How getting kids to build pink furry buildings is a key part of Microsoft’s $2.5 billion bet on Minecraft

Mojang

When Deirdre Quarnstrom first took the job as the head of
Minecraft for Education, she was given a very specific mandate:

“We want to change the world,” Mojang, the developer of
Minecraft, told Quarnstrom. 

On November 1st, Microsoft and Mojang will launch of
Minecraft: Education
Edition, a $5-per-student-per-year software
offering for the classroom.

This product forms the backbone of Mojang’s quest to change
the world, one student at a time. And it’s a big piece of how
Microsoft wants to make sure that Minecraft, which it got in
the $2.5 billion acquisition of Mojang,
sticks around for generations yet to come.

People already have the impression Minecraft is a
fabulous tool for getting kids excited about learning to
code. Quarnstrom says she understands that impression. After
all, you play Minecraft on a computer, and “people equate
computers with coding.”

But from Quarnstrom’s perspective, it could also be used to
teach all kinds of other stuff —  project management,
architecture, design, or any number of other important
skills. And it has the potential to totally change how kids
learn.

“We see Minecraft as something that can be foundational to
education,” she says. 

Pink fuzzy buildings

The idea of educational video games stretches back decades: Lots
of millennials have fond memories of playing games like
Oregon Trail or Math
Blaster during school hours. But those games were rarely used
as part of a lesson plan.

But Minecraft: Education Edition is pitched as a major
learning tool, the same way students might rely on Microsoft Word
and PowerPoint.

During the beta testing period, which spanned 35,000 students in
100 schools, teachers were using Minecraft to teach stuff like
architecture by having a real-life architect come in, demonstrate
what a brutalist building might look like, and then instantly
cover it in pink fur to demonstrate how much materials
matter. 

Or, instead of assigning a shoebox diaroma of the First
Thanksgiving, why not have the whole class work together to build
a themed Minecraft world, and then act out the scene? Or build a
scale model of the Taj Mahal as a class, assigning everybody a
role in its construction? Microsoft will also be offering
resources with suggestions for teachers.

Quarnstrom says Minecraft: Education Edition had 35,000 students
in 100 schools using it during the beta testing phase. 

Kids
learn how to code with Minecraft at a Microsoft
event.
Donald Traill/ AP Images for
Microsoft

 

Kids already know and love Minecraft, its world, and how to build
to their heart’s content. That love translates into a much higher
engagement with lessons run in the virtual world, Quarnstrom
says, and leads to a more participatory, fun way to teach vital
skills.

“That’s where the magic happens,” Quarnstrom says.

Schoolcraft

One big challenge, Quarnstrom says, is to make sure that the
game stays fun, even when they’re supposed to be learning
something. To that end, Minecraft’s signature crates of TNT make
an appearance in Education Edition, just for fun. Teachers
get tools to gather up students who may go walkabout during
lessons, to balance.

It may be a little while before teachers are assigning Minecraft
homework. But because the two versions are so similar, it
encourages students to keep on experimenting with whatever they
learned in class that day, while they’re playing Minecraft at
home.

Another hurdle, Quarnstrom says, is getting in front of teachers
in the first place. Selling software to schools is an arduous
process: Different school districts have different rules for how
they buy technology, for starters, making it kind of a minefield
to sell at the necessary scales.

Minecraft:
Education Edition includes teacher-focused features like a camera
that lets you replay what a student just did for the rest of the
class.
Mojang/Microsoft

That’s where Microsoft comes in. Microsoft already has
relationships with school districts all over the world thanks to
Microsoft Office, giving Mojang and Minecraft a big foot in the
door. Plus, students log in to Minecraft Education Edition with
their Office 365 accounts, which means the kids’ accounts are up
to Microsoft’s high bar for security.

Going forward, Quarnstrom sees Minecraft: Education Edition
integrating with other Microsoft products like Skype, letting
teachers do things like have special guest-lecturers in their
Minecraft lessons. 

In the shorter-term, though, Quarnstrom thinks Minecraft is
primed to make a big impact in education. There are more tablets
and laptops entering the classroom than ever before, she notes,
and teachers are looking to find new ways to engage their
students in this digital world.

