Blackboard Inc., whose dominant course software, distributed through Wayne-based SunGard Higher Education and other vendors, is valued in the stock market "at $2 billion."
"We think they could be worth $20 billion if they did it right," Cohen said. "But we're not just out to build a better Blackboard."
Fans call Coursekit a cross between password-protected syllabus and assignment applications, like Blackboard, with user-easy message-posting aspects of social-media sites such as Facebook and Yammer.
The trio said they've raised $1 million from investors, including IA Ventures Partners, Founder Collective, Shasta Ventures, and recent Penn graduate Nat S. Turner, who, with three classmates and their investors, sold their online advertising service, Invite Media, to Google Inc. - for more than $70 million last year.
Is it wise to drop out, Bill Gates-style? Turner was noncommittal: "Everyone is different."
"Cohen and his cofounders are sharp, driven, visionary yet commercial. Amazing attributes in founders so young," Coursekit investor Roger Ehrenberg, head of IA Ventures, told me.
The Daily Pennsylvanian wrote last spring that 20 Penn courses already used Coursekit instead of established rival Blackboard, or Wharton's own in-house system. But the paper also noted Coursekit lacked grading and privacy functions. Cohen says he's taking care of that.
The partners plan to launch the service commercially in time for the fall semester - from their new office in New York. That decision, Cohen said, was obvious: Philly's all right, but "Dan's from Queens, I'm from Brooklyn, and the technology community on the East Coast is here [New York], and our investors are here."
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