Kim Taylor is an American entrepreneur. She founded the online college manager company Ranku and the recruitment technology company Cluster, the latter of which she is serving as its

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Career

Taylor attended college at a Marquette University in Wisconsin, during which she spent a year as an NBA dancer with the

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded in 1968 ...

which went to the East conference finals. She then transferred to

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

to study journalism, during which she covered football games for ''

The Arizona Republic ''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...

''. She graduated from Arizona State in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts, and continued working with ''The Arizona Republic''. In 2008, she was working with an online publisher in Chicago but started having interests in online education. In 2012, she joined the cast of entrepreneurs in the reality television series '' Start-Ups: Silicon Valley'' where she worked as an account manager and head of sales for Ampush Media. During the series, she quit Ampush and created a startup business called Shonova which focused on the fashion industry. However, Shonova lasted a few weeks before she gave that up. In June 2013, Taylor joined Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, a partnership between

Kaplan, Inc. Kaplan, Inc. is an American for-profit corporation that provides educational and training services to colleges, universities, businesses and individuals around the world. Founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan, the company offers a variety of test prepa ...

and Techstars which hosts, mentors, and funds startup companies in education technology and product innovation for a three-month program in New York City. As part of joining EdTech, she co-founded with childhood friend Cecilia Retelle the online degree company Ranku and served as the Chief Executive Officer. She named it after the Japanese rending of the phrase rank. The goal of the company was to enable non-profit universities that offer online degrees to compete with the larger for-profit online degree companies such as

University of Phoenix University of Phoenix (UoPX) is a private for-profit university headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1976, the university confers certificates and degrees at the certificate, associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree level ...

Mark Cuban Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American billionaire entrepreneur, television personality, and media proprietor whose net worth is an estimated $4.8 billion, according to ''Forbes'', and ranked No. 177 on the 2020 ''Forbes'' 400 list ...

was the lead investor in Ranku.

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

named Taylor one of “Silicon Alley Top 100 Coolest People In New York Tech” in 2013. In 2016, Ranku was acquired by

John Wiley & Sons John Wiley & Sons, Inc., commonly known as Wiley (), is an American multinational publishing company founded in 1807 that focuses on academic publishing and instructional materials. The company produces books, journals, and encyclopedias, in p ...

. Taylor founded the company Cluster, which aims to help job seekers in the manufacturing industry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Kim American businesspeople Participants in American reality television series Arizona State University alumni National Basketball Association cheerleaders Year of birth missing (living people) Living people