“The world is ready for game-based learning,” Quarnstrom says.

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So you want to sell to banks?

---

GUEST:

If you ask almost any early-stage B2B FinTech startup selling to banks what their biggest challenge is, the answer you’ll likely get is “sales.”

Although interest in FinTech from incumbent institutions has surged over the past few years, getting to initial pilots and contracts with banks is a challenging process for any early FinTech company. Many B2B FinTech companies will experience a 6-12 month sales cycle to get to pilot. After the financial crisis, banks have become more risk-averse, tightening their compliance processes, and startups often must navigate through multiple decision makers and legacy systems.

As an investor at Matrix, an early-stage venture capital firm, I spend a lot of time looking at FinTech. I wanted share some best practices from companies both inside and outside our portfolio who have had success in selling to banks, as well as from representatives at regional and national banks who make the purchasing decisions.

1. Find a champion

Find the individual at the right level within the organization who can endorse the product. This individual can help walk a company into places where there may be a back-and-forth conversation (about compliance, for example). At TrueAccord, for example, the full sales team is focused on identifying and reaching the individual who can champion the product. Every Friday, a group of salespeople and executives at the company will do a strategy session on the top accounts, and salespeople will voice the resources they need to move certain accounts forward, from investor introductions to additional collateral.

Successful sales teams also maintain a regular cadence with their champions, arming them with new, relevant information and providing details on their progress with other accounts.

According to an executive at a national bank, one of the biggest mistakes startups make is not keeping their champion updated on their progress: “I will sometimes make introductions inside the organization for a company and then never hear from them again. I want to know how the discussions are progressing and how I can help.”

2. Come prepared to educate the client and share your materials

FinTech sales often look different from a traditional enterprise software sale. “You are part consultant, part salesperson,” says Bill Ervin, the senior VP of business development, at Mirador. “We look for people with experience in banking or ERP software on our sales team.” Banks will want their vendors to understand their internal and regulatory processes. “We show our customers that we are not just a technology company but that we know the business processes and the industry,” says Brian Kneafsey, head of sales at Blend. On topics like blockchain, the conversations with banks can be half academic, half commercial.

Furthermore, banks will typically want a substantial amount of detail before moving ahead with a proof of concept (POC). In the initial conversation, coming equipped with collateral that explains the product and contains a detailed appendix can be helpful for a bank representative who will likely be sharing your materials with 6-7 other individuals. Over the course of the sales process, banks will often ask for details about the security of the platform, financials, and compliance. “You need to have all your ducks in a row. Banks will want to know exactly how you are doing things,” says Ty Bennion, senior VP of global sales at HyperWallet. “You need to be able to say here is my backup documentation, and anticipate potential questions about the offering.”

3. Articulate the project plan early

A traditional bank will often ask a vendor to talk to a number of departments before proceeding. These conversations may also be spread several months apart. Coming prepared for the initial conversations with a suggested project plan and playbook before POc can significantly expedite the process and increase a client’s confidence in the team. “Try to plan to work as much as possible in parallel paths,” Joe Gelbard, the Chief Revenue Officer of True Accord, advises. “When selling to a bank, you may have to speak to operations, vendor risk management, legal, and a number of other divisions, each of which take time. If you can coordinate some of these steps, it can significantly shorten your sales cycle.” It is important to be specific with timelines in a conversation without being pushy. Banks are often significantly more interested once they have seen the startup execute a playbook successfully with another bank.

Furthermore, it is important to ask questions about decision-makers, processes, and budget early in the conversation. “You want to ask questions early because it can be hard late in the game,” says Kneafsey at Blend. “There can be a lot of nuances inside a bank.” Understanding how products move successfully through the organization and getting the organization’s thoughts around the budget (e.g., is it an established budget? Given many banks will plan in advance, what year is the budget for?) can be incredibly helpful for the prioritization and forecasting of your pipeline.

4. Beware of scope creep

As more people from the bank’s side become involved in a project, many startups have experienced the problem of scope creep. As an early-stage company with limited resources, it is important to stay as focused on the core product as possible.

