EdTech Founders

By EdTech Garage

In this podcast we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe in 20+ minutes.

The podcast is brought to you by the EdTech Garage, a community f... more

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FAQs about EdTech Founders:

How many episodes does EdTech Founders have?

The podcast currently has 29 episodes available.

EdTech Founders episodes:

June 27, 2024Transforming learning with AI tutors - Gustav Grimberg (Ezri)
In this episode: ⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠ is talking with ⁠Gustav Grimberg who is the co-founder of Ezri, a company dedicated to developing AI tutors that transform online learning. With a background in human-computer interaction, Gustav has long been passionate about creating technologies that are natural and intuitive for human beings to interact with, especially in education. In October 2023, he co-founded Ezri to bring this vision of affordable, personalised education to life.
Recently, Ezri launched its first AI tutors in Germany through a white-label model in collaboration with the K-12 publishers Cornelsen and Duden Learnattack. Their machine learning systems converted tens of thousands of videos, exercises, and articles into interactive AI tutors, offering personalized student support tailored to the content.
The company is now focused on releasing its next generation of AI tutors, which work in multiple modalities to deliver even more effective personal tutoring.
We talk about:
The role AI tutors will play in the future of education, how to incorporate effective human-computer interaction principles, challenges such as user interface design and privacy, voice interaction and enhanced dialogue management systems ….and lots more.
Outtakes:
AI tutors will play a very important role in the future of education. What exactly they will look like and how they will work and how they will fit into the learning process are still questions that need to be addressed fully. But, at Ezri, we believe and we work towards a future where AI tutors will be a learning companion that all students will have.

So how do you compare an AI tutor to a human tutor? There are similarities and there are differences, of course. And I think that going forward there will be ways that these two modes of learning will complement each other definitely.

An important feature of human tutoring is a mutual understanding and feeling some kind of harmony or some kind of connection with the tutor. And this is something that is also important to definitely explore in AI tutoring systems. If you should make this or try to develop this interpersonal connection with the tutee, with the student. From what we see, it is definitely a path to go down to try and develop these more close relationships where the tutor has a better understanding of the student, has an ability to not just tutor, but also, go off topic sometimes to develop a more close connection to the student because that in the end can foster and promote better learning.

I would love to have a really good voice system that works very well, especially with K-12 students. That delivers a very human like voice interaction. And then just find this dialogue manager that can really just steer the interaction as the best tutor in the whole world. So if I could order one thing and plug into our tutors, it would definitely be the best tutor dialogue management system, which we are working towards at Ezri.
The ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month.
Sign up to the podcast & newsletter on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠)
Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ehsansation
...more
34min
May 30, 2024Accelerating time to skill - Arnaud Blachon (Rise Up)
In this episode: Frank Albert Coates is talking with Arnaud Blachon who is the co-founder and CEO of Rise Up, a specialist provider of learning software solutions that help organisations stay up-to-skill. With an engineering background he began his career as an application developer and in 2014, he co-founded Rise Up with his brother Guillaume, aiming to revolutionize corporate learning through blended learning solutions at the time.
They have now raised nearly 50M EUR in funding and have more than 130 employees, support 5 million learners and 500+ clients. This year they are jumping on the adaptive learning bandwagon with the acquisition of the adaptive learning platform Domoscio that will allow personalized learning at scale.

We talk about:
Overcoming initial market misunderstandings, strategies for expanding across Europe, learning personalization at scale through adaptive learning and AI, market consolidation, how to succeed in a market with a focus on doing more with less
….and lots more.

Outtakes:
The difference between Rise Up and the rest of the world is; we want to accelerate what we call the time to skill. On average, if you look at the last Gartner research and Josh Bersin as well, even if we are all convinced that training is key, people spend less than 25 minutes on formal learning every week.

After COVID it also moved from an HR decision to a general management topic, which completely changed the game in terms of how to unlock budget, basically. Companies were convinced that investing in digital was key. It accelerated, and I think not only in the HR space, but the whole digital transformation of every department.

Having the right skills framework is important because it first it will permit to really align learning objectives with business objectives.

