ScrollEd wants to turn textbooks into TikTok

ScrollEd, a Palo Alto-based startup, aims to revolutionize how students interact with textbooks by transforming them into a feed reminiscent of TikTok or Instagram Reels. The company's app enables users to convert any text file, including PDFs and textbooks, into a scrolling format that presents content in the form of AI-generated videos, audio, text, or interactive quizzes.

Users can swipe up for a new topic and swipe sideways for deeper content within a specific topic, with a quiz awaiting at the end of each topic. ScrollEd's co-founder, Utsav Gupta, emphasizes the importance of catering to the younger generation's preference for short-form, vertical feed content, especially among 18-year-olds. The startup's co-founder and wife, Rebecca Neff, share the vision of creating a platform that better serves users while maintaining a focus on education.

Both Gupta and Neff, who are students themselves, noticed their dissatisfaction with doomscrolling before bedtime and decided to tackle the issue by developing ScrollEd. The startup is targeting educational institutions, corporate training programs, and individuals seeking an alternative to traditional social media. ScrollEd follows a freemium model, offering a free consumer feed along with a paid ScrollEd Pro subscription and annual institutional licenses, which provide institutions with access to data on engagement and lesson progress.

In the coming months, ScrollEd plans to focus on its consumer launch, expand its lesson library, develop source-checking workflows, and establish pilots for institutions. The ultimate goal is to create a social network that is not only engaging but also beneficial for users. TechCrunch Disrupt, where ScrollEd will be unveiled, takes place from October 13-15 in downtown San Francisco.