Often, having representation from legal and compliance as early as possible can help mitigate issues in these areas down the road. Aligning on the base requirements in advance and having the champion involved in the conversations can help prevent scope creep.

5. Align on the goals of the POC and try to limit the use of the bank’s resources

Banks are unlikely to invest significant time and resources into a POC. The less integration required, the faster the process can typically move. “We try to place the least amount of burden on the engineering team as possible until there is a firm commitment,” says Gelbard of TrueAccord. The first POC for an early stage company may not result in revenue. It is more important to find the right partner who is responsive with early feedback and can invest the right time and resources to make the product successful.

It is also important to have clear goals from the POC. “You need to agree on the KPIs before the POC so you can point to delivering them,” says Bennion of HyperWallet. Furthermore, many successful startups share a clear path with potential customers about getting from POC to live contract. This information can be documented in the contract, and some companies also offer incentives to prompt the bank to go live by a certain date.

6. Land and expand

This strategy has been successful for a number of FinTech companies. Some startups have adopted “light” versions of the product that may not have the same credit and compliance requirements. Others will try to get a portion of the bank’s business before aiming for a large contract. For example, TrueAccord asks a bank to provide it with a portion of the business it may be giving to other collection agencies to demonstrate the lift their product can provide. Other companies have gotten smaller departments live with their product, which has significantly eased the sales process with other departments within the company.

If you have any further thoughts or suggestions, please drop me a line at anoushka@matrixpartners.com or find me on Twitter @anoushkavaswani.

Thanks to Ty Bennion at HyperWallet, Bill Ervin at Mirador, Joe Gelbard at TrueAccord, and Brian Kneafsey at Blend as well as the banking executives who contributed to this post.

Anoushka Vaswani is an investor at Matrix Partners, where she focuses on FinTech and enterprise software. She is involved in the firm’s investments in Lever, Inflection, and GOAT and serves as a Board Observer for ACME Technologies and PayRange.

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12 Classic Sauces Everyone Should Be Able to Make, and How to Make Them

We’ve talked about sauces that everyone should be able to make, and all of the meal options they can go into, but this graphic packs 12 of them into one handy graphic. Master a few or all of them, and your dinners will never be boring again.

The graphic speaks for itself, but the sauces range from the classics, like bechamel (aka white sauce) and hollandaise (which can be tricky, but doesn’t have to be) to more interesting and modern sauces like chimichurri and sweet and sour. Measurements and instructions are included in the graphic (the one below is the US version, if you’re interested in the UK version, hit the link below.)

12 Classic Sauces and How To Make Them | QuickQuid

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I hate self-improvement but I love my dream journal app

This year I decided to set out on a journey of self-improvement. I took a playwriting class, bought a cookbook, started typing everything I ate into an app, signed up for a corporate gym membership, took my first selfies, made myself go to bed before 10 PM every night, bought seven nonfiction books, and called my grandmother on her birthday.

What do I have to show for it? Basically nothing. Except for my dream journal. Bless my dream journal. Oh sweet dream journal, keeper of secrets, prompter of aspirations, gateway into the subconscious sexual fantasies of strangers.

is it self-improvement if it doesn’t make you a more efficient worker?

Two weeks ago, I began experimenting with keeping a dream journal using the Dream Journal Ultimate app and it’s incredible. This is the one form of self-improvement I attempted that actually, at some point, led me to something outside of myself. (Not counting the fact that the gym membership led me to Kelley G, my spin instructor, whom I love!). I wasn’t simply more efficient, but, dare I say it, better realized.

The Dream Journal Ultimate app has lots of great features, such as the option to set a PIN to protect your digital dream journal. It seems like a wildly unnecessary security precaution, unless you’re afraid of Leo DiCaprio casing your brain for dream theft, though I admit a password does conjure a pinch of that familiar thrill of keeping a padlocked diary in middle school. A "reality alarm" interrupts a perfectly good night’s sleep to remind you to jot down your nighttime memories. The loud chime woke me up in the middle of a dream only twice, and both times I really resented it. Maybe it’s the colder weather, but I seem to only have dreams about snuggling now! Sure, I probably wouldn’t have remembered in the morning if an app hadn’t buzzed in my ear and made me write them down. But ultimately, I choose uninterrupted nights of healthy sleep over remembering dreams that I wish I’d never left.

