Pressto New Year update ??

When my son Graham was in kindergarten, I volunteered to start up an elementary school newspaper. I spoke with teachers, principals & superintendents and my friend Eric Adams who, at the time, was Brooklyn Borough President.?One teacher suggested that we turn this idea into a business, so that we could help millions of kids, instead of just one Brooklyn public school.

We started?Pressto?with the mission of getting kids excited about writing and bringing journalism back into the classroom. Kids struggle with writing, and this impacts their achievement across the curriculum. Teachers have run out of options, and parents don't know how to invest in their kids' writing success.

We had over 1,000 signups in the last week of December. Look how far we’ve come!

???Highlights:

• Kids like Pressto?← Cannot overemphasize the magic of this.
• Received contract from the NYC Dept of Ed (50+ classrooms). ??
• Key additions to our team (welcome Gemma, Dan & Nic!).
• Announcing partnership with Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Karen Hunter to expand Pressto across the African diaspora. (link)?
• Received a term sheet?for our next funding round. ??

???Key Metrics:

• 90% of students returned?(data taken from Smartlook)
• Pilot schools all returned for multiple units?

?? Product:

• We had a rostering waitlist of 56 classrooms at the end of Nov, so we have “closed the front door” and are now steadily adding to our Waitlist.
• We have huge conviction for our next four release dates, (March, May, June, Aug) leading up to Sept. 2022 (back-to-school) when we’ll have a best-in-class writing tool for students, schools, and families.

?? Shout Outs:

• Congrats to Mayor Eric Adams.?Our Junior Journalism program with his office has a small army of late elementary and middle-schoolers making news.

You can read an early (unpublished) draft of our white paper about Cognitive Behavior Therapy and K12 Education?here.

Lots of love from the hardworking team at Pressto! ??

And don't forget - You can join us at joinpressto.com