Our Journey
From flashcards to adaptive intelligence
Apple Announces iPhone SDK and App Store
Apple announced in February 2008 that an officially-supported SDK would be released, allowing third-party developers to build native iPhone applications for the first time. A new App Store would serve as the distribution channel. Professional developer and language enthusiast Charles Sieg watched the announcement and decided to build an app. He had no experience with Objective-C at the time.
Launch
Vacation Inspiration
During a vacation trip to Cancun, Charles conceived the idea for a digital flashcard application. He had been carrying a huge stack of physical index cards on his consulting commute in downtown Chicago, using them to learn Turkish. He envisioned replacing the stack with a program on the iPhone.
IPDevelopment Begins
Development of the language software commenced in April 2008. The first iPhone SDK lacked Interface Builder, so all UI components were created entirely in code. Debugging support was minimal and Charles could only test on a physical device very late in the development cycle. He worked his full-time consulting job by day and built the app at nights.
Naming and Trademark
The name "AccelaStudy" came from a discussion with a cousin. A trademark application was filed. Renkara Media Group was established as the company entity.
IPApp Store Launch; First Language Learning App
When the App Store went live on June 2, 2008, Renkara Media Group submitted 6 versions of AccelaStudy — Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Turkish — at $14.99 each. AccelaStudy was the very first language learning app in the App Store.
LaunchProduct Line Expansion
By year's end, Renkara added GRE®/GMAT™ Vocabulary Builder to the lineup and expanded each language application's vocabulary to over 2,000 words. Audio pronunciations recorded by professional voiceover artists were added — including the same artist Mercedes used for their German television commercials. All language content was translated by professors at Brigham Young University.
Chuckisms: Chuck Norris 'Fact' Generator
Renkara released Chuckisms, a humor app that generated random Chuck Norris "facts" in the style of the popular internet meme. The app was available in the iTunes Store by December 2008. However, on December 4, 2008, the law firm Patton Boggs LLP sent a cease-and-desist letter on behalf of Chuck Norris, alleging the app infringed on his intellectual property rights. The app was subsequently pulled from the store — an early lesson in celebrity IP. The framed cease-and-desist letter is now prized wall decor in Charles' office.
LaunchTrivia for the Factual Intellectual, Facts for the Factual Intellectual, and iComedian
By mid-2009, Renkara's product catalog had expanded beyond language learning to include three entertainment and trivia apps. "Trivia for the Factual Intellectual™" and "Facts for the Factual Intellectual™" were knowledge-focused apps that tested users on general knowledge and presented interesting facts. "iComedian™" was a humor/joke app. All three were listed on the Renkara website by July 2009 and generated ad revenue. They were maintained through early 2012 with iOS 5 compatibility updates, but were eventually discontinued as Renkara refocused on its core education products.
Spaced Repetition and Translate Now
AccelaStudy version 1.4 introduced the first implementation of spaced repetition, a scientifically-backed learning technique for optimizing review intervals. This was Renkara's first step toward the adaptive learning platform that would eventually become AVIAN — the idea that software should decide what to study and when, not the learner. Renkara also released Translate Now!, a language translation app that served primarily as a promotional vehicle to advertise AccelaStudy products to translation app users.
Launch
Flashcard Champion® Featured by Apple (#1 Paid Education App)
Flashcard Champion®, Renkara's math learning app, was featured by Apple in the App Store and reached the #1 position in the Paid Education category in January 2010. On January 10, 2010, Renkara hit a new daily sales record of approximately $2,420, driven in large part by the feature. Flashcard Champion would later be rebranded under the "Powered by AccelaStudy" concept in 2013, and received ongoing updates including iPad Retina artwork and iPhone 5 support in 2012.