Basically, the app would be largely forgettable if not for its best feature, the one that makes the case for using this app instead of a notepad: the "dream wall."

Dream Journal Ultimate

In Dream Journal Ultimate, you can choose to set individual dream entries to "public," making your dream recaps available to curious strangers — like me. Maybe you’re hoping for a little interpretation advice, maybe you just had a dream so weird and funny you can’t resist the urge to share. It’s a good way to get a chance to talk about your dreams with someone who is not your personal friend or lover — personal friends and lovers always tire of dream share time so quickly!

Dreams that are "public" show up in an endlessly scrolling feed called "the dream wall." You’re required to make a quick judgment call before you post as to whether your dream is appropriate for the eyes of children. I don’t mark any of my dreams "18 and older" because I don’t think we should be shielding America’s youth from the realities of crippling loneliness. Let them read about the time I dreamt that I was watching Vanderpump Rules and eating steamed carrots in my bed with nobody hahahahahaha. It’s good for them!

what’s the ulterior motive to sharing a dream?

Anyway, the fun part about seeing the "18 and older" label on everyone’s public dreams is that there is really no way to know why a dream is only appropriate for adults until you click on it. Sometimes it’s because the dream is violent, sometimes it’s because the dream is thematically weighty, in one instance it was because the dream contained spoilers for X-Men Apocalypse — but most of the time it’s because the dream is sexual.

I guess it shouldn’t have been surprising that people who had been invited to anonymously share the weirdest products of their sleeping brain with a sympathetic public really went for it. One user wrote about having sex as a fish, another wrote about being spontaneously pregnant with quadruplets in high school. My favorite dream-recorder’s poem was basically a poem:

I love all the dreams — the raunchy, the funny, the benign — because there’s no ulterior motive to sharing a dream. We are not discussing how well we succeeded at the Raw 30 Diet or comparing jogging routines or logging how many Theodor Adorno essays we have gotten through this month. We are just saying "my brain told me this weird story, what do you think?"

Sometimes, before bed, I like looking for patterns in my dreams and in the dreams of strangers. It reminds me of Sudoku, or high school English, where we spent weeks mining symbolism from the surface of mid-century lit. Dream Journal Ultimate does absolutely nothing to make me more productive. I am not a faster worker or a hotter person or a better member of civil society, but I do have a little non-demanding community of strangers who are willing to share their strangest nightmares, fantasies, and absurdist non-stories with me.

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Volkswagen’s long-distance EV, and more in the week that was

This week Elon Musk unveiled his long-awaited plan to establish a self-sustaining city on Mars – and he’s targeting a ticket price of about $100,000 per traveler. Meanwhile, Volkswagen showcased a breakthrough electric car that will cost less and travel further than the Tesla Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt. Aerovelo shattered a world speed record by hitting 89.59 mph in a super-streamlined bicycle, and we spotted a swap-in wheel that turns any bike into an electric vehicle in 60 seconds flat.

Big storms contain an immense amount of energy – so one engineer developed an innovative typhoon turbine that could power all of Japan for 50 years. A team of researchers in India unveiled a Solar Power Tree that can light 5 homes with just 4 square feet of land, while California’s Brightsource Energy inked a deal with China to install a massive mirrored solar farm. Elon Musk is planning to launch his next-gen solar roof and Powerwall 2.0 next month, and SunCulture Solar debuted a 100% integrated solar panel that sets up in a snap.

Beijing’s smog-fighting vacuum tower.

The world’s largest rooftop farm has risen in Brooklyn – and it runs on 100% renewable energy and produces 10 million pesticide-free crops every year. Mycologist Paul Stamets has developed a breakthrough insect-killing fungi that could give Monsanto a run for its money, and a student discovered a way to destroy superbug bacteria without antibiotics. In design and technology news, Daan Roosegaarde built a giant smog sucking vacuum that will clean the air in China, and Adidas lunched the world’s first shoe made almost entirely by robots. And we scoured the shows of the London Design Festival to bring you a first look at 15 brilliant new lamps.

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