Pure players, if they are not delivering enough wide functionality, can't survive right now.

The ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month.
Sign up to the podcast & newsletter on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/⁠⁠⁠⁠)

Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ehsansation
...more
37min
April 17, 2024Unlocking employee engagement and retention - Mindaugas Petrutis (Coho)
In this episode: Frank is talking with Mindaugas Petrutis, the CEO of Coho, which is enabling companies to curate peer groups at scale. This came as a spin-off from On Deck, the global startup community for founders. For Mindaugas, his journey in community building began nearly a decade ago, creating spaces for meaningful interactions and learning while working at InVision and On Deck. Through his work in assembling nearly 400 peer-groups, he unearthed a key insight: true professional growth stems from a blend of challenge and support found in diverse, thoughtfully curated peer groups.
Now he's scaling this concept and the MVP or v1 will be out later this year. The goal is to democratise access to this rich learning model, ensuring professionals across all fields can tap into the power of peer interaction. This approach counters the prevalent issues of loneliness, disengagement, and retention in the modern workplace.
We talk about:
The transformative potential of collective learning experiences, the integration of AI for group facilitation, the significance of customer feedback and prioritizing customer interactions for validation, the opportunity & complexity of implementing peer learning in large companies….and lots more.
Outtakes:
A lot of companies have thought about implementing like the true concept of peer learning, but they either started and failed or got scared of the complexity.

And what fascinates me is; how do people build relationships and learn from each other when you bring a group of people together in various settings.

If this is successful, it falls way beyond the kind of basic learning tools because you start tackling, truly tackling employee engagement and retention with something like this. And that unlocks very different budgets and speed as to which you can move within an organization.

You know that these folks are talking about, in real time, the things that they need, that they care about. And so being able to integrate with, say, learning management systems, you then can start building nearly a true recommendation system for the employee needs.
The ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. You can find the transcript from each podcast on the site below.
Join the community on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/⁠⁠⁠)
Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ehsansation
...more
41min
March 06, 2024The 24/7 global primary school - Noam Gerstein (bina School)
In this episode: Frank is talking with ⁠Noam Gerstein, the CEO of the bina school - a fully online primary transnational school for kids aged 4-12. Noam started university at 16 in Tel-Aviv, worked for physichians for human rights. Founded, bootstrapped and exited a business at 26. Then did more than 7+ years of global K-6 research that culminated in the bina school.

We talk about: The need to solve serious problems as an entrepreneur and not small consumer problems of discomfort, how building a school takes time, effort and careful adjustment, how entrepreneurship is like eating dirt for a long time, why getting a white male in the room helps for funding
….and lots more.

Outtakes:
When kids go to a local school, they meet their local peers, and the educators that are available to them are the ones that are in their neighborhood, more or less. In Bina, children can learn with children from the very north to the very south of their time zone. They are matched according to their needs, not according to their location. Also to their educators by the way. And then we see wonders like two kids from very different sides of the aisle or of the wall or of the war learning together every day and becoming best friends. And that's marvelous.

I think, you know, success would be to walk into a village in the middle of nowhere and that there are children there in multiple aged, in a grandma's hut or whatever, that are all recipients of like the world's best education. That's the dream, right?

So either you have a strong enough network or enough financial resources to put things off the ground on your own with whatever it takes, and then start when you have something to actually sell. That's a one option. Or you like eat dirt for like four years. And hopefully you have the ability to do both.

The ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. You can find the transcript from each podcast on the site below.
Join the community on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/⁠⁠)
Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠
Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ehsansation
...more
38min
January 23, 2024Disrupt by being fast and brave - Lula de León (Leemons)
In this episode: Frank is talking to Lula de León, a designer, teacher, entrepreneur and mother. She is the CEO and co-founder of Leemons, a startup born in May 2021 with the goal of transforming the digitalization of learning in educational centers with its innovative SaaS LMS platform.
We talk about: How the lack of innovation in the LMS/LXP segment pushed her to create the company, that you need to be ready to move fast in an uncertain market, how peer connections help to maintain mental health and get support, how she raised the 1,5M EUR….and lots more.
Outtakes:
And then I enter the education technology market, and I thought, what is happening in LMS or in LXP technology. That the companies that are developing this kind of software for the educational centers don't need to innovate at the same level that the e-commerce, travel or banking industries.

