Our Education Startups “Meet and Eat” is in two weeks, so we wanted to start introducing the companies that are coming, through a series of startup spotlight posts. The guestlist is looking great! Confirmed so far with more joining everyday, we have: Fluency, Mendeley, Tutor Fair, Ed Place, Knowledge Transmission, PTA Social, Interview Bull, Pre-ued, edspire, ReferenceME, Stepup.io, Ellumia & Coding Cupboard. We’re also pleased to welcome a Huffington Post contributor and Tech City Insider.

First in the spotlight is StepUp.io and founder Makoto Inoue.

What’s the elevator pitch for StepUp.io?

StepUp.io is Pinterest for online learning videos. It lets learners and facilitators curate videos, segment into meaningful chunks and loops each chunk automatically until they get it.

What were you doing before you launched StepUp.io?

I was a web developer for 5 years. In my spare time, I’ve been hacking around various interactive video players and StepUp.io is my 5th trial (2nd as an edtech app). If you want to see my earlier prototypes, here you go http://makoto.github.io/me/#personal. Prior to that, I used to work at a bank.

Do you have co-founders?

I had… but he left (for a family reason) just before I founded a company! My friend has been helping me, but she also has to leave UK, so I am in the hunt for a new co-founder. More detail is at http://3-beards.com/jobs/view/designer-co-founder-wanted-for-a-funded-company

What’s your biggest ‘hindsight’ moment?

Losing a co-founder before startup is better than losing one after.

What will 2014 bring for StepUp.io?

More users!

1 piece of advice for someone starting a business in the education space?

Learners first, not educators first.

Convince someone to use StepUp.io in under 50 words.

Have you ever used YouTube to learn something, but got frustrated to keep up with the pace? Then here is the perfect app for you.

What’s your favourite startup in the education space (not including StepUp.io)?

UDACITY. They bring accessible, affordable, engaging, and highly effective higher education to the world.

What’s your favourite London restaurant?

Morito, tapas bar in Exmouth Market.

Thanks to Makoto for contributing. Please get in touch for info about this dinner at hello@tablecrowd.com.

Thanks to our sponsors for their continued support.