Kim Taylor (entrepreneur)

Kim Taylor 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]

Kim Taylor
Born1981/1982 (age 38–39)[1]
Madison, Wisconsin, US[2]
Alma materArizona State University
OccupationEntrepreneur

Career

Taylor attended college at a small Jesuit school 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. 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. Newton, Derek (April 19, 2018). "Finding Entrepreneurial Solutions To The Career Education Pipeline Problem". Forbes. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  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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