Giide, an Interactive Audio-Learning App to Transform Employees' Skill Sets, Launches to Evolve Workplace Learning

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Jul 10, 2019, 06:00 ET

BOULDER, Colo., July 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Giide, an interactive audio-learning application that provides a new way for busy professionals to learn, today announced its launch.

Founded by CEO Allison Kent-Smith and Chief Technology Officer Scott Prindle, and consulted by a team who worked at companies such as Google, IBM, Boston Consulting Group, Crispin Porter Bogusky and The Moth, Giide offers immersive audio-guided experiences from experts in various fields who curate and create original multimodal audio content that includes videos, articles and activities. Giide is a podcast and workshop combined: interactive audio.

"It's the right time in history for audio learning in the workplace, with one out of four adults listening to podcasts, and Giide is the first audio-guided learning and multimodal content application, designed for consuming interactive on-the-go learning anytime," Kent-Smith said.

According to McKinsey, 60 percent of global executives expect that up to half of their organizations' workforces will need retraining or replacing within five years. Giide seeks to bridge that gap by having employees at companies engage with the app using multiple modes — reading, watching, listening, making, moving and sharing — while they are at work, on their commute or at home.

"We aren't set up at work to watch videos tethered to our desks. Audio allows the learning to follow the learner as they go through their daily life, allowing for micro-moments of audio learning when the learner has time," added Kent-Smith. "Busy learners can choose what to dive into and what to skim. It's a little like staying in touch with that expert you met at a party."

In addition to the app, Giide is building a platform to record customized Giides, so that individuals, experts and businesses can "Giidify" existing and new content into a modern interactive audio format. Giide's authoring platform transforms outdated, underutilized content into highly interactive audio-guided experiences. The Giide authoring tool is the first of its kind, creating multimodal, audio-guided experiences for everything from existing podcasts to PDFs. The app works on Android and iOS platforms as well as soon-to-be-available voice-activated learning on Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, integrations with popular LMS platforms and Slack.

"We know that there are different kinds of learners, and there are also different ways one person learns, depending on their learning goal, level of focus and time of day," said Micaela Blei, Ph.D., who leads content strategy at Giide (former head of education at The Moth). "Giide responds to this with careful content design and categories of Giides — Giides to inspire, to deep dive in practice or to give you an introduction to a brand new idea or topic."

Companies that have signed up for the beta include global CPG, enterprise and mid-market companies and advertising agencies. To date, Giide has raised upward of a half million dollars from an angel round of funding from local Boulder investors.

At present, Giide is a B2B company with future plans to reach the B2E (business to employee) and B2C (business to consumer) market in 2020. Companies gain access to Giide with an annual subscription based on usage and a flat fee for customized Giides or access to the authoring platform.

Known in the advertising/marketing industry as a business transformation leader and learning and development expert, Kent-Smith has helped clients navigate new ways of working using technology while assisting in the improvement of organizational performance.

She is also founder and CEO of smith & beta, a talent development and education company that led to the launch of Giide which was designed to support more scalable modern learning at work. Kent-Smith has also worked in digital development and training at advertising agencies Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and Crispin Porter Bogusky.

Prindle was most recently co-founder and CTO of Made, where he worked from 2012 through 2018, and he was an instructor at smith & beta from 2014 to 2017. Prindle also held technology roles at advertising agencies Crispin Porter Bogusky and R/GA.

About Giide

Based in Boulder, Colorado, Giide is an interactive, audio-guided learning application built for how we learn today. Giide is focused on workplace learning: businesses elevate employee engagement, evolve capabilities, improve onboarding and gain a competitive edge by listening to expert-led Giides and making custom audio-guided content. With Giide, employees learn the latest skills to advance their career and keep pace with technology and the changing workplace.

Meet Giide, a better way to learn: giides.com

Video: https://vimeo.com/319045960

Contact:
Steve Sapka
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https://vimeo.com/319045960

SOURCE Giide