Every kid has either a little rockstar, sportmen, musician or an artists in them. However, the challenge lies in identifying this very special talent and harboring it. Also, most of the time, parents have no idea where and how to look for the right classes and activities that highlights their kid’s distinct abilities.
Thus, in a world that is academically focused, Thrively is a breath of fresh air that gives parents an opportunity to identify and nurture their kid’s passion and talents. Thrively is an awesome app which firmly believes that every child has a beautiful combination of passion and unique strengths in which they absolutely thrive.
It’s Thrively’s mission to uncover that genius in everyone! With its helps you now get access to valuable camps and classes to support your kids’ passion without breaking the bank.
Meet the Artisans of Thrively!
This web app was co-founded by Girish Venkat and Jon Kraft. The duo is passionate about everything Thrively represents.
Girish is a lifelong entrepreneur who has spent his career building innovative technology. He developed the original vision for Thrively as he and his wife struggled to identify the right opportunities for their two children.
Jon is the father of 3 children, ages 7 to 14, and has been active in the community working with kids as a youth sports coach for more than 30 years. He was also the founding CEO of Pandora, and he has spent most of his career as an entrepreneur developing recommendation engines around highly complex information sets.
What is Thrively About?
People tend to develop passions around activities that fit their natural abilities. Some are lucky enough to discover these passions early in life, some later, while some never discover them. Thrively was conceptualized to help children get started at this critical and fun pursuit as early as possible. This app helps kids discover and pursue their passions in life. It mainly focuses on children’s strengths and introduces them to activities where they are most likely to thrive.
Wondering how do they know what’s best for your kid? Well there are some beautiful sciences involved. Thrively’s Strength Assessment – developed in collaboration with leading pediatric neuropsychologists – explores over 23 strengths to provide a detailed profile for each child.
“We’ve curated over 120,000 activities, and we recommend them based on children’s strengths and interests. Our career pages give kids the opportunity to explore their dream careers, highlighting activities that build critical skills for each field, and introducing videos that show a “day in the life” of almost any career you can think of”, adds the team.
What Problem is Thrively Solving?
Parents’ resources in terms of finding out about some cool classes or activities for their kids are seriously limited. Even if they do stumble upon something exciting it is usually through word of mouth or advertising. In both scenarios, it requires knowing the right people or being in the right place at the right time in order to discover an opportunity that might be life-changing for a child or teen.
“Our solution is beautiful because we take a whole child approach. There are many solutions out there that focus on assessing kids in an academic or clinical way, but there’s something important and beautiful about incorporating a whole child perspective into this kind of process. Families are ultimately looking to help their kids find the right path for them, and you can’t really find that without understanding the child beyond just their test scores”, adds the team.
What Inspired it All?
Girish’s son has a friend whose mom could be described as a “super mom” – one minute she’s sending her son to a gifted summer program at Johns Hopkins, and the next he’s attending an improv comedy camp to “stay grounded”.
Girish had no idea where she had found these programs, and was internally adding up all the hours it would take to do the proper research if he had to find them on his own. He started asking himself the question, “Why should parents have to know the right people or spend hours researching programs just to find something that is a good fit for their kids?”. It was this very question that triggered the thought of having an app that efficiently solved this problem.
On Challenges Faced & Competitors
The team’s biggest challenge was to tear themselves away from their current obligations. The first time Girish pitched Jon the idea for Thrively, he was in the middle of working with Bill Gross at Idealab to get a company called UberMedia off the ground, and they desperately needed a CTO.
Although he loved Girish’s vision, he also knew he couldn’t abandon his other project, so he turned the tables on him and recruited him to be their CTO. Girish and Jon worked together for over two years at Ubermedia, but ultimately the urge to develop Thrively was so strong that they set out to build it.
In terms of competitors, the app does have a few potential ones as it involves multiple concepts. There are a couple of players in the strength assessment space, most notably Gallup Strength Explorer. But their assessment result is really a stand-alone offering, and their business is predominantly focused on exploring academic and career fits.
There are also a number of players in the activity directory space, but unlike Thrively, they do not do any kind of personalization, nor do they connect their activities to broader life paths and opportunities.
On Expansion Plans & Target Audience
“We see our company as an essential tool to help families uncover the right opportunities for their kids, and to open doors to the pathways that help them find their passions. Ultimately, we want to blaze the trails for society to institutionalize the notion that we have to help kids discover their passions in life as part of their core education. Thus, we are building partnerships with school systems, home school networks, and other core institutions that are part of developing happy, successful, “whole children”, says the team.
Also, anyone that can derive value from this platform is their targeted audience. However, Thrively has a soft spot for and loves working with families that have children in middle school.
What Is Their Plans For Monetizing the App?
The team plans on rolling out premium features that can be subscribed to at a nominal charge. Further, they also plan on engaging in an affiliate revenue model with the activity vendors on the site.
To sum it all up, Thrively helps you unlock your kid’s potential. With this brilliant app your customized menu of extracurricular programs, online courses, and educational apps is just a click away.
