Some news on what we’ve been working on at Primer, and what’s coming soon.
tl;dr
- We’ve raised $15m in new capital
- We’re launching new clubs
- We’re launching Primer Microschools
Primer’s goal is to free the next generation to be more ambitious, more creative, and to think for themselves. We are building a new education system that takes kids seriously.
Today, Primer is a series of clubs organized around kids’ interests. Our goal is to be the best place on the internet for kids to deeply explore anything that excites them. Kids in Artists Club are doing art swaps with new friends, sharing their work with the world, and collaborating on complex projects. Kids in Science Fair are putting their best ideas forward to win science tournaments. Kids in Storytellers Club are writing books together, sharing essays, and collaborating on fan fiction.
Outside of Primer, it’s a different story. The past two years have been brutal on families and exposed the deep, structural problems with our existing education system.
All of the world’s problems are downstream of education. There is no easy fix, and it represents one of the hardest problems of our generation. It will take decades to solve, but we have a moral obligation to do it, and we’ve made some exciting progress at Primer.
First, we’ve raised $15m in new capital from a great group of folks. Keith Rabois at Founders Fund and Samir Kaul at Khosla Ventures co-led our Series A, and we welcomed a number of great operators alongside them. People like Lachy Groom, Sam Altman, Kathryn Haun, Ryan Petersen from Flexport, Tobi Lütke from Shopify, Tony Xu from Doordash, Amjad Massad from Replit, Julie Zhou, Howie Liu from Airtable, Shane Parrish, and many more who we are grateful to have on board.
Second, we’re expanding our Clubs product by opening it up to a small number of third parties. We’re already working with some incredible folks to launch new clubs, and would love to add more. If you have a vision for creating the best place on the internet for kids to go deep on an interest, we’d love to chat – whether you’re an individual or an organization.
Third, we’re launching Primer Microschools. It’s impossible to build the education system that the next generation deserves without crossing the chasm from online to offline. We’re running directly towards this problem and launching a network of Primer Microschools – starting in Miami, FL.
These Microschools will be full-day, in-person schools and will be live in August for the 2022-23 school year. Students will engage in rigorous core academics, learn from world-class educators, and have hours each day to go deep on projects inspired by their passions. You can learn more and join the waitlist here, both in Miami and in other cities as we expand. We’ll share more on this soon.
Lastly, we’re hiring. We’re a small team of 15 based in San Francisco, and if our goal of building a new kind of education system resonates with you – we’d love to chat.
