Edtech Insiders

In this second part of the Postcards from ASU GSV mini-series, we talk to a wide variety of amazing Higher Ed and workforce entrepreneurs about their companies, what they're seeing at the ASU conference, and what they're seeing in the field at large.

1) Manny Smith, CEO of Edvisorly, a platform to support community college students who are transferring credit
2) Fadl, CEO of Nexford University, a next-generation, online university that costs $150 a month
3) John Katzman, Edtech legend and Founder/CEO of Noodle Partners, an next-generation online program management company
4) Gautam Tambay, Co-Founder and CEO of Springboard, on online technical bootcamp with mentoring and a job guarantee
5) Manish Maheshwari, Founder and CEO of Invact Metaversity, a fully immersive university for business subjects that can be accessed via VR or computer
6) Kirill Slavkin, Co-founder and COO of Annoto, which turns passive video content into a social learning experience
7) Obi Felten, Founder and CEO of Flourish Labs, a peer-based mental health startup that trains college students to support others with similar conditions
8) Anthony Reo, Co-founder of Bunch.ai, which offers mobile microlearning opportunities for millennial and Gen-Z managers

Svenia Busson is a global Learning Innovation explorer who has traveled through 19 countries to identify the most innovative technological teaching and learning practices, which she captured in her recent book, ‘Exploring the Future of Education’. 

Svenia is also a major network builder in Europe, having co-founded both Edtech France, an industry association representing 400 startups in France, and the European Edtech Alliance, representing more than 2400 startups across Europe.

Svenia is now raising a new edtech focused VC fund and is going to invest in European edtech entrepreneurs.

Recommended Resources

• European Edtech Alliance Newsletter
• Svenia's Book, ‘Exploring the Future of Education’
• Brighteye Ventures Newsletter and Medium
• Emerge Edtech Insights Medium and Newsletter

Guest:

Mehrad Yaghmai - Co-Founder of Qureos

• Qureos raises $3M to grow its learn to earn platform

Topics This Week:

1. Employers start to lighten debt load for learners
   • Fund Debt-Free Education Programs
   • End unpaid internships
   • Free tuition lures low-income students
2. K-12 schools in US face multiple challenges
   • Staffing Shortages + Universal school meals
   • 1 in 4 superintendents likely to quit soon
   • Why American Teens Are So Sad
   • California K-12 enrollment plunges
3. LearnPlatform releases Top 40 Report
   • EdTech Top 40 Mid-Year Report
   • K-12 EdTech Tool Report 
4. Funding + M&A
   • Labster
   • Sales Impact Academy
   • Kaleidoscope
   • Pursuit
   • August Schools

In this special episode, Edtech Insiders hits the road and travels to San Diego for the ASU GSV conference, the biggest and most influential Edtech conferences in the US.

Rather than a single interview, this episode contains no less than EIGHT short 'hallway' interviews with all variety of amazing Edtech and education founders and influencers. 

This episode focuses on innovators in the PK12 space; part two will focus on Higher Ed and workforce innovators.

1. John King Jr., former Secretary of Education for the US under President Obama and candidate for Governor of Maryland
2. Sara Mauskopf, the CEO of Winnie, a daycare and preschool marketplace with millions of users
3. Aditya Kaddu, Founder and CEO of Edstruments, a leading school budget planning platform
4. Gavin Cooney, CEO of Learnosity, a leading assessment platform
5. Maria Berrera, CEO and Founder of Clayful, a text based coaching platform for SEL
6. Vishal Goenka, Founder and CEO of 2Sigma School, which offers accredited CS courses for high school students.
7. Yair Shapira, Founder and CEO of the Amplio Special Education Learning Platform
8. Yaki Dayan, the Founder and CEO of Edtech Israel and Neurotech Solutions

Beth Porter started her career in the mathematics classroom before moving into edtech with Mathsoft and Pearson, where she was a VP of software product management. She was an VP of product at Edx in the heady MOOC days of 2014-2015, has consulted, taught at MIT and Boston University, and is most recently, the co-founder of two Edtech companies- Esme Learning, where she is the President and COO and Riff Analytics, which was acquired by Esme Education in December 2021.

