Noodle: John Katzman

About The Company:

Noodle is the first and only life-long education related search company in the world. We were started in 2011 by John Katzman, the founder of The Princeton Review and 2Tor. Our goal is to provide a recommendation engine to help anyone find educational opportunities at all levels, from K-12 to college, grad school, weekend classes, and professional development.

About John Katzman:

John’s innovative ideas about education have led him to found three companies: The Princeton Review, 2U, and Noodle itself. Before serving as Executive Director, he founded and worked as the CEO of 2U, an edtech company that partners with prestigious universities to offer online degree programs. In 1981, John founded The Princeton Review and served as its CEO until 2007. He also serves on the Board of several for- and non-profit organizations, and is the author and co-author of five books and numerous articles.

Q&A With John

Why are you an entrepreneur?

I love creating and being part of a high-performing, engaged, compelling community trying to solve a big problem. I love making something out of nothing, and creating the rules.

What can a fellow learn from you?

To put together solutions and good people, and then to intervene only as necessary

What Will Your Fellow Be Exposed To?

Depends on what our Fellow wants to learn. We can bring them into any number of divisions, including marketing, content, engineering, or product (front-end web design).

What do you expect out of a fellow?

We need people who look for things that aren’t getting done and do them. Be bold–in a good startup, responsibility is taken, not given.

What makes your startup unique?

We are trying to do something big and difficult—become the LinkedIn or Google of education. That means we’re reasonably well-funded (staff is about 25 people), but means that an MVP (minimally viable product) won’t do–this will take iteration, thought, and work