Marketing and Education

District technology leaders field hundreds of messages a day, and most pitches never make it past an executive assistant. The ones that do get through did their homework, used the right channel, and made it easy for a buyer to say yes. Getting that far is only the beginning, though. Getting an AI product through procurement and into a signed contract takes something else entirely, the kind of thinking usually reserved for a prenup.

Diane Doersch spent years on the buying side of that table. She taught for nearly a quarter century in the classroom before moving into district technology leadership, serving as Chief Technology and Information Officer for Green Bay Area Public School District in Wisconsin. She later chaired the board at CoSN and worked at Digital Promise, stepping away in early 2026 into what she now calls her rewirement.

In this episode, Diane covers what moves a sale through K-12 procurement, from the research done before opening an email to the security question she feels she should never have to ask. She also makes her case for treating an AI vendor contract like a prenup, breakup language included, and shares a moment from a vendor floor when vendors skipped past her to pitch the man standing beside her, and how that kind of assumption can end a vendor relationship before it starts.

What You'll Learn

• Why a tech leader’s peer network can make or break a vendor’s reputation before a single email is read
• How something as simple as over-personalized outreach can tip into “creepy”
• How AI’s arrival sent already-approved tools back through vetting, and why Diane treats the resulting contract like a prenup
• What Diane expects to see on security and privacy before she’ll move forward with a vendor
• How assuming who holds the final say on a buying team can quietly cost a vendor the relationship
• The reason Diane treats every vendor relationship as a marathon, not a sprint, even after a lost first round

Why It Matters

Budgets are uncertain, AI has reset the vetting process, and district tech leaders are reading contracts more closely than before. For EdTech marketers, relationships, timing, and transparency now matter as much as the product. Diane's experience makes clear that the buying process starts long before an RFP goes out and continues long after a contract is signed.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Beneath the Water
• Diane's own podcast, featuring candid conversations with EdTech leaders about the moments and challenges that shaped them.
• K-12 Community Vendor Assessment Tool (K-12CVAT)
• CoSN's vendor risk assessment questionnaire, which Diane references when discussing how vendors can show their security practices up front.
• CoSN
• The professional association for K-12 technology leaders, where Diane served as Board Chair.
• Digital Promise
• The organization where Diane worked before retiring in early 2026.
• "Stop Building Solutions in Search of Problems": A Principal's Case for Slower EdTech
• All Things Marketing and Education earlier episode with Dr. Kip Glazer, whose approach to vetting AI tools Elana references in this conversation.
• Follow Diane Doersch: LinkedIn | X

LinkedIn's algorithm is now penalizing posts that read as fully AI-written, cutting their reach. For EdTech marketers already stretched thin, this isn't a minor algorithm tweak. It's a signal that authenticity is becoming the real ranking factor, and content strategy needs to catch up.

At the same time, October is in full swing with conferences and the usual run of thematic days, all stacking on top of each other. The right amount to take on usually comes down to capacity, picking a couple that fit the brand rather than trying to hit them all.

This field notes episode covers what's moving fast right now, the shift in what earns reach on LinkedIn, why email still works despite the spam flood, and which fall conferences and dates are worth prioritizing.

What You’ll Learn

1️⃣ Why fully AI-written LinkedIn posts are losing reach, and what actually works instead

Posts fully written by AI are now getting 30 to 40% less reach on LinkedIn, per data from expert Richard van der Blom. AI educator Charlie Hills, who grew from 3,000 to 250,000 followers, treats AI as a research and consistency tool rather than a ghostwriter. The test before publishing is simple, would this sound like something only its author could have written.

2️⃣ Why a smaller, active email list beats one that's bigger but flooded with spam

More than half of all email is now spam, and over half of that is AI-generated. Despite the flood, email is still one of the only channels a brand truly owns, and only 3 to 5% of any list is ready to buy at a given time. A smaller, active list consistently outperforms a bigger, inactive one.

