Samantha John
Samantha John (2014)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materColumbia University
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forFounder of Hopscotch

Samantha John (born 1985 or 1986 (age 37–38))[1] is an American entrepreneur, known for being the co-founder of Hopscotch, a learn-to-code application.[2]

Education and Career

John studied applied mathematics, English, and comparative literature at Columbia University.[3] John became interested in computers and programming in her senior year of college when she began working on a website for a student club.[4] Before developing Hopscotch, she had worked as an engineer and a developer at Pivotal Labs.[2][5] She had been one of the only women developers at the company.[6] After partnering with Hopscotch co-founder and fellow Columbia alumna Jocelyn Leavitt,[7] John created her first app named "Daisy the Dinosaur" in 2012.[4] John eventually left her consultancy job to pursue the development of Hopscotch full-time. In 2013, Business Insider listed John as one of the "30 Most Important Women Under 30 in Tech", "Silicon Alley 100", and "28 Extraordinary Women in New York Tech" for cofounding Hopscotch Technologies.[5][8][9] Glamour magazine named John and co-founder Leavitt in their list of "35 Women Under 35 Who are Changing the Tech Industry" in 2014.[10] In 2015, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women.[1]

Hopscotch

John created Hopscotch at the age of 26[11] with educator Jocelyn Leavitt, who noticed a lack of women and people of color in engineering.[4] Hopscotch is the first programming language designed for a touch screen device.[3] John and Leavitt aimed to create a programming language that was simple enough for children to use, while still allowing children to learn and be creative. The app involves a visual programming language, rather than employing lines of code.[12] Hopscotch, which is aimed at children ages eight to 12, was downloaded 20,000 times in its first week.[13] John and Leavitt first launched the app for iPad in 2013, and have since developed the app for iPhone. Within one year, users created over 2.5 million projects.[10] Most children use the app to build games and create animated artwork while learning programming basics.[12] According to the founders, nearly half of Hopscotch's users are girls.[10]

Hopscotch was partially inspired by HyperCard, an early software application and development kit which also inspired the creator of "wiki" software, as well as Scratch, an early visual programming environment.[14] In addition, John notes inspiration from her mentor, Alan Kay.[3] John revealed in Shark Tank, that Hopscotch had 200k active users every month for the first time in 2020.[15] Hopscotch has received the Best Education Tech App Awards by Parent Magazine.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 "BBC 100 Women 2015: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 17 November 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  2. 1 2 "Samantha John, 29, USA". BBC News. 16 November 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Neubronner, Marion (6 February 2018). "Women on Top in Tech – Samantha John, Co-Founder of Hopscotch Technologies". The Asian Entrepreneur. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 "Celebrating women in tech: Meet Samantha and Jocelyn: founders of Hopscotch". iMore. 4 April 2019. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  5. 1 2 Dickey, Megan Rose. "The 30 Most Important Women Under 30 In Tech". Business Insider. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  6. ↑ "For Students, the Ipad is the ultimate computer". Mashable. 24 May 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  7. ↑ Beaudry, Jennifer Ernst (1 February 2015). "Samantha John: Programming the Future". Columbia Engineering Magazine. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  8. ↑ D'Onfro, Megan Rose Dickey, Jillian. "SA 100 2013: The Coolest People In New York Tech". Business Insider. Retrieved 24 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ↑ Shontell, Alyson. "28 Extraordinary Women In New York Tech". Business Insider. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  10. 1 2 3 Heintzen, Ariana. "35 Women Under 35 Who Are Changing the Tech Industry". Glamour. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  11. ↑ "The growing force of women in tech". Marketing Land. 5 December 2018. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  12. 1 2 Stinson, Liz (26 May 2016). "Hopscotch Teaches Kids to Code Without That Pesky Command Line". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  13. ↑ "The 30 Most Important Women Under 30 In Tech". Business Insider. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  14. ↑ Arbesman, Samuel. "The forgotten software that inspired our modern world". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  15. ↑ Mortin, Tyler (27 July 2022). "What Happened To Hopscotch In Shark Tank? | Valuation & Net Worth In 2022". Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  16. ↑ "How To Play Hopscotch: Learn the Basic Rules and Five Variations". Parents. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
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