Tap to Learn
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
TapToLearn, operating as June Software Inc, was an educational app studio founded by Roby John in the Pune and Palo Alto area. Part of Y Combinator's Winter 2012 batch, it built game-based learning apps for children from kindergarten through middle school, including Grammar App, Fractions App, Spelling Hero and GRE Flash Cards, claiming over a million users and tens of millions of downloads.
02 / Tap to Learn FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors supported by the current evidence
The available evidence points to a broken business model in a tough market. TapToLearn relied on one-time app purchases, which capped revenue potential compared with subscription models, while acquiring users in the kids' education market was expensive relative to what each user brought in. After burning through its funding, the company collapsed around 2015; founder Roby John later went on to build the gaming studio SuperGaming.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
TapToLearn joined Y Combinator's Winter 2012 batch building educational games for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, and later ImagineK12.
- Funding round
June Software raised over $1 million from investors including Ron Conway, Andreessen Horowitz, Yuri Milner, Khosla Ventures, Shasta Ventures and the Start Fund.
- Operations ended
The company collapsed around 2015; founder and CEO Roby John's tenure ended in June 2015 and the startup is listed as inactive.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Found an edtech app studio and join Y Combinator's Winter 2012 batch.
- 02
Raise over $1 million from top-tier Silicon Valley investors.
- 03
Sell one-time-purchase kids' apps in a market with high acquisition costs and burn through funding.
- 04
Collapse around 2015; the founder moves on to build SuperGaming.