Canadian tech leaders are getting sacked left and right. Some are replacing themselves, and some are being replaced. There’s Top Hat’s Mike Silagadze who stepped down as CEO right as the company had a near-majority stake acquired by investor Georgian partners. Then there’s Shopify, where CEO and co-founder Tobi Lütke sacked his CPO to take […]
The rise of “Zoom University” was only possible because edtech wasn’t ready to address the biggest opportunity of the past year: remote learning at scale. Now, nearly a year since students were first sent home because of the coronavirus, a cohort of edtech companies is emerging, emboldened with millions in venture capital, ready to take […]
In this byline by Lindsay Tan, a Top Hat customer and associate professor at Auburn University, she espouses the virtues of being a values-driven educator. Tan is focused on giving all her students the tools and confidence to succeed on their own terms — and to help create a cohort of professionals who are curious, […]
Mike Silagadze, who in 2009 co-founded Top Hat, will be stepping away from the role on March 15 after serving as CEO for over a decade. His successor will be Joe Rohrlich, who previously served as chief revenue officer for Bazaarvoice, an e-commerce analytics company. Over his 11 years at Bazaarvoice, Rohrlich helped grow the […]
Top Hat announced a US $130-million equity investment round, more than doubling the total amount it’s raised since launching in 2009. The funding, all from existing investor Georgian, follows a suite of acquisitions for the Toronto based firm — and caps co-founder Mike Silagadze’s tenure as CEO. That’s where Joe Rohrlich comes in. The new […]
Longtime Top Hat investor Georgian Partners has committed an additional $130 million USD into Top Hat following a year of COVID-fueled changes and industry-disrupting acquisitions, culminating in new leadership. The investment, Georgian’s fourth in Top Hat, represents a continued and increasing commitment to the startup by the firm. The financing comes with news that founding […]
Top Hat has hired a new CEO and secured a US$130-million investment from its largest shareholder to pursue its strategy to transform the postsecondary textbook trade into a digital industry. The deal will help Top Hat position itself to be a leading disruptor in the education sector as publishers shift away from physical textbooks. Read […]
This joint op-ed between Mike Silagadze and Jeff Selingo makes the argument that we need to conceive digital education as complementing a new version of traditional education that better engages students and cultivates the distinctly human qualities of empathy, insight, and experience — all essential elements for success in the modern age. Instead of pitting […]
In this byline by Top Hat’s own Mike DiGregorio, Senior Manager of Customer Onboarding and Instructional Design, shares the key insights from Top Hat’s most recent survey of 3,000 undergraduates: that students who agreed their instructors promoted active learning and collaboration were more likely to say they saw value in their higher ed investment and […]
Top Hat announced that it has acquired yet another business: Fountainhead Press. The acquisition marks Top Hat’s third scoop of a publishing company in the past 12 months as it pursues a digital content strategy designed to improve the traditional educational content industry. Top Hat’s whole business proposition is a subtweet to Zoom University: It […]
Top Hat has acquired traditional textbook publisher Fountainhead Press, its third traditional publisher acquisition within the last year. The deal is a part of Top Hat’s larger strategy of disrupting the traditional print textbook market, which Top Hat pursued following its $72 million Series D funding round. Read the full article in BetaKit.
Top Hat has expanded its library of titles for the third time since spring, acquiring Dallas, Texas-based publisher Fountainhead Press. The acquisition brings 500 new titles onto the platform from disciplines that include English, communication, math and science, and psychology. Read the full article in Quill and Quire.
Top Hat is stepping up efforts to transform the postsecondary textbook industry into a digital business with the purchase of Fountainhead Press, its third acquisition in the past year. This follows its purchase of the university textbook publishing business from Nelson, Canada’s third largest publisher, and the acquisition of Minneapolis-based publisher bluedoor. Founder Mike Silagadze […]
eCampus News shared the key highlights from the Top Hat Field Report: Higher Ed Students Grade the Fall 2020 Semester report, which surveyed 3,412 higher education students in the United States and Canada. The main themes highlighted in this piece are the insights on student experiences and challenges adjusting to online learning. It also sheds […]
Western University of Health Sciences professor Frank Spors credits audience response systems like Top Hat for bringing new life into his teaching and fostering the kind of two-way engagement that every instructor hopes to achieve. In fact, he spent a year tracking a group of his graduate students and found that, since using Top Hat, […]
Top Hat was highlighted in this list of rising tech companies worth pursuing a career with. For this list, Business Insider chose ‘growth startups’ and paid close attention to how these businesses were affected by the pandemic shutdowns. See the full list in Business Insider.
Mike Silagadze, co-founder and CEO of Top Hat, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss what leadership in the business world might look like post-pandemic and how Top Hat has managed the COVID-19 crisis. See the interview on BNN Bloomberg.
The pandemic was not kind to the economy, but some Toronto-based businesses, including Top Hat, were uniquely positioned to thrive during these particularly chaotic times. See the full list in Toronto Life.
Top Hat’s recent survey of 1,500 faculty found that the reopening of campuses post-pandemic won’t necessarily spell the end to online learning. Nearly half expect to embed the use of online elements into their instructional practices. While 51 percent of faculty said they’d return to in-person instruction, the rest said they’d employ some blend of […]
How Canadian tech darling Top Hat reshaped its higher learning products for professors and pupils into a powerful platform for remote learning. Read the article in the Financial Post