Drs. Jessica Parker and Kimberly Becker
Moxie – SEED Spring 2024
Published December 11, 2024
As part of our ‘Meet Our Founders’ series today, we introduce Drs. Jessica Parker and Kimberly Becker, Co-Founders of Moxie based in Raleigh, NC. Moxie builds AI-powered tools to help academics ethically design, write, and revise their researcher papers. Moxie’s technology enhances rather than replaces human insight.
Q: What problem are you trying to solve and what influenced you to start your company?
A: At Moxie, we are addressing Bloom’s 2-Sigma Problem—the observation that expert one-on-one tutoring yields better learning outcomes compared to group classroom instruction, with tutored students regularly achieving two standard deviations higher on assessments. Historically, it has proven impossible to replicate such effects at scale using past technologies or traditional practices. Generative AI holds promise for democratizing education and solving this problem by offering personalized one-on-one learning at scale. As for what inspired us – Kimberly and I are both educators and researchers, and we know firsthand how challenging it is to provide our students the individual support they need, let alone remediate students who require additional support. I first started building tools for my doctoral students and immediately saw the potential. After witnessing the benefits and experiencing the ability to cognitively offload as a faculty member, I was hooked.
Q: What are you most excited about right now? What keeps you up at night?
A: We both believe in the power of education and how it can have a profound impact on individuals and communities. We are particularly excited about the potential for this technology to bridge the gap between students who cannot afford expert one-on-one support and those who can. We often find ourselves discussing innovative ways to build students’ critical thinking skills, create more personalized learning pathways, and how to address bias and representativeness in datasets used to train the LLMs we use to power our tools.
Q: How will your NC IDEA grant funds advance your company?
A: The NC IDEA grant will enable Moxie to expand its reach among academics and prepare to scale. Given how rapidly the AI EdTech market is evolving, Moxie needs to establish strong brand recognition and credibility. Further, being a first-mover in this niche will allow Moxie to set standards around ethical and responsible use, which is needed in higher education.
Q: What is one thing you wish you understood about entrepreneurship before you ever got started?
A: That nothing in business is truly urgent – press pause before making big decisions.
Q: What other passions do you have besides your business?
A: Kimberly enjoys gardening, yoga, and walking with her two poodles. Jessica loves surfing, snowboarding, and reading.
While visiting Raleigh, Jessica and Kimberly recommend:
- A hike at the William B. Umstead State Park and dinner at Crawford and Son.
Support Moxie and Jessica & Kimberly by:
- We need help balancing scaling and customization – we have created solutions that are scalable for the B2C market but are also getting a lot of requests from institutions who are seeking customizable tools for their students. I realize a demand problem is good to have, but we cannot meet the needs of both the B2C and B2B market right now given the size of our team and limited resources. Yet, I think that B2B might ultimately be where we end up because faculty are our biggest allies and consumers are being bombarded with quick-fix solutions that we do not want to compete with.
