By Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell
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The podcast currently has 303 episodes available.
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Matt Given is an experienced education technology leader and the CEO of Seesaw, a groundbreaking learning experience platform designed for PreK-5 students. With over 20 years of experience in education and edtech leadership, Matt has held executive roles at Kaplan, Catapult Learning, and EdisonLearning. Known for his expertise in universal design for learning and his ability to bridge the gap between home and classroom, Matt is a driving force behind Seesaw's mission to create accessible and engaging learning tools.
💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:00:22] Streamlining teacher workflows and improving classroom outcomes with Seesaw.
[00:03:13] Reflections on 25 years in edtech and the evolution of digital learning tools.
[00:07:16] Universal design for pre-readers and special populations.
[00:11:38] Seesaw’s COVID-19 transformation and post-pandemic innovations.
[00:16:45] Digital portfolios tracking student progress over time.
[00:29:20] Teacher ambassadors shaping product development with real-world feedback.
[00:36:14] Cautiously integrating AI for fluency assessments and translation.
😎 Stay updated with Edtech Insiders!
🎉 Presenting Sponsor:
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for Education Entrepreneurs. Founded by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work just as hard as you do.
Send us a text
Arman Jaffer is the founder and CEO of Brisk Teaching. Brisk is an AI tool that helps educators personalize their instruction and save hours of time on administrative tasks.
Emily Bennett currently serves as a Principal investor at Owl Ventures.
💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:00:22] How AI enhances insights into student thinking for improved instruction.
[00:01:49] Brisk Teaching's AI tools streamline teacher workflows with automation.
[00:05:09] Owl Ventures' perspective on investing in high-impact AI edtech.
[00:07:20] Brisk’s integration into teachers’ daily workflows across platforms.
[00:13:03] The shift toward student-focused AI for personalized learning.
[00:20:35] Use case for Brisk Boost’s interactive student tutoring aligned with learning objectives.
[00:30:26] Practical advice for edtech entrepreneurs on navigating the funding landscape.
✨ EdTech Insiders+ Members' Exclusive:
Don’t miss the overtime episode with Arman & Emily, where they go beyond the main conversation to discuss:
Subscribe to EdTech Insiders+ to access this exclusive content, get first dibs on event announcements, tickets and more!
😎 Stay updated with Edtech Insiders!
🎉 Presenting Sponsor:
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for Education Entrepreneurs. Founded by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work just as hard as you do.
Send us a text
Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell for a post-election edition of "Week in Edtech," featuring insights from Anna Edwards and Ben Wallerstein of Whiteboard Advisors.
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:02:16] 🇺🇸 New trends in education policy post-election
[00:04:42] 🏛️ Why state policies will shape the future of K-12 education
[00:08:10] 💸 The looming financial gap for districts as ESSER funds expire
[00:10:57] 🏢 Republicans’ potential plans to restructure or abolish the Education Department
[00:19:50] 📉 Navigating a shifting landscape and finding opportunities in state funding
[00:28:32] 🛠️ Rising focus on workforce readiness and career pathways
[00:33:55] 📈 A move toward flexible, formative assessment models in K-12
[00:36:08] 🤖 Anna Edwards on AI's expanding role in K-12 education
[00:42:04] 🚀 Federal policies open doors for flexibility and innovation in education
Plus Special Guests:
[00:55:33] 🎙️ Kavitta Ghai, CEO of Nectir, discusses how AI is transforming student support and boosting engagement in higher education
[01:18:41] 🎙️ Lindsay Dworkin, SVP of Policy and Government Affairs at HMH, shares insights on adapting edtech strategy amidst policy changes
😎 Stay updated with Edtech Insiders!
🎉 Presenting Sponsor:
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for Education Entrepreneurs. Founded by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work just as hard as you do.
Send us a text
Chuck Cohn is the Founder, Chairman & CEO of Nerdy (parent company of Varsity Tutors). Chuck founded the company in 2007 during his junior year of college after experiencing frustration finding the personalized help he needed for a calculus course. He spent his early career working in energy & power investment banking at Wells Fargo Securities (Wachovia) and healthcare private equity at Ascension Ventures, an $800M AUM private equity fund. Chuck bootstrapped Nerdy before leaving his private equity role to focus on growing Nerdy full-time at the end of 2011.
💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:03:07] Chuck’s founding story of Nerdy and his vision for accessible tutoring
[00:05:20] Scaling Varsity Tutors from individual tutoring to institutional partnerships.
[00:07:27] Early entrepreneurial lessons from bootstrapping and finance
[00:13:17] Ensuring quality through effective tutor-student matching.
[00:16:45] Why high-dosage, relationship-based tutoring drives better outcomes
[00:24:10] Balancing logistics with personalization in tutoring.
[00:30:46] Chuck’s outlook on sustainable tutoring post-ESSER funding
[00:35:00] How AI enhances personalization and tutor matching at Varsity Tutors
[00:41:03] Consistent tutoring's impact on improving school attendance
[00:50:06] The promise of real-time language translation for ELL students.
😎 Stay updated with Edtech Insiders!
🎉 Presenting Sponsor:
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for Education Entrepreneurs. Founded by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work just as hard as you do.
Send us a text
Mark Miller is the founder and Managing Director of Good Harbor Partners (GHP), a boutique M&A advisory firm specializing in the education technology and publishing sectors. With over 20 years of experience as an edtech entrepreneur and advisor, Miller has a proven track record in guiding Pre-K-12, Higher Education, and Workforce clients through strategic growth, fundraising, and successful exits. A co-founder of LearnLaunch and a dedicated member of Cornell’s Entrepreneurship Advisory Board, Miller is widely respected for his contributions to the edtech ecosystem and frequently shares his insights as a speaker at industry events.
💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✨ Episode Highlights
[00:03:13] From Cornell to edtech, winning a business plan competition to building companies
[00:10:18] Creating 'Take Note' as an early publishing venture at Cornell
[00:19:51] Transition to M&A, guiding entrepreneurs on growth and exit decisions
[00:26:19] Profitability and sustainability as essentials in today’s edtech
[00:32:17] Common pitfalls in capital strategy and valuation for startups
[00:47:27] AI and M&A, how big edtech views acquisitions in the AI market
[01:03:10] Key resources from top thinkers in edtech policy and strategy
😎 Stay updated with Edtech Insiders!
🎉 Presenting Sponsor:
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for Education Entrepreneurs. Founded by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work just as hard as you do.
Send us a text
Libby Hills co-leads the Jacobs Foundation’s global EdTech investment portfolio, focusing on the intersection of technology, research, and education. With over 15 years in education, including roles in teaching, tech leadership, and charity boards, she also co-hosts the Ed-Technical podcast. Libby holds degrees in Education and Social Business from Oxford and LSE.
Owen Henkel is an AI in Education researcher at the University of Oxford, specializing in natural language processing for foundational literacy and numeracy. He leads the R&D team for Rori, a chatbot for personalized math tutoring on low-cost mobile phones, and co-hosts Ed-Technical with Libby. Owen has a dual MBA/MA from the University of Michigan and is completing his Ph.D. at Oxford.
💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:00:22] Generative AI’s limitations in understanding student learning.
[00:00:57] Carnegie Mellon’s AI-human hybrid tutoring model.
[00:04:37] Four pillars of effective high-dosage tutoring.
[00:08:17] History and evolution of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS).
[00:11:26] Rori, a math tutoring chatbot for underserved regions.
[00:17:18] Hybrid models reducing tutoring costs and training needs.
[00:24:42] AI modeling new thinking processes for students.
[00:26:35] UK government-backed AI content hubs and resources.
[00:31:32] Raising minimum quality standards in education with AI.
😎 Stay updated with Edtech Insiders!
🎉 Presenting Sponsor:
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for Education Entrepreneurs. Founded by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work just as hard as you do.
Send us a text
Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they explore the political and technological currents reshaping education, from college ROI and student loans to AI’s expanding role in higher ed.
