JD

John Danner

Founder of Spark Space

San Francisco, California

Overview 

John Danner is a Co-Founder and CEO of Zeal Learning, a company that utilizes AI to enhance personalized learning for children. He has also co-founded Rocketship Education, a pioneering educational organization that focuses on blended learning models to improve student outcomes. Danner's career highlights include founding successful educational ventures, such as Zeal Learning and Rocketship Education, that have positively impacted the field of online and personalized learning for children. Additionally, he has invested in and advised numerous companies in the education and media/content sectors, showcasing his commitment to advancing innovative learning solutions.

Work Experience 

SS

Spark Space

  • Co-Founder and Chairman

    2024 - Current

    We are using AI to help kids on Roblox be amazing creators.

Project Read AI

  • Co-Founder

    2023

    Our AI co-teacher creates decodable stories for students to practice reading at their current decoding level, including mistakes from past levels in each story. Students then read to us and we give feedback on their decoding mistakes. In this way, teachers can have every student in their class practice reading with a one on one coach every day.

B

BloomTech

  • Investor and Board Member

    2018

G

GetSetup

  • Investor and Advisor

    2020

GetSetup is a social learning platform that offers classes and social opportunities to help older adults.

Raised $20,036,280.00 from Manulife Financial.

getsetup.io
M

Maven

  • Investor and Advisor

    2020

Maven Car Sharing is a smart alternative to traditional car rental.

maven.com
O

Outschool

  • Investor and Advisor

    2018 - 2023

Outschool is a marketplace of live online classes for kids that connects learners, parents, and teachers together.

Raised $240,220,000.00 from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Tiger Global Management, Union Square Ventures, Coatue, FundersClub, SV Angel, Bond and Reach Capital.

outschool.com
DC

Danner Capital

  • Angel Investor

    2018 - 2022

    Investor in over 40 edtech companies. In 2021, I turned my focus to crypto and defi. I am now investing in web3 companies of all flavors.

Danner Capital is an investment firm.

Zeal Learning

  • Co-Founder and CEO

    2013 - 2018

    Solving Bloom's 2 Sigma Problem by combining machine learning and live coaches to reduce the cost of K-12 math tutoring from $50/hr to $1/hr with better results than legacy tutoring. Sold June 2018 to The Academy Group.

RE

Rocketship Education

  • Co-Founder and CEO

    2005 - 2013

    Rocketship Education is the leading blended school system in the United States, combining online and classroom instruction. When i left in 2013, Rocketship was serving 3500 students in 7 schools and were the highest performing low-income school system in California. Because of its unique model, Rocketship is the first scalable charter school system, growing at 50% annually for the past five years. They pay and support their teachers significantly more than traditional non-blended schools. Their mission is to eliminate the achievement gap in our lifetimes.

MN

Metro Nashville Public Schools

  • Public school teacher

    2002 - 2005

    I taught for three years in traditional public schools. my first position was as a fifth grade teacher serving a 98% poverty predominantly african-american student body and the last two years as a second grade teacher in a high poverty school serving mostly immigrant students from many countries. If you haven't taught, you should.

Education 

Investments 

Odyssey

Seed

Total funding: $77M

FourthRev

Pre Seed

Total funding: $11M

Stoa

Seed

Total funding: $1M

Geniebook

Series A

Total funding: $17M

Articles About John

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