Matt Tullman

The company is run by Matthew Tullman, Mr. Tullman's 25-year-old nephew. Glen Tullman, who runs tech venture fund 7wire with Mr. Shapiro, was looking for an opportunity in the education space at the same time his nephew was kicking around ideas for new media and technology. "Matt is smart, energetic and had a passion for making a difference on an important problem," Mr. Tullman said. "He didn't take the investment banking path but wanted to go the entrepreneurial route. Digedu was a perfect fit where he could put his personal imprint on something." The younger Tullman, who grew up in Denver, worked at an education think tank and traveled to Colombia to do research on the FARC rebels. He saw the power of new media firsthand when people used Facebook to coordinate protests in 35 countries. The Tullmans came up with Digedu, an app-based curriculum that works on tablets or laptops.