Hi. My name is Moktar Alqaderi. And I am…
And this is the part where someone typically says what job they do.
But when you think about it, the words ‘I am’ are pretty powerful. After all, whatever you put next, is what you perceive yourself to be. It becomes part of your identity.
With this in mind, I suppose I am many things.
I am a filmmaker- see [Grove Roots and HiddenHerstories]. I am a social entrepreneur having set-up a social enterprise to help ex-offenders get into employment. I am one of the organisers of the post-London-riots youth forum. I am someone who was awarded the London Peace Prize. I am a teacher of English. I am an immigration lawyer, having worked on cases ranging from Human Rights matters to high net-worth clients investing millions at a time. I am a husband and a dad of two truly amazing little monsters.
Founding Progressay
Most recently, I am the CEO and Founder of Progressay– an education technology start-up that uses AI to make essay marking, more manageable for teachers.
The idea for Progressay was born out of my own experiences as a teacher. When I taught English, I found myself frustrated at just how inaccurate and time-consuming marking was. I remember thinking, how do we know these grades are really accurate?
After all, many mark schemes are riddled with vague terms like “judicious” and “competent” which often illicit varied interpretations from different teachers. So I set out to try to solve this problem.
Since then, we have gone from strength to strength. I was fortunate enough to participate in the FFWD pre-accelerator programme before joining Cohort 6 of UCL EDUCATE research accelerator. It was here that the foundations of Progressay were built. We raised our first seed round and now after several months of co-developing with teachers, professors, universities, schools, and academics alike, we finally have a completed minimum viable product! Our next step is to prove what we have built works! On this note, if you are a teacher and want to know how Progressay can help with marking, moderation or benchmarking drop me a line at moktar@progressay.com.
Now, to return to my original question- what am I? At the end of the day, I see myself as a problem solver. I am driven by innovation and feel that it is this attribute, above all else, that has led me to founding my own tech start-up.
I plan to start documenting my journey as a London based tech entrepreneur, and all of the ups and downs along the way.
Tune in to hear more…
