Loving parents always want to know how their children are doing in school. Brightwheel’s daycare management app can help solve this problem by allowing parents and teachers to communicate with each other easily. Founder Dave Vasen received investment from Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca on Shark Tank. As of 2024, Brightwheel is valued at over $600 million.
Dave Vasen’s Background
Dave Vasen is from San Francisco, California. He graduated from Stanford University and holds an MBA from the Wharton School. Before becoming an entrepreneur, he worked in various companies and gained extensive experience.
Watson got his first job in the quality assurance department at Electronic Arts in 1999. He subsequently had brief stints at Morgan Stanley, Cisco Systems, SeasonTicket.com and Teach for America.
In 2004, Dave worked as a senior associate consultant at Bain & Company. Three years later, he was hired as a consultant for LookFlow and Tempo AI. He also held several product manager positions at Amazon.
Building Brightwheel
Watson’s day job was developing software applications for Fortune 500 companies. However, after his daughter Serena was born, his career goals changed. He wanted to watch his daughter grow up instead of focusing on work.
This inspired him to develop a program for his daughter’s education, and in 2014 he launched a prototype for Brightwheel called KidCasa. Using this management software, teachers can inform parents of everything that happens in the classroom.
The app was specifically targeted at daycare centers and kindergartens. When the final version of the app was ready, the startup rebranded to a more professional name. Dave did an excellent job growing the startup, focusing on working with schools rather than revenue. He had signed up 2,500 schools and raised $2.2 million from angel investors before he hit the wall.
Shark Tank Appearance
Dave Watson had not originally planned to be on Shark Tank, but he auditioned for Season 7 because the filming location was close to where he worked. He went on the show in 2016 and asked for $400,000 in exchange for a 4% stake.
To some sharks, that valuation was a bit too high, but the entrepreneur wasn’t afraid to explain why it was justified. He claimed he was revolutionizing early childhood education with Brightwheel.
Kevin O’Leary and guest investor Chris Sacca both offered $400,000 for a 4.85% stake. After a minor dispute with Sacca, Cuban teamed up with the tech entrepreneur and offered $600,000 for a 6.67% stake. Poor Kevin O’Leary was left out of the deal at the last minute!
After Shark Tank
Brightwheel adopted a freemium business model, which attracted more schools. This helped the company raise more funds after the show aired to fuel its growth.
The app raised another $10 million in 2017 through a Series A round led by Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca. The following year, it raised another $21 million in a Series B round led by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, run by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan.
Shark Tank profiled Dave Vasen in 2018, who revealed that the app is currently used in 25,000 schools. In February 2021, Brightwheel raised an additional $55 million in investment. The company is just getting started, with revenue recently reaching $13.8 million and is currently valued at over $600 million!
Considering the company was valued at $9 million on Shark Tank, Sacca and Cuban have made a 60x return on their initial investment. Chris is no doubt annoyed that he has to share the gains with Mark! Despite the slowdown, Brightwell is still hiring and looking to bring on more talent in marketing, engineering, and product.
Categories: Shark Tank
Source: svlsf.edu.vn