Doug Dohring - Career Highlights
Doug Dohring
Doug Dohring was the founder and CEO of leading education technology innovator Age of Learning. He was also Chairman of the Age of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a mission to fundamentally improve the education of children in low- and lower-middle-income countries worldwide. The Foundation was announced by Doug Dohring at the Education World Forum, and it is now a member of UNESCO's Global Education Initiative (Doug announced the Foundation's membership in the Coalition in this video). Doug Dohring founded Age of Learning Inc. in 2007 and brought several of his former Dohring Company executives to help him run the company. Doug and his Age of Learning team launched ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy in 2010. The website delivers fun learning experiences to young users via more than 10,000 early learning activities in the areas of reading, science, and math, among many others. The website’s curriculum advisory board consists of expert-level educators, and the product has won awards and praise from teachers and parents. Through Age of Learning's Education Access Initiatives, Doug Dohring has elected to offer free access to ABCmouse.com to teachers, Head Start programs, libraries, public housing authorities, and community service organizations. ABCmouse.com for Teachers is regularly used in more than 65,000 classrooms. Age of Learning supports the Invest In US initiative by committing to "provide ABCmouse.com for free to every preschool, Head Start, and kindergarten classroom in the U.S. over the next two years, with a value expected to exceed $10 million." And Age of Learning recently partnered with the ConnectHome initiative to "make its award-winning ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy curriculum available for free to families living in public housing in 27 cities and one tribal nation, serving up to 65,000 children ages 2–7 each year." In order to meet the pre-k through 2nd grade needs of school districts and school groups in the U.S. and internationally, Age of Learning launched the scalable solution ABCmouse for Schools. ABCmouse for Schools offers two solutions for pre-k through 2nd grade: ABCmouse Early Learning Academy, a comprehensive supplemental curriculum that builds a strong foundation for academic success across subject areas required for 3rd grade readiness; and the new ABCmouse English Language Learning Academy, which can be used by teachers as a core program or as a rich supplemental resource to provide a developmentally appropriate English language immersion experience. ABCmouse for Schools complements these curriculum offerings with student management, professional development, curriculum alignment, and progress reporting tools. In 2018, Doug lead Age of Learning to partner with Tencent to launch the ABCmouse English Language Learning program in China. In 2019, the company launched Adventure Academy, a groundbreaking, immersive educational app and game for children ages 8-13. It is an MMO with three-dimensional and multi-platform support, along with a core curriculum taught in schools and thousands of education activities. In March of 2020, as schools were starting to close because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Doug Dohring and Age of Learning leadership decided to give free access to its learning programs to children affected by school closures, which was announced on the company blog and reported nationwide. Doug and the company also worked with UNICEF to provide educational aid globally. Age of Learning is a fast growing Los Angeles company (see Age of Learning jobs here) and its growth has been recognized in the media. TechCrunch first reported in 2016 that Age of Learning "has moved into the billion dollar valuation club on the strength of one highly-grossing, popular app called ABCmouse. The company has quietly raised $150 million at a $1 billion valuation from Iconiq Capital, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed." Read the TechCrunch article on Age of Learning here. Education information leader EdSurge.com also covered the Age of Learning growth and valuation news with this article: From Mouse to Unicorn: Age of Learning Raises $150M at $1B Valuation, Eyes Expansion Into Schools. The LA Times also covered this investment. Pitchbook also listed Age of Learning a close #2 in the top 12 highest valued edtech companies. Age of Learning also ranks #32 on Built in LA's list of the Top 100 Digital Companies in Los Angeles in 2016, and was listed as one of the 5 LA tech offices you need to see to believe. In June 2021, Age of Learning announced that the company had raised $300 million in Series 3 funding, most ever for a U.S. edtech firm, giving the company a $3 billion valuation. In August, Doug welcomed Mubuso Zamchiya as Managing Director of the Age of Learning Foundation. And in November, Age of Learning and Rakuten announced the formation of a new joint venture: Age of Learning Japan Co., LTD. Prior to his leadership of Age of Learning and the Age of Learning Foundation, Doug Dohring has had a long history of successful entrepreneurship