Every classroom has a select group of students that always participate. These students tend to be loud, extroverted and comfortable with sharing their ideas. But what about the students that don't feel comfortable yelling out or writing the incorrect answer on the board in front of the whole class?
New Denver startup, mcSquares, aims to solve this, making classrooms and offices more collaborative as a whole.
mcSquares, pronounced "emcee squares," is a tiled whiteboard system with individual boards, about the size of a laptop, that can be assembled together on the wall with brackets. Additionally, the company has recently developed an app, which allows users to take a photo of the whole wall, but also saves each individual whiteboard as its own picture.
mcSquares was started by EffectiveUI founder, Anthony Franco. He came up with the idea, after selling EffectiveUI to WPP in 2012, when he noticed that the traditional whiteboard was getting in the way of good collaboration. He felt that often the input of introverts was lost and wanted to give everyone their own private space for their ideas to lead to total group participation.
mcSquares advertises their product to a wide-range of industries, including restaurants, doctors' offices, and general businesses. However, the dominant buyer of mcSqaures has been schools and universities. According to the Denver Business Journal, virtually every university in Colorado is using the product.
The company is currently being run out of Franco's home in Broomfield, with nine employees. mcSquares is looking to grow quickly, and has been looking for a new space in downtown Denver, as well as looking into taking on venture capital investors to fuel their growth. The company hopes to develop software focused towards teachers' lesson plan materials.
The mcSquares blog includes videos on installation, the app, FAQs, and 1001 ways to be creative with mcSquares.
Learn more about mcSquares:
Denver Business Journal: This tech startup aims to disrupt the whiteboard. Really.
BizWest: Broomfield startup mcSquares reshaping classrooms, boardrooms.