The Serial Entrepreneur: Ana Gabriela Pessoa

Ana Gabriela Pessoa, Ed.M.'07, has no patience for the status quo. Since long before graduating from the International Education Policy Program at the Ed School, she has searched for a way to bring high-quality, affordable education to the greatest number of people in her home country of Brazil. And in her experience — which includes working at Senac Rio, the largest professional education network in Brazil, and at Universidade Estácio de Sá, the largest university in Brazil — there is only one way to accomplish this: through technology. Her latest venture, Ezlearn Educacional, is an education technology company based in Rio de Janeiro that helps people who have a high need for English language training but who have not previously had access. Through the company, Pessoa continues to study how technology can be used in learning, particularly through adaptive learning platforms and social networking. "The main goals," Pessoa says, "are to democratize access to high-quality content, create a cheap and easy way to learn, and create great usability on the site for people with little or no technology background." The latter two goals, she hopes, help Ezlearn reach the lower middle class, a segment of the population whose education has been particularly neglected. Currently, Ezlearn's main product is Meuinglês, a website that helps Brazilians learn English through video lessons, social networks, and other learning technologies. The site's team of teachers produces new content daily, personalized to each student, to keep the users engaged. Pessoa is particularly proud that Ezlearn uses a learner-focused model. "'Learner-focused' means the student is in command," says Pessoa. "We do that by creating an algorithm that personalizes each and every course based on each user's needs and his own goals. A student can learn alone on the platform, although there is user interaction and interaction with teachers as well." Since its inception in 2009, Ezlearn has grown its subscriber list to more than 100,000 and shows no signs of slowing down, she says. Pessoa is working on expanding the site's services, including adding several more skills-based courses, and hopes that its subscriber list continues to grow, eventually reaching her goal of 1 million users. Similarly, Pessoa also has no plans to slow down. Despite a busy schedule that, in addition to her CEO duties at Ezlearn, includes being on the board of Ensina (Brazil's Teach For America equivalent) and starting the organization Women Entrepreneurs in Technology in Brazil, Pessoa plans on developing even more new businesses. "I'm a serial entrepreneur in education," she says.