I've been dabbling around in a number of different verticals such as legal, science, and technology, but now it's time to jump into education. I interviewed Mike Shannon the co-founder and CEO of Packback and Dr. Brandon Chicotsky, a business faculty member at Johns Hopkins University. Packback is online learning community for college students to discuss high-level questions incorporating curiosity and AI to create an experiential learning experience that is worth keeping an eye on. After launching in April of 2014 upon airing on ABC's "Shark Tank" to a record 8.1M viewers nationwide, Packback has grown to serve over 130K students nationwide and is backed by $3M+ in venture funding from notable investors including Mark Cuban (Owner Dallas Mavs), Howard Tullman (CEO 1871), Mark Tebbe (Founder Answers.com), Hyde Park Angels, Jumpstart Ventures, and Listen Ventures.

Our discussion was fantastic and I felt many pieces were immensely valuable. As a result, we've created two episodes. The first focuses on the start of Packback, the problems it is solving, and where the company is headed in the next 1–5 years. Part two will focus on the future of education with a large amount of insight from Dr. Brandon Chicotsky on what we can be expecting, and where there are opportunities in the space. So without further ado, please enjoy part one of this two part series on Packback and the future of education.