Gavin Cooney, CEO of Learnosity, shares his insights with New Enterprise Development students

Tech entrepreneur Gavin Cooney joined us in DCU Business School on Thursday 29th October to deliver a keynote address to the final year module, New Enterprise Development. During the highly engaging lecture, Gavin offered rich insights on how to build and scale a software business positioned toward a global audience. Gavin is the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Learnosity. He started Learnosity to realise a grand ambition: to give education the standard of technology it deserves. Having taught at third level himself as a lecturer of information systems at University College Dublin, Gavin knows first-hand just how difficult it is to keep students engaged and on track. Frustrated by the sluggish rate of innovation within assessment products, Gavin came to understand that application programming interfaces (APIs) had the potential to supercharge the whole industry.

What began as a project in a garden shed has matured into an internationally renowned technology company with a 90-strong crew of problem-solvers. Gavin co-founded Learnosity with longtime buddy and exceptional engineer, Mark Lynch, who is now the Chief Technology Officer of the company. Starting small, the pair founded Learnosity as an education technology consultancy business. The company’s defining moment came in 2011 when Learnosity found its niche and shifted to a software-as-a-service model. Following more than a decade of proven results, Learnosity now powers the learning experience for 21 million monthly active users.”

“When we order a pizza using UBER Eats, the company navigate the pizza to you using Google Maps. The decision for UBER to use existing map platforms such as Google Maps is a good example of an API. Gavin and his team in Learnosity have created an API whereby existing educational providers use Learnosity platforms to service the global customer.” Dr Eric Clinton, DCU Business School.

Many thanks to Gavin for taking the time to share his story with our New Enterprise Development students!