This seems like an education version of that. (Although perhaps Code for America isn't famous enough yet to use it as a comparison in a TechCrunch article.) Edit: The reason why I don't think Twilio is all that unique for making that comparison is you could call it the "HopStop for schools" (since HopStop allows you to get mass transit directions without having to interface with each bus company, subway system, etc.) or the "Singly for schools" since it allows you to abstract away Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, LinkedIn, etc. I suppose that Twilio just has better branding, though. Edit2: Code for America seems like a more direct comparison (but perhaps more obscure and not as suitable for marketing purposes) since it involves creating an API for programmers to use to connect with government institutions that use a diverse set of typically hard-to-interact-with-programmatically software.
  - 2arrs2ells 14y ago
    If you want to build an app that uses voice/SMS, but don't want to deal with a bunch of complex telecom systems, you use Twilio. If you want to build an app that needs student data, but don't want to deal with a bunch of complex student data systems, you should use Clever! That said, I love the grandparent's description of what we do.
mthreat 14y ago
Will this integrate with schools' registration systems (add class, drop class, is-class-full, etc?). When I was in school I made some decent college cash with something I built called "Classgrabber" that registered for hard-to-get classes automatically. I had to write a registration "bot" that acted like the web browser. With an API, it would have been much easier, and more open to innovation. The school's response? They outlawed Classgrabber, but it didn't stop people from using it (after all, they needed to get their classes).
wolffnc3 14y ago
What are some example use cases for an API like this? Perhaps you could add a page like Twilios How To's (while we're making the comparison).
gatordan 14y ago
As an ed-tech cofounder at a company that needs data like this, this is exciting. You guys are YC backed and from all appearances you'll be in direct competition with the Imagine K12 backed LearnSprout http://learnsprout.com/ http://learnsprout.com/ . It's exciting in that clearly smart people are working on this problem and I hope the competition pushes both companies to make great products.
jcampbell1 14y ago
I sell an educational product where teachers have to enter all their students into my system, and some have hundreds of students. Unfortunately, it looks like I must wait until Clever has signed up many schools before this is useful to me. Unlike Twilio which is useful to developers out of the box, this seems to have a marketplace challenge.
- 2arrs2ells 14y ago
  If you have entire schools or districts signing up for your product, Clever is a great fit. We build co-branded signup forms for developers like yourselves, which make the account setup process dead simple for schools. Sending you an email now!
gianpaj 14y ago
the doc page is beautiful!!
- dmvaldman 14y ago
  http://swagger.wordnik.com/ http://swagger.wordnik.com/

95 points by templaedhel 14y ago

We built Clever because we realized that integration with legacy school systems was serious overhead for anyone building cool educational software. If you've run into this problem personally, we'd love to meet you. Our API docs are at: http://getclever.com/developers/docs http://getclever.com/developers/docs

hdctambien 14y ago
I've been integrating Clever into my project and it's been really nice to work with. Slick API and really easy to get up and running!
barake 14y ago
Everything listed on your site is for K12 - any plans to support higher ed packages?
- 2arrs2ells 14y ago
  We're currently K-12 only. Higher Ed is something we'd love to do, but there's a lot to do in K-12 first.
andrewtbham 14y ago
There is definitely a need for something like this. I have worked with SIS's in the past and they're awful. I thought SIF might be the answer, but it was not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schools_Interoperability_Framework http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schools_Interoperability_Framew...
JEVLON 14y ago
If this leads to http://www.blackboard.com/ http://www.blackboard.com/ disappearing, or being updated, then I thank you.

rokhayakebe 14y ago

Not just big data, but big data standardization.

