Banking on KC – Eniola Banks of Read2Think
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Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Eniola Banks, the founder and CEO of Read2Think, a company that uses machine learning and natural language processing to access how youth read, and ultimately help solve reading literacy issues. Welcoming, Eniola.
Eniola Banks:
Thank you so much for having me today, Kelly, I really appreciate your time.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, you're doing such a wonderful service and using business to solve a real problem, which I assume you saw that there was this gap because you're a former elementary school teacher, right?
Eniola Banks:
Correct.
Kelly Scanlon:
What problem is Read2Think trying to solve?
Eniola Banks:
We have pivoted in terms of the area because of COVID. The new term is now called unfinished learning. That is indicated where children, because of COVID, are now at least five to nine months behind on reading and math. And it even has blossomed unfortunately into middle school and high school level students as well.
In terms of addressing unfinished learning, it's giving our clients the resources and tools to motivate and to measure and evaluate and to understand how their child is reading to get a proper diagnosis to give the content that a child needs. But yeah, unfinished learning is now being reported in different articles. Parents are very aware of it now. There's a large movement with homeschooled families called Pod Schooling Now. I'm just thankful that it's more of a collaborative effort, not just on the educator themselves.
Kelly Scanlon:
Okay. Tell us then about your journey from the classroom serving as a traditional teacher, to your journey back to the classroom through your company's technology platform that helps children read. How did you even get started? What inspired you?
Eniola Banks:
Well, what inspired me when I was teaching the entire time is that, for one, there was a lack of diversity in the content that we read. And then just seeing the disparities when I saw children who couldn't understand how to read, but then technology brightened their way, which was wonderful. And then at times it was really draining, and also talking to educators now, today even pre-COVID, during COVID and post-COVID, is really challenging to get every single child in your classroom on grade level, even above. And they need more individuals in the classroom.
And so I was always drawn back to technology because that's what I always saw was how children really grasped it, how they were excited. And it was not really to replace an educator, just a tool to help support. And I also really enjoyed reading specifically as well, so I was really just doing a lot of analysis.
Kelly Scanlon:
So in addition to teaching, you were making observations and taking a lot of things in yourself. As I recall, your love of reading started in your childhood with your father reading you stories.
Eniola Banks:
We grew up in a small town and they had encyclopedias. My father, he read a book every single week, so that was obviously a great way to just introduce us. I read books in the car as well. And then my father actually started his own business, that obviously was a look at entrepreneurship, but he was a solo founder. And so I did see the highs and lows of how that was, it wasn't always a beautiful picture.
Kelly Scanlon:
Right. And that's so important because so many people don't understand what they're getting into in terms of the time, money, and just blood, sweat and tears it takes to be an entrepreneur.
Eniola Banks:
Yes, exactly. But he told us he wanted to focus on his business, he didn't want to go back to working under someone else. He did pass away, unfortunately. And I did reflect upon that, how he could have utilized his knowledge and skills. He was one of the only Black men in Kansas who was an electrician. He was maybe one out of 800 at who was certified as a Black man. He didn't really talk about that because he grew up in 1950s where it wasn't really talked about.
But when he passed, I thought about, wow, what a great way he could have really leveraged his knowledge to other individuals, to pass down and create a larger company with what he had. Because he's had great knowledge with what he knew about electricity.
Kelly Scanlon:
Now you're carrying on his entrepreneurial spirit and you are extending that message. Your original company was called Pennez. Read2Think is an outgrowth of that. So why don't you lay the foundation for us? What was Pennez and then how did it morph into Read2Think?
Eniola Banks:
Pennez was originally founded to look at the diversity and content and feature people of color, because when I was teaching, we saw that the results were less than 10% of the books was written by people of color. The need is growing, but in terms of just the inclusiveness and equity, it still needs to change still. So that was the original goal.
Kelly Scanlon:
So Pennez was essentially ... You curated reading lists essentially, and then you worked with librarians and the schools to get more books written by people of color into the curriculum.
Eniola Banks:
Yes, and we had different events. And so it was just really more of an outgrowth, a testing ground, just to see what really stuck and really worked. And we found a pathway looking at the different programs that I was in, different fellowships. Doing customer discovery, that's where it came out of. Individuals were like, "Yes, the books are important, which we agree, but how do we really understand what children understand how to read? How do we actually critically assess and motivate what their critical points are?"
And even though I knew that personally, but a lot of individuals did not know that. And then the outgrowth parents had no idea what it meant to say, what's your [inaudible 00:04:56] level, what's your Lexile level? All that jargon is just, honestly for parents, was a waste of time because they didn't have the time to really do it, unfortunately. And so it was just really through the customer discovery process was, yes, Pennez is great, but we need to have something else that can really support and pinpoint how children read first before you just curate information to us.
Kelly Scanlon:
So walk me through Read2Think. I'm a classroom teacher, let's just say, and I am using your Read2Think program. How does it work? From a practical standpoint, how do I use it in the classroom, implement it, and then how do I use the information that is gleaned by using it in the classroom?
