ZipGrade LLC is a single-founder, bootstrapped company founded by John Viebach. John's wife was teaching an SAT prep class in the evenings in a borrowed classroom. Without access to an OMR machine, she was grading bubble-in answer sheets by hand at the end of every class. A few years previous, John had been experimenting with computer vision grading as part of his volunteer work with a state high school mathlete contest. With smartphone capabilities improving and a very obvious need, John set to work to create a cost effective grading app for the iPhone.

Since then, John has talked with hundreds of teachers and expanded ZipGrade with features requested by classroom teachers around the world. The company still consists of John, with his wife acting as his primary tester and advocate. Teachers are sometimes surprised that support emails are answered by the original developer, but there is no better way to get insight into what is important in different classrooms and to have a real conversation.

Would love to hear from you: ideas@zipgrade.com