VentureBeat

updated

Education.com, a Redwood City, Calif. company dedicated to teaching parents how to help their kids through school, launches today with $4.5 million in funding.

Attempting to build a company around a domain name, instead of the other way around, can be dangerous. As the huge flop of Wine.com has shown — hundreds of millions of dollars invested, and still struggling seven reincarnations later — faith placed in a domain name with no business plan doesn’t work. Business.com is another example of company that flailed around, looking for a plan. Healthcare.com is another, just launched (we covered yesterday). Chocolate.com, meanwhile, looks like it is off to a good start.

Education.com sounds nobler. But will it work as a business? David Limp, a partner at Azure Capital Partners, said his firm and another venture firm Telesoft Partners acquired the domain name when they bought Knowledge Adventure, an education software company in 2004. Last year, the two firms invested in Education.com to spin it out.

The company cites a survey conducted by conducted by Harris Interactive, which says 74 percent of parents of children ages 18 and under said they wished they had a single resource they could turn to for information and answers about education and 96 percent of parents believe they need to take an active role to help children through school.

Education offers the following:

–Over 4,000 reference articles from across the Web
–Editorial content that encourages parents to take learning beyond the classroom
–Networking features for parents

The site hopes to make money from advertising, and then eventually by charging for services offered.