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:04:28] 🗳️ Election’s Impact on Education Policy
[00:12:11] 🎓 Debating the Value of College Amid Rising Costs
[00:15:12] 📉 Freshman Enrollment Sees Largest Drop Since Pandemic
[00:18:02] 🛠️ SchooLinks Raises $80M to Expand Career Pathways
[00:27:01] 🤖 Half of Higher Ed Adopting AI Tools for Outcomes
[00:37:05] 🕹️ AI Chatbot Linked to Teen Suicide Raises Alarms
[00:45:18] 🌍 Meta Orion & Apple Vision Pro Bring XR Back to Spotlight
[00:48:46] 📊 Anthropic’s AI Now Performs Autonomous Computer Tasks
😎 Stay updated with Edtech Insiders!
🎉 Presenting Sponsor:
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for Education Entrepreneurs. Founded by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work just as hard as you do.
Send us a text
Roosh X is an investment arm of Roosh Investment Group.
Nathan Maynard is the CEO and Founder of HighFive, a company using mobile technology to foster connected school communities and reduce recidivism for negative classroom behaviors. With over 11 years of experience as a youth worker, teacher, and school administrator, Nathan co-authored the best-selling book "Hacking School Discipline," and is a global thought leader in reimagining discipline practices in education.
💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:01:46] Introduction to Nathan Maynard and Highfive’s mission to transform school discipline.
[00:03:34] Building connected school communities to reduce negative behaviors.
[00:05:43] How real-time technology supports teachers in managing discipline
[00:08:13] From "Hacking School Discipline" to scaling Highfive’s impact
[00:21:26] Using AI to address systemic bias and improve behavioral insights
[00:24:34] Highfive’s expansion strategy across key U.S. states.
[00:27:55] Partnership with Roosh X to support growth and mental health initiatives.
[00:34:22] Promoting positive behavior with Highfive's virtual "high fives" system.
😎 Stay updated with Edtech Insiders!
🎉 Presenting Sponsor:
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for Education Entrepreneurs. Founded by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work just as hard as you do.
Send us a text
Join hosts Alex Sarlin and Ben Kornell as they explore the latest in education technology, AI developments, and key edtech funding moves.
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:02:53] 🗽 Recap of New York EdTech Week, highlighting key themes and vibrant energy from the event.
[00:04:37] 📈 Discussion on the rise of micro companies, with lower barriers leading to a surge in niche startups.
[00:12:36] 🤝Convergence between philanthropy and EdTech, focusing on how partnerships can drive sustainable models.
[00:17:28] 💰 PhysicsWallah's $400-500 million IPO plans could reshape EdTech, positioning it to overtake Byju's as India's leader.
[00:21:22] 🤖 Controversial use of AI in Nevada to reclassify at-risk students, sparking debates on resource allocation.
[00:22:07] ⚖️ Broader implications of AI in decision-making, raising questions about existing policies and resource management.
Plus special guest:
[00:25:12] 🎙️ Shauntel Garvey, Co-Founder and General Partner at Reach Capital
😎 Stay updated with Edtech Insiders!
🎉 Presenting Sponsor:
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for Education Entrepreneurs. Founded by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work just as hard as you do.
Send us a text
Brian Shaw is the CEO of Discovery Education, a global leader in educational technology that reaches over 45 million students and 4.5 million educators across 100+ countries. With a background in finance and corporate strategy from his roles at Red Ventures and Time Warner Cable, Brian has extensive experience in M&A and business integration. At Discovery Education, he drives innovation through acquisitions and partnerships, delivering impactful digital learning solutions.
💡 5 Things You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✨ Episode Highlights:
[00:01:13] Brian Shaw explains Discovery’s mission to drive learning outcomes
[00:03:47] Discussion on interoperability with school systems
[00:05:25] EdTech consolidation and how Discovery stays ahead
[00:08:59] AI assessment generator making custom assessments easy
[00:11:25] Career Connect helping students explore careers early
[00:15:01] Identifying the right companies to acquire
[00:19:35] The importance of communication after acquisitions
[00:23:02] Advice for startups building relationships with Discovery
😎 Stay updated with Edtech Insiders!
🎉 Presenting Sponsor:
This season of Edtech Insiders is once again brought to you by Tuck Advisors, the M&A firm for Education Entrepreneurs. Founded by serial entrepreneurs with over 25 years of experience founding, investing in, and selling companies, Tuck believes you deserve M&A advisors who work just as hard as you do.
The podcast currently has 303 episodes available.
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