ScrollEd Wants to Turn Textbooks into TikTok-Style Feeds

Society has spent a lot of time bemoaning digitally addled minds and short attention spans, blaming doomscrolling for the inability to read books or study. Startup ScrollEd is betting that the solution is to rethink what we are scrolling through. The Palo Alto-based startup is pitching in the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200 competition with the idea that if students won’t open a textbook, the textbook should open itself to them as a scroll. ScrollEd has built an app that allows users to turn any text file—including dry PDFs or textbooks—into a feed that feels like Instagram Reels or TikTok. As users scroll, content appears as AI-generated video, audio, text, or interactive quizzes. Swiping up surfaces a new topic, while swiping sideways allows the user to go deeper into the current topic, with a quiz at the end. “The younger generation is increasingly going short form, vertical feed only, and this poses challenges for any kind of media that requires depth,” Utsav Gupta, ScrollEd’s co-founder, told TechCrunch. “We want to meet them where they are… We just have to be deliberate about how we use it and choose not to maximize engagement on the platform.” Gupta bootstrapped ScrollEd this year alongside his co-founder and wife Rebecca Neff after both noticed feeling dissatisfied after doomscrolling before bed. Gupta studies AI and human purpose at Stanford, and Neff studies computer science at the University of Pennsylvania. The startup is targeting educational institutions, corporate training programs, and individuals.