But, there are a lot of startups that are trying so hard, that have great products and they are now in danger to close because the market is difficult and the moment is very complicated. So even though you have a secret sauce, you need to be prepared always to move, move forward because things are not easy, not easy in this industry.

We know a lot about a person, to whom we want to sell a T-shirt. But, we don't know anything about a person who wants to learn something new. So it is a bit stupid that educational centers are not learning organizations when they are teaching all the time.
The ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. You can find the transcript from each podcast on the site below.
Join the community on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (⁠www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/⁠)
Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠⁠⁠
Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Ehsansation
...more
41min
December 18, 2023Build a product for GPT-6 - Nick Hernandez (360Learning)
In this episode: Frank is talking to Nick Hernandez who is the CEO and Founder of 360Learning, an advisor and investor in the SaaS technology industry. He has been running 360Learning now for 10 years and grown it into one of the leading LMS platforms for corporate education. He has also secured over 200M EUR in funding from funds such as SoftBank and Silverlake. The focus of the company is on collaborative learning and he has even written a book about the topic. He is based here in Paris, France.
We talk about: Why the company initially pivoted from K-12 education to corporate learning, the unique collaborative approach of 360Learning compared to traditional top-down methods, their recent acquisitions of eLamp and Looop, the influence of AI on learning & user experiences, and a solid dose of advice for emerging EdTech startups
….and lots more.
Outtakes:
Something that's challenging with AI right now is to build a product that's not completely going to work right now, but you're building a product for GPT-5. You're building a product for GPT-6. You're not building a product for GPT-4. And I see a lot of people thinking like if the technology was static.
I see a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of companies going to market to raise money without any structure or process. So typically, first they're talking to VCs all the time, like they're constantly raising money. It's not the best way.
We're living through fantastic times. It's time to build, take risks, imagine the future. There are some risks and we can be worried about the future, but we also have a lot of opportunities to build it. So, let's focus on building.
The ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. You can find the transcript from each podcast on the site below.
Join the community on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/)
Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠⁠
Music: ⁠⁠⁠Ehsansation
...more
57min
November 28, 2023How do you digitize implicit knowledge? - Michal Hudeček (Levebee)
In this episode: Frank is talking to Michal Hudeček who is the CEO of Levebee and a serial entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience in online business. Levebee makes learning easier, more effective and fun for kids in areas such as math, reading and languages. His background combines deep technical knowledge with business skills proven by multiple exits. He is based in Prague, the Czech Republic.

We talk about: How the international expansion is challenged by the fragmentation of educational markets, that the biggest challenge is understanding and digitizing the implicit knowledge and decision-making processes of teachers, that understanding pedagogical research and focusing on the educational value is important for EdTech startups….and lots more.

Outtakes:
What we are trying to build here is this mythical, personalized digital math teacher.

When you try to focus only on the fun, you are eventually competing with everything that is fun. So I still believe that the educational value is more important, like finding a way how to help teachers.

It's important to be able to get it to the users quickly. This is why we try to have the direct contact with the teachers and the students and to build the brand, to be trusted and have the expertise to build on.

In this podcast by EdTech Garage, we interview startup founders & players in the EdTech ecosystem from across Europe.

The ⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠ is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. You can find the transcript from each podcast on the site below.
Join the community on ⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠ (www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/)

Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠
Music: ⁠⁠Ehsansation
...more
32min
October 27, 2023Schools need to measure soft skills - Michaela Horvathova⁠ (Beyond Education)
In this episode: Frank is talking to Michaela Horvathova who is the co-founder and Chief Education Officer at Beyond Education. The company empowers students 10-21 years old with the 21st century competencies, or so called "soft skills” through research-based programs and 1st scientifically validated assessment. She is an international education policy expert having worked for international organisations like the OECD, IB and UNICEF. She has extensive global experience in curriculum design and reform for 21st century skills & competencies, learning outcomes, evaluation & assessment. She is based in Paris, France.

