George Burgess is a serial entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Gojimo, a UK-based provider of study assistance applications for students. He was titled one of Britain's six most exciting young entrepreneurs by Forbes, and "One to watch on London's Tech Start Up Scene" by the Evening Standard.
At 15 years old, Burgess ran his own eBay shop, becoming a powerseller and turning over £36,000 a year. He also ran a videography company with a friend while at school, which served five schools. By the age of 17, he had founded EducationApps, a startup publisher that produces educational content for mobile phones, and counts the BBC, Pearson, and Oxford University Press as partners. Media accounts have made light of his being caught emailing a freelance app developer by his Geography teacher Will Williams, who resultantly became his first business adviser. Having established EducationApps Ltd. the EducationApps range grew to over a hundred subject-specific apps.
In March 2013, Burgess dropped out of his undergraduate degree at Stanford University to pursue his revision apps business full-time. Later that year, he raised over $1 million in seed capital from Index Ventures and JamJar Investments and launched the app at BETT 2014. Gojimo is now the UK's most successful exam preparation app and is expanding around the world. The content spans mainly across the secondary school public exams syllabus in the UK and United States such as GCSEA Level and the SAT. As of January 2015 the app has been installed over 500,000 times. Burgess has grown the company from a team of two to fourteen. The app currently offers content for various subjects for UK exams: 11+ Common Entrance, 13+ Common Entrance, GCSE and A-Level; US Exams: SAT, ACT and AP; and international undergraduate and IGCSE qualifications. The subjects offered vary between qualifications but include Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Geography, History, Maths, Law, Politics, Religious Studies, English, Latin, Spanish, German, Psychology and Design Technology. In addition to content which is generated by in-house writers and fact-checked by teachers, external publishers such as McGraw-Hill Education and Oxford University Press have created premium content for the app. There are currently 60,000 questions available across the different qualifications. Gojimo was a finalist of the Best App Category of BETT 2015.
Public Speaking
George has given numerous talks on the subjects of young entrepreneurship, mobile learning and achievement. He spoke at BETT 2015, on the subject "What can businesses do to ensure they provide edtech products that improve learner outcomes?". He gave a keynote speech at Create 2014, and spoke at Skills 2014. He has also spoken to numerous university entrepreneurs societies. In 2014 he was selected to participate in the UK's Great Tech Expedition to the US, a tour initiated by London Mayor Boris Johnson and UKTI. George is also occasionally invited to consult with policy makers, such as at a meeting at 10 Downing Street in January 2015 to discuss how the British Government can assist the growth of education technology. In November 2014 he spoke at the Institute of Directors on a panel shared with Shadow Business SecretaryChuka Umunna on the subject of young entrepreneurship.