in Southern California. In 1986, Doug Dohring founded the consumer research firm, The Dohring Company. The business grew to a staff of 140 employees and ranked among the 100 leading companies in its field. In 1995, the Los Angeles Business Journal named Doug Dohring’s company one of the most rapidly growing private businesses in the region. Building on his success in the evolving market research field, in the late 1990s Doug Dohring secured the domain OpinionSurveys.com and created an online research panel that grew to several million members. OpinionSurveys.com was later sold to the NASDAQ-listed company Greenfield Online. In 1999, Doug Dohring agreed to acquire the nascent website neopets.com and founded and incorporated NeoPets, Inc., in early 2000. The interactive virtual pet website, aimed at young people in the upper elementary grades through the early years of high school, became profitable within a year under Doug Dohring's leadership. Mr. Dohring grew the website to become one of the world’s top online entertainment destinations. By the time of its sale for $160 million to a division of Viacom in 2005, neopets.com was generating over 5 billion monthly page views and had the most page views per user and time spent per user of any website in the world. Through an innovative approach to product placement he trademarked as “Immersive Advertising,” Mr. Dohring was able to integrate partner messaging within the user experience of the website rather than resorting to the banner and pop-up ads that were the norm for ad-supported websites at that time, but which greatly impacted the user experience in a negative way. Doug Dohring passed away in 2023. |
Doug Dohring - Articles & Studies
Other Doug Dohring Sites & Posts
Age of Learning - Social Networks & Information
Age of Learning, Inc. Jobs
- Doug Dohring & NeoPets - AdAge.com
- Doug Dohring & NeoPets - Harvard Business Review
- Doug Dohring & NeoPets - Glendale News Press
- Doug Dohring Founds Age of Learning - WSJ.com
- Doug Dohring and ABCmouse.com - Hollywood Life
Other Doug Dohring Sites & Posts
- DougDohring.com - Doug Dohring's Official Website
- Doug Dohring & Exec Team on Dohring.com
- Doug Dohring on Wikipedia
- Doug Dohring WordPress.com blog homepage
- ABCmouse Study Shows Kindergarten Readiness and Other Academic Gains
- A Lifetime Love of Learning - by Doug Dohring
- Teacher Appreciation - by Doug Dohring
- Hall of Fame Teacher & Teacher of the Year Talk About Age of Learning
- Doug Dohring on Age of Learning's $300 million funding round
- Attendance Awareness Month
- Age of Learning Releases New Android Early Learning Academy App
- Age of Learning, Age of Running, Jumping, Playing...
- Age of Learning Joins Invest in US Campaign at White House Summit
- ABCmouse.com Case Study #1
- ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy Apps' Success
- Quotes on Education by Martin Luther King
- 1 Billion and Counting (on AgeofLearning.com)
- 1 Billion and Counting (on my personal blog)
- Age of Learning Celebrates 50 Years of Head Start (on my blog)
- ABCmouse English Language Learning App Launches in China Exclusively on iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
- New ABCmouse.com for Libraries
- ABCmouse.com wins Tabby Awards for best mobile app (Android)
- Age of Learning Supports White House ConnectHome Public Housing Initative
- ABCmouse.com Mobile App Featured on NYTimes.com Website
- ABCmouse.com App Featured on USAToday.com
- Renewing a Love of Education and Passion for Excellence
- ABCmouse Case Study: Using Early Learning Technology to Prepare Head Start Families for Kindergarten
- Age of Learning Releases In-Depth Analysis of What It Means to Be Kindergarten Ready in All 50 States
- Age of Learning Launches ABCmouse Assessment Center
- Age of Learning Launches ABCmouse for Schools, a Scalable Solution for School Districts and School Groups in the U.S. and Globally
- Age of Learning Launches 2nd Grade Curriculum on ABCmouse
- SCE Funds Bring Learning Home Initiative in LA County
- Age of Learning Joins National Book-Rich Environment Initiative
- A Constellation of New ABCmouse Apps for Learning on the Go
- Age of Learning Talks Machine Learning and Education at Glendale Tech Week 2017
- ABCmouse Now Available in 7,000+ Libraries Nationwide, Serving Millions of Learning Sessions
- Introducing New ABCmouse Spanish Activities
- Tencent Partners with Age of Learning to Launch ABCmouse Immersive English Learning Program for Children in China
- ABCmouse Assessments
- Complete Collection of ABCmouse Songs Now Available on Major Music Platforms!
- Age of Learning’s First Staff Volunteer Day Helps Transform Local Elementary School
- ABCmouse for Teachers and ABCmouse for Schools Add Features for Back to School
Age of Learning - Social Networks & Information
- Age of Learning - Twitter
- Age of Learning - Facebook
- Age of Learning - LinkedIn
- Age of Learning - Tumblr
- Age of Learning - Pinterest
- Age of Learning - Slideshare
- Age of Learning - Flickr
- Age of Learning / ABCmouse.com - Wikipedia
- Age of Learning - Crunchbase
- Age of Learning - Bloomberg
- Age of Learning - Hoovers
Age of Learning, Inc. Jobs