Milestone
Contig Released for iPad; Arabic, Hebrew, and iPad Support for AccelaStudy
Contig, a strategy number game where players are given 4 numbers and must combine them to make 24, was released for iPad in 2010. User feedback praised its design as "very beautiful" with a "very iPhone-like" interface. Contig 2.0 was planned for later that year with new icons, localizations, and performance improvements. Separately, AccelaStudy expanded to include Arabic and Hebrew language versions, broadening the product line's reach into right-to-left script languages. Late in 2010, AccelaStudy gained an iPad-specific UI. Renkara was actively developing multiple products simultaneously: iPhraseBook, iLinguist, Contig, and working with third-party content providers like Prestwick House.
LaunchiPhraseBook® Launch (iPad App of the Week)
iPhraseBook®, a phrase-based language reference app built with content licensed from HarperCollins®, was launched in April 2011 and was selected by Apple as iPad App of the Week globally. This was a major marketing milestone, demonstrating Apple's recognition of Renkara's product quality. The iPhone version of AccelaStudy was subsequently redesigned to incorporate the more attractive visual elements from the iPad UI.
Launch
KanjiPictoGraphix Developed and Launched
KanjiPictoGraphix, a kanji learning app for iPad and iPhone, was developed in partnership with Michael Rowley, author of the acclaimed Kanji Pict-O-Graphix books that teach Japanese kanji through memorable visual mnemonics. The app brought Rowley's acclaimed pictographic approach to mobile, featuring stroke diagrams, vocabulary, element filtering, and grade-based organization (Grades 1-6) aligned with Japanese kanji proficiency levels, with themed collections (Dragon, Dog, Bird). Development ran from early 2011 through summer with the app launching in early January 2012.
LaunchHess Energy App for Fino Consulting
Renkara was contracted by Fino Consulting to build a native iPad application for Hess® Corporation, an energy company. The app was an energy trading proposal management tool — featuring proposal lists, product views, margin sliders, analytics graphs, push notifications for workflow automation, email contract generation, and full offline support. The project commenced in August 2011 and continued through the fall of 2011. The app communicated with Hess web services for real-time pricing data and supported simulated and live push notifications for proposal state changes. Development updates continued through at least mid-2012 and the app won an industry innovation award for Hess.
ToolsConsulting Expansion
By mid-2011, Renkara was also positioning itself as a consulting firm, having "successfully delivered over 300 apps to the App Store since it opened in 2008" with "over 5 million downloads." Renkara's client work included white-labeling for brands like Levi's, the Oprah Winfrey Show, and Victoria's Secret through a client called Citizen Global.
MilestoneCloud Sync, User-Generated Content, Mac App Store, and Patents
The most transformative year for AccelaStudy. First, all applications became "cloud-enabled," allowing progress to sync between iPhone and iPad via the Renkara Cloud. Charles began developing an innovative new algorithm, similar to but improving upon spaced repetition, designed to further accelerate learning and retention. This algorithm was initially intended to be patented as Optimized Study Method for Accelerated Memory Consolidation. Deciding not to pursue a patent at this time, the algorithm was merged into Renkara's language applications by late 2012. Work was also underway on AccelaStudy 2.3 with iPad Retina support, localization into Chinese and other languages, and new vocabulary products.
IPAccelaStudy Cloud Generation 1 Launches (Parse)
The first AccelaStudy Cloud shipped alongside AccelaStudy v2.4, built on Parse (Facebook's recently acquired Backend-as-a-Service). The cloud enabled cross-device progress sync between iPhone and iPad and social authentication via Facebook and Twitter. AccelaStudy was also featured in Apple's Chinese television commercial introducing the iPad. By year's end, over 10 million users had downloaded an AccelaStudy-powered app and over 1 million had created Renkara Cloud accounts.
Milestone
10 Million Downloads
By the end of 2012, over 10 million users had downloaded an AccelaStudy-powered application and over 1 million users had created Renkara Cloud accounts to store their learning progress.
Milestone15 Million Downloads
By year's end: over 15 million downloads and over 5 million Renkara Cloud accounts.