We talk about: Why the market needs education on the importance of soft skills overall, how assessment goes hand-in-hand with education programs, the discrepancy between international standards and what is needed in the classroom, the importance of having a co-founder ….and lots more.

Outtakes:
What we are doing is aiming to help ultimately students be better prepared for the future.

There are a lot of companies that are developing soft skills through programs, which is something that we actually started with and we still have, but we sort of put it on hold and as we understood that what is really needed or what is maybe more of an entry point to schools is assessment.

What is the challenge is that there is a big discrepancy still between what ministries of education, researchers, policy makers, understand that it's needed and important and what people on the ground understand that is needed.

In this podcast by EdTech Garage, we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe.

The ⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠ is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. You can find the transcript from each podcast on the site below.
Join the community on ⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠ (www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/)

Host: ⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠
Music: ⁠Ehsansation
...more
30min
September 27, 2023EdTech Angels: Founders should double down on their origin story - Andy Ayim (Angel Investing School)
In this episode: We are talking to Andy Ayim who is an entrepreneur, investor and an expert angel being the founder of the Angel Investing School. He is coaching founders to help them achieve product market fit and is a leading voice for integrating diversity and inclusion into portfolios of investors. He has invested in over 17 startups and also received the Order of the British Empire for his work in this field. He is based in London, UK.

We talk about: The long-term mindset of investors, how to tell the story to connect with and convince investors, how founders with a real understanding of the problem they are solving for have an edge, why founders need to do their own due diligence of investors….and lots more.

Want to become a business angel? Join the Angel Investing School and get 10% off with the discount code EdTech10.

Outtakes:
There is a massive long tail opportunity for educating the majority of the world with these micro courses, cohort based courses and the like.

The founder should understand their story. What is your origin story? Why are you well suited to solve this problem? Who are the customers that you serve? Can you share stories about your customers and how you alleviate a pain point with the problems that you're solving for them?

The same way the angels are doing due diligence on you and referencing you, you should be doing due diligence on your angels and referencing them because this is a long-term partnership and relationship you're about to form.

I always try and position myself as that core and that person to speak to when the metrics aren't looking as good, when the things aren't trending upwards, when you need to have honest conversations where you wanna sense check stuff before talking to the rest of the investors.

In this podcast by EdTech Garage, we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe.

The ⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠ is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. You can find the transcript from each podcast on the site below.
Join the community on ⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠

⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠ (www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/)

Host: ⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates
Music: Ehsansation
...more
33min
June 15, 2023VR education has crossed the chasm - Christophe Mallet (Bodyswaps)
In this episode: We interview Christophe Mallet, who is the CEO & co-founder of Bodyswaps, a VR platform that brings realistic simulations and AI-enabled feedback to soft skills training for educational institutions and corporate clients. Christophe has long experience in the immersive technologies and digital marketing fields and is based in London, UK.
We talk about: The hype and opportunity in immersive education, their partnership with Meta, the go to market strategies for education institutions vs corporates and generative AI opportunities plus lots more.
Outtakes:
The issue for a wannabe SaaS business like us is that the higher the buy-in, the less likely they are to buy off the shelf.

And right now, there's a lot of government money in grants. How are we gonna use immersive learning to improve remote education and access to education for people on the other side of Digital Divide?

Right now, 2023, we have crossed the chasm in education. So when we have a conversation with institutions, we are not talking about why VR. It's never why VR anymore. It's always how. And now we are entering the phase of mutualization of use cases and scaling.

The day the company changed for us is the day we realized that if we are VR geeks trying to do education, that's not gonna work.

And we found that the best driver for us, for new business is the advocacy of our own clients.
In this podcast by EdTech Garage, we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe.
The ⁠EdTech Garage⁠ is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. You can find the transcript from each podcast on the site below.
• Join the community on ⁠edtechgarage.org⁠
• ⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠ (www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/)
Host: ⁠Frank Albert Coates
...more
37min

FAQs about EdTech Founders:

How many episodes does EdTech Founders have?

The podcast currently has 29 episodes available.