Johnyma22 14y ago

It's this years school MIS that claims not to be an MIS.... The last one was Instructure Canvas. The problem isn't a technical problem yet companies try to solve it with a new piece of technology. The problem is two fold: 1) Legacy MIS' are a nightmare to migrate from. Legacy MIS' have horrible tie ins and proprietary data storage. Clever isn't open source. So despite it having an API the software is still proprietary. Clever doesn't solve this problem. Getting your data out of the legacy MIS will still be a nightmare and the resources required to move data from each MIS available in the market at the moment will be extremely costly. 2) Training to use a new MIS often outweighs the cost of the software itself. Because the training costs are so high any monetary saving from moving to lower cost MIS' is canceled out. Clever isn't what the market needs. Y-Combinator doesn't have the resources to compete w/ Capita/Pearson/RM/Serco just to name the leaders in the UK market. Imho it is a naive effort unless they are going to sink a lot of resources in. I do wish Clever the best of look but Y-Comb should know that this is a really mature market place and making software that's main pitch is "REAL TIME LEARNING" shows a complete misunderstanding of the market.

rgarcia 14y ago
Thanks for the feedback. Just so you know, we're not creating an MIS or SIS, so we're not trying to do either (1) or (2).
- solsenNet 14y ago
  > It's this years school MIS that claims not to be an MIS. it seems like you are claiming not to be an MIS!?!
vecter 14y ago
It seems that you're saying "Startup X shouldn't compete with market owners Y because companies Y own the market", which is pretty ludicrous.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
websirnik 14y ago

natrius 14y ago

I don't think "a Twilio for educational data" does this product justice. It sounds more like the missing API for every schools' internal data systems, and it's a great idea.

jaredsohn 14y ago
I don't get why they are referring to this as a Twilio for x either; it seems like they're just saying that it is an API that abstracts away some things, which quite a few do. Just last week I met someone from Code for America where they talked about creating an API for working with local governments. This seems like an education version of that. (Although perhaps Code for America isn't famous enough yet to use it as a comparison in a TechCrunch article.) Edit: The reason why I don't think Twilio is all that unique for making that comparison is you could call it the "HopStop for schools" (since HopStop allows you to get mass transit directions without having to interface with each bus company, subway system, etc.) or the "Singly for schools" since it allows you to abstract away Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, LinkedIn, etc. I suppose that Twilio just has better branding, though. Edit2: Code for America seems like a more direct comparison (but perhaps more obscure and not as suitable for marketing purposes) since it involves creating an API for programmers to use to connect with government institutions that use a diverse set of typically hard-to-interact-with-programmatically software.
- 2arrs2ells 14y ago
  If you want to build an app that uses voice/SMS, but don't want to deal with a bunch of complex telecom systems, you use Twilio. If you want to build an app that needs student data, but don't want to deal with a bunch of complex student data systems, you should use Clever! That said, I love the grandparent's description of what we do.

mthreat 14y ago

Will this integrate with schools' registration systems (add class, drop class, is-class-full, etc?). When I was in school I made some decent college cash with something I built called "Classgrabber" that registered for hard-to-get classes automatically. I had to write a registration "bot" that acted like the web browser. With an API, it would have been much easier, and more open to innovation. The school's response? They outlawed Classgrabber, but it didn't stop people from using it (after all, they needed to get their classes).

wolffnc3 14y ago

What are some example use cases for an API like this? Perhaps you could add a page like Twilios How To's (while we're making the comparison).

gatordan 14y ago

As an ed-tech cofounder at a company that needs data like this, this is exciting. You guys are YC backed and from all appearances you'll be in direct competition with the Imagine K12 backed LearnSprout http://learnsprout.com/ http://learnsprout.com/ . It's exciting in that clearly smart people are working on this problem and I hope the competition pushes both companies to make great products.

jcampbell1 14y ago

I sell an educational product where teachers have to enter all their students into my system, and some have hundreds of students. Unfortunately, it looks like I must wait until Clever has signed up many schools before this is useful to me. Unlike Twilio which is useful to developers out of the box, this seems to have a marketplace challenge.

2arrs2ells 14y ago
If you have entire schools or districts signing up for your product, Clever is a great fit. We build co-branded signup forms for developers like yourselves, which make the account setup process dead simple for schools. Sending you an email now!

gianpaj 14y ago

the doc page is beautiful!!

dmvaldman 14y ago
http://swagger.wordnik.com/ http://swagger.wordnik.com/