Milestone
Pearson® System of Courses (Common Core for K-12)
Pearson's Common Core System of Courses (CCSoC) v1.0 was delivered in July 2013, with Charles serving as mobile architect. The platform delivered Common Core curriculum for grades K-12 across iOS, Windows, and Android (via Chrome app). This was a significant enterprise engagement — the native iOS and Windows apps plus the Chrome-packaged web app for Android were all still available in their respective stores years later. Work on Pearson continued through 2014-2015.
Relocated to Dallas-Fort Worth
Renkara Media Group relocates from the Chicago area to the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex in Texas, establishing a new base closer to major enterprise clients and a lower cost of living.
AccelaStudy Cloud Generation 2 (Parse + Firebase)
AccelaStudy v3.0 shipped with a hybrid cloud architecture: Parse still handled user accounts and storage, but real-time synchronization was moved to Firebase for sub-second propagation between simultaneous clients. A user could study on their iPhone and iPad at the same time and see changes propagate in milliseconds. This was a an inconvenient transitional architecture, but it worked.
MilestoneAccelaStudy Cloud Generation 3 (Custom)
After Facebook announced Parse's shutdown in January 2016, Renkara decided it needed to own its cloud platform and migrated to a fully-owned stack. AccelaStudy v3.2 was the first version to run on the new AccelaStudy Cloud — a scalable and highly-avaialble platform featuring multi-master replication, complete offline support, single-digit millisecond latency, and COPPA/GDPR/PCI compliance. Firebase was replaced entirely in February 2017 with the AccelaStudy Cloud's custom real-time sync engine.
InnovationAccelaStudy Infinite Released
After approximately three years of rebuilding AccelaStudy using Apple's latest technologies, Renkara consolidated over 300 separate AccelaStudy app versions into a single modern application called AccelaStudy Infinite, released in September 2018. The app featured a recurring subscription model and was designed to deliver unlimited content types beyond language vocabulary.
Launch
Consulting Practice Spun Off to Vantalect
Renkara Media Group spins off its consulting practice into Vantalect, LLC, a separate entity focused on cloud infrastructure, governance and compliance, and AI engineering. The move allows Renkara to focus exclusively on its adaptive learning products and the AVIAN engine while Vantalect continues to serve enterprise consulting clients independently.
Keller, Texas
Renkara Media Group settles in Keller, Texas, the company's current home in the DFW metroplex.
Patent Portfolio Development Begins
Development begins on a comprehensive patent portfolio. Drafting starts on The AccelaStudy Method and is soon rebranded as AVIAN as the breath of the one patent expands into 26 separate patent applications describing the most powerful adaptive learning platform ever created.
IP
First AVIAN Patent Filed
Renkara files its first provisional patent application (63/906,341) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, covering the core AVIAN adaptive learning architecture. The filing contains 35 claims spanning knowledge synthesis, cognitive modeling, and adaptive assessment. It marks the beginning of a comprehensive intellectual property strategy to protect eighteen years of accumulated innovation.
IP
25 Additional Patents Filed
Renkara files 25 additional provisional patent applications, extending the total AVIAN portfolio to 26 filings encompassing 573 claims and 144 distinct inventions — the most comprehensive adaptive learning patent portfolio ever assembled.
IPAccelaStudy AI Launches with AVIAN
After eighteen years of building learning software — from the first flashcard app in the App Store to a groundbreaking adaptive learning engine protected by 26 patent filings — Renkara Media Group launches AccelaStudy AI. Powered by the AVIAN engine, it is the first certification prep platform to fully map a learner's journey from novice to exam-ready, continuously modeling what you know, identifying what you don't, and adapting every session in real time without requiring you to choose what to study or when. It is the product that every version of AccelaStudy was building toward.
Launch
GRE® is a registered trademark of Educational Testing Service (ETS). GMAT™ is a trademark of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). HarperCollins® is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers LLC. Pearson® is a registered trademark of Pearson Education, Inc. Hess® is a registered trademark of Hess Corporation. None of these organizations endorses or is affiliated with Renkara Media Group or AccelaStudy. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.