3️⃣ Which fall conferences are worth prioritizing

October is one of the busiest conference months of the year. FETC's prices increase at the end of the month, NCTM's national math conference lands around the same time, and Digital Citizenship Week runs October 20 - 24, carrying extra weight given current AI uncertainty in schools. CETA and the EdWeek Market Brief Summit follow in early-to-mid November, before attention fades the week before Thanksgiving.

Why It Matters

EdTech marketing teams are often small, stretched across content, outreach, and events, with little room for guesswork. Knowing that AI-written posts cost reach changes how a team should spend its time on LinkedIn, pointing effort toward authentic voice rather than volume. The same logic holds for conferences and email, where budgets are tight and chasing every deadline or inflating a list is a worse bet than building fewer, trusted relationships deliberately. For teams working to earn trust with skeptical school and district leaders, all three threads point to the same idea, consistency and a human touch matter more than speed or automation in each case.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Richard van der Blom's LinkedIn Algorithm Insights Report 2026
• The annual study of LinkedIn organic performance behind the finding that fully AI-written posts earn less reach.
• [Good human alert] LCG makes a small commission from your purchase, but wouldn't recommend it if it wasn't going to fundamentally affect the way you post and engage on LinkedIn!
• Richard van der Blom on LinkedIn
• Elana's go-to source for what's actually working on LinkedIn right now.
• Richard van der Blom's Tribe
• The community where Elana attended the masterclass discussed in this episode.
• AuthoredUp
• The LinkedIn analytics company Richard partners with to gather his data.
• Charlie Hills on LinkedIn
• The UK-based AI educator who grew from about 3,000 to more than 250,000 followers, and the guest presenter in Richard's masterclass.
• All About MD Files and How to Create Them
• A primer on markdown files and how to use them to give AI tools context about you, your voice, and your audience.
• Barracuda: Half the Spam in Your Inbox Is AI-Generated
• Research with Columbia University and the University of Chicago finding that 51% of spam emails were AI-generated as of April 2025.
• LCG's Email Marketing Strategy Article
• Elana's deep dive on how education brands can break through a flooded inbox.
• Join the LCG Email List
• LCG's newsletter with curated education and marketing resources, and downloadable tools.
• The EdTech Marketer's Planner
• LCG's free annual planner with every date covered in this episode.
• How to Tell If Your EdTech Product Is Ready to Go to Market with Kate Busby
• The episode on product validation Elana references when talking about why proof beats projection.
• Why This EdTech Startup Hired Marketing Before It Had a Product with Karen Borchert
• The episode where Karen shares the conference tip Elana mentions, booking the demo right at the booth.
• How to Appreciate Teachers All Year Long
• The episode Elana recorded while she had COVID, with longtime educators on what really matters when appreciating teachers, in May and beyond.
• Erin Mote on LinkedIn
• CEO of InnovateEDU and Elana's first LinkedIn spotlight, on why innovation in education moves at the speed of trust (read her post).
• A Parent Wanted Screens Out of His Child's School. Here's What I Told Him
• The District Administration article by Edward Hilton, CTO of Tahoe Truckee Unified School District, on inviting a skeptical parent in to see how technology is really used.
• Syeda Iqra on LinkedIn
• Elana's second LinkedIn spotlight, on why the founder with six paying schools got the term sheet. Read Syeda's post
• Connect with Elana: LinkedIn

There is a growing gap between how education is marketed to and how it is actually experienced inside schools.

Leaders are navigating full days that require constant context switching, balancing relationships with students and teachers, operational demands, and long-term decisions about tools and systems.

At the same time, marketers and vendors are trying to break through with messages about value, innovation, and now, AI.

In this episode, Elana Leoni sits down with Chris Lehmann, founding principal of Science Leadership Academy, to ground that gap in reality. Chris shares what his day actually looks like, how he evaluates vendors, where marketing efforts fall apart, and what earns his attention over time. The conversation then moves into AI, where the tension between possibility and risk is not theoretical. It is showing up daily in classrooms, policies, and conversations about integrity.