Esme Learning offers executive education courses from top universities including MIT, Cambridge and Oxford, offered through AI-powered recommendations. 

Riff Analytics is an analytics platform that uses voice data collected during video calls to show how people interact, measure engagement, and determine the split of speakership, among other metrics.

Recommended Resources

The Gap Letter by Ryan Craig of Achieve Partners (newsletter)

On this week in Edtech, we are delighted to have guest host Matthew Tower to cover the top stories of the week:

Topics This Week:

1. EdTech @ ASU+GSV
   • Ed On The Edge: Deborah Quazzo On About What To Expect At ASU+GSV 2022 
2. What’s the Future of ETS and Standardized Testing?
   • A New Leader for ETS - Amit Sevak
   • MIT Reinstates SAT/ACT Requirement
3. Crumbling School Infrastructure
   • This school wasn't built for the new climate reality. Yours may not be either
   • Pods, Microschools and Tutors
4. Byju’s World Cup
   • The Growth of Football in India
   • Byju’s tried-and-tested sports sponsorship goals get bigger with FIFA
5. Funding + M&A
   • Osso VR Raises $66 Million to Broaden Access to Surgical Education for Healthcare Professionals
   • WorkRamp nabs $40M to expand its corporate learning platform
   • Learn In Secures $10 Million in Series A Funding to Help Companies Build Talent Academies for Deeper and Engaging Skill Development
   • Student-built degree progression platform raises $11 Million to empower students and solve higher education's major challenge

Guest:

Michael Vilardo - Founder + President @ Subject

• Video Learning Startup To Tackle Post-Pandemic Education
• Subject Raises $29.4 Million in Series A Led by Owl Ventures

Jeanette Cheah is an award-winning education technology and business leader based in Melbourne, and raised across the US, Japan and Australia. As CEO & founder of HEX, she’s dedicated to transforming young people into the innovators the world needs tomorrow and seeing the next generation of talent thrive. 

HEX prepares students for the fast-changing global workforce with the tech and design skills they need to close the future skills gap shortage – and the entrepreneurial mindsets employers want using programs that are immersive, seriously fun, and academically aligned. 

Previously, Jeanette spent 14 years building innovation solutions, marketing strategies and digital products for some of Australia’s corporate giants including ANZ, AXA, AMP and Origin Energy.

Recommended Resources

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

Karl Rectanus is an educator, serial entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of LearnPlatform, a mission-driven "for benefit" corporation, where he leads a team of educators, researchers and technologists committed to expanding equitable access for students.

LearnPlatform is an Edtech effectiveness system working to deliver safe, equitable, cost-effective learning for districts, states and their partners such as solution providers. Learnplatform’s technologies are used by over 8,000 schools serving more than 7 million students across the United States.

Recommended Resources

• #edchat or #superintendentchat on Twitter to put your finger on the pulse of what's going on in schools and states 
• Edweek
• Hechinger Report
• Edtech Digest

1. Outschool
   • How Outschool won the pandemic
2. Master’s Degree Pricing Soars
   • Ryan Craig on MasterCrash
3. Web3 and Education
   • Jomayra Herrera on Learning, Earning, and Web3 
4. University Rankings Don’t Add Up
   • Columbia Professor Challenges U.S. News & World Report College Ranking
   • The University in Ruins
5. M&A
   • Nigerian Edtech Startup Klas Secures $130k
   • Video Learning Startup Raises $29m to Tackle Post-Pandemic Education
   • Edtech startup Leverage Edu pockets $22m in Series B round
   • Perlego raises $50M

Ope Bukola was a product manager at Amplify Education and a product lead for Google Classroom for four years before branching out as an entrepreneur in 2020.

She founded a company to build African tech talent, was a founding member of Level, a multiracial network that invests in businesses led by Black women, and joined the Board of Zeta, a network of high-performing charter schools in the Bronx.

Most recently, Ope is the co-founder and CEO of Kibo School, which offers affordable, high-impact Computer Science degrees to students in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Recommended Resource

Rest of World: Reporting Global Tech Stories