How This EdTech Entrepreneur Got GoNoodle Into 600,000 Classrooms

Last week, I had the chance to chat with Scott McQuigg, CEO and co-founder of GoNoodle to learn about his journey through the edtech ecosystem, and how he landed in 40% of elementary classrooms across the U.S.

GoNoodle was founded in 2013 after six months of beta testing with teachers. They design mobile games, interactive activities and kid-friendly videos that give children time to move around in the classroom or at home. The videos can range in length from two to ten minutes and are geared toward students in kindergarten through sixth grade. They cover a variety of activities that include exercise, dance, mindfulness, song, balance, and coordination.

With some estimates showing kids spending up to eight hours a day looking at screens, GoNoodle has taken the problem of screen time and worked with it, rather than trying to stop the use of screens altogether.

Since their founding, revenue has exceeded over $10 million, and 12 million kids play GoNoodle each month. Over 40% of all elementary age children in the U.S. take part in their activities.

600,000 teachers use GoNoodle in their classrooms. In the past year alone, GoNoodle has generated more than 5 billion minutes of physical activity. Their customers include teachers, schools, school districts, three-dozen hospitals, and Fortune 500 companies that underwrite the use of GoNoodle in their states and communities.

They have users in 185 countries, from South Africa to Sweden, and from China to Columbia. The majority of GoNoodle’s users play at school, and kids are playing at home, too. Over 2 million children have parent-verified accounts.

In this interview, which has been edited and condensed, McQuigg talks about how to get an edtech product into a classroom.

Robyn Shulman: What were you doing before GoNoodle and how did you get here today?

Scott McQuigg: My background is as an entrepreneur in health information and health education. And while this background made me keenly aware of how society too often focuses on medical treatment versus going upstream to focus on health prevention, the real motivation for GoNoodle came from my experiences as a parent -- how do we get our kids, members of the digital generation, to participate in more physical play. When I was young, playing outside was a norm, and it contributed significantly to our physical, social and emotional health.

My co-founders and I realized our kids, and their friends were not moving as much as we did. While there are many factors in this generational change, we saw screen time as one of the key culprits. We understood that fighting screen time with digital natives was a losing battle, so we decided to use technology to turn screen time into active time.

Shulman: How does GoNoodle do that?

McQuigg: We created videos and games that deliver up fun modeled movement that gets kids running, jumping, dancing, and even practicing moments of mindfulness. Most of GoNoodle’s videos and games take less than 5 minutes to complete, which makes it easy for teachers to incorporate movement throughout the school day while injecting some much needed physical activity for students.

Shulman: How did you finance GoNoodle?

McQuigg: GoNoodle raised capital from two venture investors who have investments in health and wellness, education, and technology.

Shulman: How does GoNoodle make money? What’s the business model?

McQuigg: GoNoodle is a freemium model; any teacher, parent or kid in anywhere in the world can sign up to play for free. GoNoodle’s premium version, GoNoodle Plus, is optimized for schools bringing movement and core subjects together for kinesthetic learning; GoNoodle Plus is available on subscription basis and is purchased by teachers, schools, districts, and community sponsors.

Shulman: One challenge many edtech entrepreneurs face is getting their product into the classroom. How did you do it?

McQuigg: Given all of our backgrounds, we knew we could have the greatest impact if we put teachers at the top of the equation. You can’t reach or scale visibility if the user is not forefront. If one teacher was interested, we knew we could potentially reach 20-25 students. Most of our success came from reaching teachers first. We built a community of teachers who love to use GoNoodle and understood its benefits. We call them “our tribe.”

Shulman: How exactly did you reach them?

McQuigg: Our team came together, and we decided to ask teachers from our personal and professional networks. For example, I reached out to some of my children’s teachers and asked them to participate. We found the quality of discussion was more important than the quantity. The beta test gave us lots of feedback, and we continue to build from that business model.

Shulman: What are some key things you learned while working with teachers?

McQuigg: John Herbold, our Chief Operating Officer, and co-founder is a former Sr. Product Manager at Apple. He already knew that if we wanted to make a product scale, it had to be straightforward and easy to use. We found the same reasoning resonated with educators.

For teachers, a product needs to be quickly accessible, easy to implement, and creates an immediate ROI. Also, the kids must love it, too. We learned that a teacher’s day is filled with work and activities from the moment he/she wakes up, and it doesn’t end when the last bell rings. Give teachers something they can use under 5 minutes that doesn’t take any additional time from their day, and you can have something teachers will want, especially when it helps with classroom behavior. Teachers can be resistant to anything that is cumbersome. They especially do not want tools that require more training or additional professional development.

Shulman: You specifically mentioned three areas that were key to growth: immediate ROI, simplicity, and engagement. Can you elaborate on these three?

McQuigg: First, for teachers, we made sure there was an immediate ROI each time they used GoNoodle. For example, a short burst of physical activity with GoNoodle yields better behavior, better focus, and better classroom cohesion, right away.

Second, we made it simple to use. If a teacher can push “play,” they can use GoNoodle.

Third, for kids, GoNoodle is among the most fun things they get to do at school. We knew that if GoNoodle was a hit with kids, and it was straightforward and purposeful for teachers, there would be lots of social sharing by both groups about GoNoodle. In education, edtech entrepreneurs must deliver solutions that make current instruction time more efficient and impactful. Keep in mind; schools are not adding more minutes to the day. Many entrepreneurs can look inside their world, find a problem and create a viable solution. They don’t have to be great at everything, try and be great at one thing.

Shulman: What are some areas that aspiring edtech entrepreneurs should know about when communicating with teachers?

McQuigg: Our worlds are completely different. We do not share business vernacular with our teachers.  An edtech entrepreneur should never use words like disruption or capital when talking about their products or services; these words have no meaning to a teacher and can have a negative impact. Edtech entrepreneurs should take time to understand and share an educator’s vernacular. They also need to think about how they interact with teachers. When entrepreneurs approach teachers, they should come with questions about how they could help them, not with answers. They should never act as if they know how to solve the problems teacher face daily in a classroom. Quite often, we visit classrooms, chat with teachers and watch how the kids are enjoying the activities. And sometimes, we even participate.

Shulman:Do you have further advice for other edtech entrepreneurs?

McQuigg: While there are many highs to being an entrepreneur, you are going to fly through some turbulence as you build a company. Having a strong mission is sustenance to dealing with the bumps along the way. In the case of GoNoodle, our mission of getting kids moving so they can be their best selves serves as beacon for how we address both the opportunities and challenges that naturally arise.

Shulman: Finally, what’s on the horizon for GoNoodle in 2017?

McQuigg: We are focused on two key objectives: one is obvious, get kids more minutes of physical activity, the second, is making movement and learning even more integrated. In the past year, we’ve inspired kids to earn over 5 billion minutes of physical activity right in their classrooms playing GoNoodle. And, we know more minutes of movement yield significant results for growing kids bodies and brains. We believe movement should be a part of every learning experience, that is why we continue to add new videos and games that bring physical activity and core subjects together to make every classroom an active learning environment. An excellent example of our new content is the recently released Blazer Fresh video “Think Like a Scientist,” where the hip-hop trio has kids moving and singing about theorizing and hypothesizing. It’s an incredibly catchy song that has kids moving and thinking like young scientists.

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