Eniola Banks:
Sure. So Read2Think can be accessed on a tablet or a computer device right now. An educator will give any child a login, username and password, simple as that. And then we encourage educators and our other customers, parents, nonprofits, to have a child utilize a headset device due to the oral reading. This is really important because we're capturing their voices. When we capture a child's voice, our software has to gather that data and input it and then create an output after a while.
Once a child reads, they can play games or do different practice incentives, but the child actually won't receive actual data points saying, "You're a 80% or a A reader." We found that our customers really prefer that, because we're not trying to push a child to know what percentile they're in. We're trying to just encourage a child just to know how they're reading and what they're reading, and allow the customer, meaning educators or parents, nonprofits, to glean if they choose to or not.
Kelly Scanlon:
Your purpose then, with a child anyway, is to encourage them to read through books and other types of information that is interesting to them and that would make reading pleasant to them. And then on the backend though, the client is capturing information that's going to help those children be better readers.
You said it was very important to record the child's voice. What technology is behind Read2Think? There's so many types of technology out there. What do you use to get the information that you need to make those assessments?
Eniola Banks:
Sure. Just from a high level point of view, utilizing the speech recognition software and machine learning. When we first tackled Read2Think, we actually discovered that there was a lack of APIs that had diverse voices in it. And we were pretty surprised because we're 2015 and we're still recognizing voices which are, quote unquote, standard. And now we have to really lay out the foundation of individuals who are not recognized with different accents and different annunciations, and that was very surprising to us.
Kelly Scanlon:
You especially focus on addressing reading and the literacy gap among children of color. How are you doing that?
Eniola Banks:
In Read2Think specifically we actually license and create our own stories within the software. We have stories that focus on individuals who are scientists, or even economics, even like phonic space, just to give a different modern day presence to stories and content.
One example is there's a story about this little girl, her grandma is a chemist and she's African American. But Grandma Fanny just helps her create bubbles and play. But you can really recognize diversity when you say, "It's my Grandma Fanny and we play." Or just some really simple things that's not really pushing, hey, it's a person of color, but you can really see the connection. Or just making piñatas for a certain holiday and what does that really look like? But I make sure that those stories are given to us from someone from that community. So not just, "Hey, I found something on the internet," but someone actually says, "Hey, this is an important part of our story."
Kelly Scanlon:
So you are not only curating content, you're developing content. And you're not only teaching children to read and to learn how fun it can be to read, you're providing content that helps them aspire, or so you're creating content that they can relate to. Who are your clients? You've talked a little bit about the educators and the parents. Do you have other clients? How do you work with them?
Eniola Banks:
Sure. Our clients are 100%t virtual, just like our team is. And we focus on the individuals who serve youth and grades kindergarten through approximately 8th grade, depending on the reading level. Whenever a client does approach us, we have to explain that the content is written either on, above or below.
So that way, if you do sign up a student, it's not just, "Charlie's in the 5th grade," but the question is, well, does he or she have a lower reading skill or above? Because it has been proven over time and again that children are not necessarily at the grade level that they're assigned to, but some might be above.
Kelly Scanlon:
One of the things that I've heard about your story, that I've read about your story, and that is, Kansas City has abundant resources for entrepreneurs. You already mentioned the entrepreneurial classes that you took at UMKC, and I know you've tapped into several other ones. Talk to us about how you have used the resources here in Kansas City, and what you would say to aspiring or early stage entrepreneurs about finding those resources and using them to their advantage.
Eniola Banks:
For me, KCSourceLink was one of the first pathways. They have a Resource Rail with, I don't have the number correct, but hundreds-
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh, yes. Hundreds, easily.
Eniola Banks:
... of resources.
Kelly Scanlon:
Maybe even thousands these days.
Eniola Banks:
Yeah. And that was one of the first touchpoints where I met individuals who said, "Hey, look at here. Look at there." I also made a point early on to network every week, before I had a family. That really gave me a idea about the different individuals who were a part of the community, different places to go. And also, I built connections in terms of finding different individuals to sell the vision to of building out the software and the company with me as well. But networking was a key thing.
Kelly Scanlon:
So you would suggest to anyone who is thinking, "I need some help," or, "I just want to meet new people," to start with KCSourceLink.
Eniola Banks:
Yes, and there's many other ways. I know not everyone goes that way, there's many ... Startup KC Facebook group, InnovateHER. There's so many that are out right now that, for someone that's starting, you could easily Google how to find an entrepreneur in Kansas City and it'll pop up. Obviously, Startland News has grown tremendously, so you can definitely find it much easier just by searching online, Googling. But those resources are amazing that we have.
Kelly Scanlon:
They're out there, and don't worry about not knowing anybody if you show up to an event, I mean, just go out there and ask people about themselves and what they're doing.
