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Meet the Founders

Meet Hoot’s founders, Carly Shuler and Maya Kotecha — two passionate leaders who combined their expertise in education, technology, and business to build Hoot Reading and help change children's lives through literacy.

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Carly Shuler – Co-Founder & Co-CEO

Through her passion for reading and education, Carly has built a career around her expertise in children’s media and education, working with Sesame Workshop, Spin Master Toys, and The Joan Ganz Cooney Center. She obtained her Master’s degree in Technology, Innovation and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she specifically studied how technology and media can be properly utilized to educate children. Carly also spent five years building research and reports for Sesame Workshop, showing the effectiveness of digital media in educating children, ultimately leading to her idea for Hoot Reading, a platform built to help children across North America learn to love reading.

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Maya Kotecha – Co-Founder & Co-CEO

In her role, Maya is responsible for the overall business operations, ensuring Hoot Reading is ready to scale and manage its growth. She brings over 15 years of experience in marketing, corporate strategy, and business development, holding various senior executive positions at 24-7 Intouch, a leading global outsourcer. Starting as one of the first employees, Maya built and led key marketing and sales roles across the business, helping the company expand from 50 to over 12,000 employees, across 15 global locations. She has two young children and became passionate about and heavily engaged in literacy through her personal journey dealing with her child’s reading struggles. Maya holds a BBA (Hons) from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.