Startup Star: Kikori

Kikori Co-founders Kendra Bostick, a former school social worker and therapist, and Bryn Lottig, an expert in adventure-based experiential education, have combined their years of work inside and outside the classroom to launch a platform that provides access to 2,000 activities where instructors can engage with students in experiential social emotional learning.

Working at an inpatient psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents and then six years as a school social worker, Bostick saw that children who needed the most support would really thrive within collaborative team building games and experiential social emotional learning activities. 

As she continued attending workshops and conferences to learn how to bring activities into her classroom, she began to see the need for a platform. “What I really needed was a place where I could easily grab an ice breaker, or problem-solving initiative based on what my group needed,” says Bostick. 

Considering it part of their mission to democratize access to experiential social emotional learning,
Bostick and Lottig make the activities available free of charge on Kikori and offer a premium level service that allows users to save favorites and create playlists
or sequences.

“One of the things that’s really special about Kikori is that we are a community-driven platform with more than 80 contributors,” says Bostick, “It’s a place where we can come together and have all of the activities in [one place]. That is our
special sauce.” 

Bostick says they also work directly with schools to create a playlist from a sequence or a collection of activities based on the institution’s core values, such as responsibility, intrinsic motivation, pride or happiness. “We’re able to build out playlists that help them really focus on taking those big words on the posters on the walls and turning them into meaningful life experiences.”