How Taylor Shead is Disrupting Education with Video Games

Since childhood, Taylor Shead has always had a liking for business. 

As a teenager, her video game go-to’s were those Tycoon games in which someone would build off, say an amusement park, then run it, she says, and to this girl, those were just games into a future reality in business.

“I’ve been that person since a young age,” she says. “But nobody knew to look at my gaming history and say, ‘Taylor’s going to be an entrepreneur.’”

Today, the 35-year-old is the founder of Stemuli, an AI-powered platform that helps K-12 students make career choices through gaming. 

Launched in 2016, Stemuli aims to personalize learning and workforce development—one game at a time. “You have to learn math because it’s preparing you for a career, for a better life,” Shead says. “Our goal is to dramatically reduce the cost of educating kids globally.”

The company’s partnerships with Stride Learning, a leader in online education, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are helping Stemuli scale. Stride’s investment, announced in June 2023, will bring hundreds of thousands of learners onto the platform over the next few years. 

Meanwhile, the Gates Foundation’s seven-figure grant will focus on improving education access for Black and Brown communities using Stemuli’s gaming approach.

Shead knows the road ahead won’t be easy. “The hardest thing I could have chosen is to make a change in education and workforce development,” she admits. “But we’re solving the world’s hardest problem in the coolest way.”

Stemuli’s “School in a Video Game” concept emerged during the pandemic. 

As remote learning exposed racial disparities, the company found an innovative way to engage students by allowing them to explore a virtual school environment. When the platform launched in 2021, one middle school student was so excited by the experience that he cried.

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Shead envisions personalized K-12 education through gaming by 2026, where students learn in adaptive games instead of traditional math classes. She’s also focused on helping minority students enter the growing semiconductor industry.

“Imagine kids tracking their academic progress from middle school through high school, getting the certifications needed to land jobs at companies like Texas Instruments,” Shead says.

In 2023, Stemuli merged with two Black-led edtech companies, increasing its valuation by over $20 million. The move strengthened the company’s position in a market focused on reaching underrepresented students.

For Shead, being a Black founder in this space is personal. “I understand the lived experiences of Black kids,” she says. “We’re going to do in edtech what’s never been done before.”