Your company is so dependent on technology, and you had the idea of using technology to get where you wanted to go. Did you have to teach yourself technology skills or did you share your vision and then hire technologists to carry it out? How did that work?
Eniola Banks:
I didn't go the traditional route of going to college or taking a bootcamp, like I probably should have. But I did talk to individuals, and more the technologists, to just understand how do you build a software and what are some of the steps. And they gave me some of the high level overview.
And then one day a recruiter called me and said, "Hey, with your background, I think you could become a business analyst." And I was like, "That's pretty interesting." So I actually worked as a business analyst, contracting, building out technical documentation, and talking to different stakeholders, and writing out user interface programs. And she said it was similar to my teaching role because you have to talk a lot to different people.
So I didn't have any clue what that was, but doing those different contract roles really helped me identify how I could apply that to Read2Think. So when I was able to talk to developers instead of hiring a BA, which is pretty expensive, I was able to now listen to what they knew, but also what the clients what I was talking to, and put that into a technical documentation. So it saved a lot of money doing it that way.
Kelly Scanlon:
What have you learned about yourself now that you're an entrepreneur?
Eniola Banks:
Sure. What I've learned is my ability to have the tenacity to keep moving forward. I definitely had it growing up and in my first career, but just being able to keep pushing forward through the difficult times. That was something I did not envision myself to have.
Kelly Scanlon:
You're stronger than you thought you were.
Eniola Banks:
I'm very optimistic, despite the challenges. I had a son six months before COVID hit, and then when it happened, I didn't really get anxious like a lot of individuals. I just did a lot of learning and individual work.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, you took the time to educate yourself more and to gain more of the skills you were going to need for this business.
Eniola Banks:
Oh yeah, and my ability to have confidence to talk to people. That is one of the strongest skills you need when you have an entrepreneurship mindset, even if you have the capital or don't. To really be able to craft your message to the right individuals constantly and continuously. It is really critical to just step out there, put your foot forward, even if you make a mistake, laugh at your mistakes.
That is something I learned about myself, my ability to not be afraid to talk to people and really ask for, "What are you looking for? How can I help?" Just those really key questions.
Kelly Scanlon:
Entrepreneurs sell on so many levels. Yes, they sell product or service, but they also sell their vision to their associates. They also sell their vision to potential investors. I mean, so many different levels where, as you say, communication is so important and you have to overcome that fear of basically promoting yourself and your vision because-
Eniola Banks:
And rejection.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, and the rejection. Being able to accept rejection because you're going to get a lot of it. Yeah. It is an established company, but it's also still a rather young company. What do you think are your greatest accomplishments so far?
Eniola Banks:
I would say from a business perspective, from a starting point, it is really exciting that we've been able to build a product on a very low budget. Being able to get technologists who see the vision. And then being able to sell that product to people who I really don't even know and they see the vision as well.
We've been able to capture on our platform well over 250 children. Our clients indicate they love the content and the vocabulary. Some are on [inaudible 00:14:35] time just because we have to keep adding in more content and stories for the reading. You don't have to read every day on our platform, it's really more of an assessment, but they encourage their children to read a little bit faster than normal.
So that's been the really interesting impact. And also, being able to add content that we didn't foresee in the beginning. Like I mentioned, adding on economics content and more esteem-driven, but it's still a reading resource. That's been really fascinating and interesting to add on those different modules, our stories as well. Teachers and non-profits are focused on tech and content, but parents are just focused on, "Does my child like to use this in the content?" And it's really enjoyable that they do say it's fresh, modern-day, and it's really nice to just read something that feels just natural.
Kelly Scanlon:
Where do you go from here? Now that you have the technology platform supporting this, where does it go from here? Where does Read2Think head?
Eniola Banks:
The goal would be for this year, next year, to receive an investment dollar, or to be accepted into a large-scale accelerator now that we do have a product that's sold. If not, being able to partner with a large nonprofit or school district to have a pilot and just be self-funded. And ultimate goal would definitely be to exit and sell Read2Think.
Kelly Scanlon:
Eniola, thank you so much for what you're doing to make reading enjoyable for children, to help them develop their literacy skills. Thank you so much for being our guest on the show today. We wish you well.
Eniola Banks:
Oh, thank you for inviting me.
Joe Close:
Thank you to any Eniola Banks for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. Reading literacy is a fundamental skill for success in school and the workforce. Yet a significant percentage of children in grades K through eight struggle to read at grade level. Being able to detect reading level challenges early is only one part of the solution. The other is developing innovative technology tools that provide parents and educators with feedback that empowers students to read at higher levels. Entrepreneurs like Eniola recognize the opportunity to offer these solutions, as well as create enjoyable reading experiences through specialized content students can relate to.
Country Club Bank has been involved in literacy causes for decades and applauds the efforts of others in our community working to improve childhood literacy. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're Banking on Kansas City. Country Club Bank, member FDIC.