Wranx Startup Tests B2B Training Technique Through App

The U.K. startup Wranx has taken the spaced repetition learning technique and applied it to the mobile app side of the B2B industry in order to enable businesses to train staff better, and provide analytics back to the business on how staff is learning, Techcrunch reported.

This move by Wranx sets the company against the B2B learning startup Looop, which raised a $2 million seed round last month. Still, Wranx believes it has the built-in techniques to make businesses catch on to mobile and help them develop more sophisticated learning techniques on across multiple devices. Spaced repetition — a model that spaces out learning in order to help the brain remember better — is the key to success, CEO and co-founder Jon Davies told Techcrunch.

“Most of the competition are extensions of existing learning management systems — the mobile bit is just bolted on,” he said. “Everyone — Cornerstone on demand, Moodle, Litmos — they all have mobile functionality. It’s no big deal.”

Wranx was founded just last month and will be launching mobile apps soon, following the release of its beta tested software in small groups. Essentially, the app asks employees questions, has them hit a button and they the user is asked to rate how well they knew the answer. Wranx’s plan is to use that learning content provided by each business customer to convert that into a formula that can be made available to the business’ staff. TechCrunch explains the software is envisioned for things like product knowledge training for sales teams, customer services departments and financial services compliance.

“In real terms, every mid/large enterprise has tones of e-learning content that is only consumed in the classroom and when some compliance event comes around (mandatory security training, health and safety, that kind of thing ). This content traditionally costs a fortune. Wranx takes that existing content, converts it and then delivers it on a daily basis via the app,” Davies said.“By intelligently adapting the duration between questions, Wranx helps your brain to move knowledge from your short-term memory into your long-term memory more efficiently.”

Self-assessment provides the base for the algorithm, and creates personalized spacing tailored to each learner. Wranx can also use that algorithm to assess progress and provide analytics back to the business’ staff. Techcrunch reported that Wranx has been “bootstrapping development thus far,” in large part to other startups exiting the market.

“Wranx makes employee advancement a daily, cultural process,” adds Davies. “Employers get to measure employee advancement on a daily basis, not just every six months when employees are scheduled to do some e-learning. Doing micro-learning for a minute a day like this is proven to offer greater knowledge retention that sitting in a classroom for an afternoon.”