Kim Taylor (entrepreneur)

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Kim Taylor
Born1981 or 1982 (age 41–42)[1]
Madison, Wisconsin, US[2]
Alma materArizona State University
OccupationEntrepreneur

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]

Career[edit]

Taylor attended college at a Marquette University 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[edit]

  1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Newton, Derek (April 19, 2018). "Finding Entrepreneurial Solutions To The Career Education Pipeline Problem". Forbes. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  5. ^ a b c d e 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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