(cheerful music)
- [Maxeme] I love solving problems,
especially big social problems.
Every morning I wake up,
and I get to try and make the world a better place.
And we're connecting families
that used to never be able to connect.
- [Man] In the caves above the forest,
the bears were settling down.
- Caribu is an education platform
that helps parents, extended family, and mentors
read and draw with children
when they're not in the same location.
So we like to say,
"We're FaceTime meets Kindle for kids."
- [Man] Summoning up all his courage,
he took a deep breath (inhales) and stepped inside.
- Caribu's technology was actually created
because we saw a picture of a soldier trying to read
a physical book to his daughter through a webcam.
And it's just the most heartbreaking photo
because you can see he's behind the webcam.
He's kind of behind the book.
It's just an awful experience.
And we said, "This is ridiculous
that in this day and age,
we don't have better technology for him and his daughter
to really have an engaging conversation
while he's deployed."
- Connecting when deployed
and separated for training can be very difficult.
And when you only have an hour to talk on the phone,
you want that hour to be meaningful, good time.
So to have something like Caribu is really important
to engage the children
and keep them caring about the conversation.
- [Man] High five!
There we go.
- Here's how easy it is to use Caribu.
All you have to do is call your contact.
And, then, as soon as they answer,
you're in a real live video chat.
So you can pick out a book,
and everyone can see what's happening
on both sides of the screen.
Every time I turn a page,
whoever's on the other side is seeing me turn the page.
Kids love turning the page
because it looks like a real page.
Books are focused on ages zero to seven.
There are hundreds of books to choose from
in six different languages
and educational workbooks that you can draw on.
And that's how easy it is to use Caribu.
For children to be ready for kindergarten,
they have to be read to for at least 20 minutes a day.
If you think about how many parents travel for work
or work late or are gone because they're deployed,
there's just so many reasons why someone wouldn't be able
to get that time in,
and so we're really excited
that Caribu's technology has finally created the opportunity
for kids to be read to, no matter where the adult is.
Not only is that building a connection with the child,
you're building incredible, unique moments.
- His parents would nag,
and tell him to roar. - Roar!
- Right now Caribu is helping families in 148 countries,
but we're just scratching the surface.
So a thousand people on the website right now.
My goal at Caribu has always been to move it
from a reading app to a literacy app.
So I used to be a twelfth grade high school teacher,
and what I noticed was that a lot of my students were
on a fifth grade reading level.
And I have been through all different levels of education.
And I ran a very large nonprofit, Teach For America,
in Miami,
and I just kept noticing that we couldn't solve this problem
unless we really attacked it
at the zero to seven-year-old space.
And if we get the foundations right,
and kids are really building the building blocks
of literacy,
then they're off to the races.
When I think about the technology
that we have,
it's also scalable in so many different verticals.
In the future, we want to use the technology
to do language learning and tutoring.
And, so, we hope that through Caribu,
we can actually create technology
that allows parents to be able to seamlessly know
that their child is becoming more proficient.
- [Man] Ready? - I will read this page.
You will read that page.
- To be named a Toyota Mother of Invention,
be recognized for inventing something
that's really solving a problem
is just such an extreme honor.
My hope and dream for Caribu is that we become
a household name for communication between families
when they're far away.
When people say, "Oh, let's FaceTime,"
I hope in the future it's, "Let's Caribu."