Ned Zimmerman-Bence

Ned Zimmerman-Bence is the Co-Founder and CEO of GogyUp, a Minneapolis-based tech company that develops assistive reading technology to help adults with low literacy skills.13 He started his career as a teacher, working with autistic youth and in various K-12 schools across the Twin Cities.1 Zimmerman-Bence later transitioned to leading his own company and then became a director at an online high school.1

Through his experiences in education, Zimmerman-Bence identified the significant issue of adult illiteracy, which led him to co-found GogyUp in 2018.1 The company's mission is to remove barriers to understanding through assistive technology, particularly focusing on helping adults with literacy gaps in the workplace.45

GogyUp's technology includes:

1. Snap Reader: An app that allows users to take photos of text for real-time reading and translation assistance.
2. GogyUp Reader: An app designed to help users improve literacy skills while gaining knowledge on various topics.1

Zimmerman-Bence describes spreadsheets as his "expressive medium" and expanding opportunity as his passion.2 He is actively involved in the social enterprise community in the Twin Cities and has written about the scalability of social enterprise.6