This week Eric Adams became the first New York City Mayor-elect to have dyslexia. Along the campaign trail, Adams said his diagnosis was later in life and that universal early screening is a top priority for his administration as the lack of proper diagnosis can have significant consequences. For example. nearly 50% of the prison population is estimated to be dyslexic, roughly double that of the general population. Employment opportunities, graduation rates, and mental health are all adversely impacted, as compared to peers, by undiagnosed learning disabilities as well. Marker Learning is an online telepsychology platform that provides online diagnosis and assessment of learning disabilities to ensure that students are provided with the appropriate interventions to ensure their long-term success. The platform uses John Hopkin’s neuropsychologists that administer learning disability evaluations remotely for a fraction of the cost of traditional evaluations, which can run in excess of $10K per diagnosis.
AlleyWatch caught up with Marker Learning CEO and Cofounder Stefan Bauer to learn more about how the founding team’s personal experience with learning disabilities led to the AHA moment to build the business, the company’s future plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Primary Venture Partners, Operator Partners, Divergent Investments, Night Ventures. It was Seed round and we raised $4M.
Tell us about the product or service that Marker Learning offers.
We provide learning disability evaluations and services to students remotely, though our network of psychologists and learning disability specialists
What inspired the start of Marker Learning?
This is an issue I am deeply passionate about – I was on track to fail out of school before my mom paid thousands of dollars to have me evaluated for learning disabilities. Once I was diagnosed with dyslexia, I succeeded in school, went on to Yale and worked at McKinsey for several years. The reality is that millions of students don’t have access to the same services I had and therefore fail to meet their full potential. Marker Learning has a mission to solve this problem by provide all families and schools with affordable and accessible best-in-class learning disability services.
How is Marker Learning different?
We’ve worked with Johns Hopkins psychologists to design the platform and created proprietary technology that allows Marker psychologists to administer gold standard evaluations remotely.
What market does Marker Learning target and how big is it?
1 in 5 students has dyslexia.
What’s your business model?
We seek to provide families and schools with best-in-class learning disability evaluations and services through our platform and technology.
What are your post-COVID office plans??
Remote but we have an office in the West Village for those who want to work from it
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Expand our footprint nationally and grow the team
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
Rosemary’s in the West Village!