This episode is a candid look at what it means to engage education leaders in a way that is useful, honest, and sustainable.

1️⃣ Why most education marketing fails to reach decision-makers

A principal’s day is fragmented and high-volume, leaving little room for cold outreach. Messages only land when they align to an immediate need or build on an existing relationship.

2️⃣ How trust is built in schools over time

Leaders engage with organizations that consistently provide useful, relevant value. Ongoing responsiveness, thoughtful content, and real partnership matter more than one-off campaigns.

3️⃣ Where AI is creating tension in classrooms right now

Schools are working through academic integrity, student learning, and appropriate use in real time. Leaders are cautious of messaging that overlooks the complexity and tradeoffs involved.

Fast, direct answers from Chris, no filtering:

→ Most overused phrase: Student achievement

→ Biggest red flag: Anything labeled “now with AI” without real substance

→ You know a vendor is overselling when: They claim to solve everything

→ Most underrated strategy for improving learning outcomes: Reading

→ Word that will define the next school year: Authenticity

→ Where we would invest more budget: Teachers

School leaders are solving problems in real time with limited capacity. Most marketing misses because it ignores that context. Generic messaging, cold outreach, and overpromising, especially around AI, erode trust quickly. What works is relevance and consistency. Understand how schools operate, contribute value before asking for attention, and build relationships that can hold up over time.

New York City Public Schools announced one of the most restrictive AI policies in the country, and LAUSD followed with a quiet moratorium of its own. For any company selling AI-powered tools into K-12, this isn't background noise anymore. It's a sign that the ground rules are being rewritten in real time, and positioning needs to keep up.

At the same time, October is arriving with a full plate. Conference season, award deadlines, and the usual run of thematic days are all stacking on top of each other. It's worth asking a harder question before the calendar takes over: which of these deadlines actually matter, and which ones are just habit?

This field notes episode covers what's moving fast right now, the AI policy shifts landing in New York City and Los Angeles, the conference and award deadlines worth prioritizing this fall, and what actually earns a response on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn

1️⃣ Why NYC and LAUSD's AI policies matter beyond their own districts

New York's policy sounds like a blanket ban, but it's more nuanced than the headlines suggest. Teachers can still use AI to plan lessons, translate, and communicate with families, they just can't use it to grade, decide who graduates, or counsel a student in crisis. LAUSD's own moratorium on student use of generative AI arrived quietly enough that it reportedly surprised its own school board. When the country's largest districts move first, others tend to follow.

2️⃣ What's worth prioritizing on a packed fall conference and awards calendar

DA Awards entries close October 1st, EdTech Week runs October 13th - 14th, FETC's prices increase October 30th, and SXSW EDU's Launch competition deadline is November 1st, on top of national conferences like NCTM in Denver and CGCS in Boston. This episode breaks down which deadlines are worth building a strategy around, rather than trying to hit everything.

3️⃣ What new findings say about getting a response to a LinkedIn connection request

Richard Vanderblom's poll and analysis found that a "helpful" message, one that references something specific about the person's post, is what actually gets a response. It's a small shift, but one that changes how outreach on the platform should be built.

Why It Matters

Education marketers are heading into one of the busiest stretches of the year with less room for error than usual. Districts are rewriting AI policy in real time, marketing calendars are more crowded than usual, and the platforms relied on for organic reach keep changing what earns attention. None of this is a reason to freeze. It's a reason to get more deliberate, know which policy shifts touch a given product, spend fall's limited time and budget on the deadlines that matter most, and build outreach around what's genuinely earning a response right now.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Operation Bluebird Launches Twitter.now
• A new social platform reviving the Twitter name and bird logo, from a startup co-founded by former Twitter trademark counsel Stephen Coates, and referenced as the latest in a long line of platforms trying to pull people away from X.
• LinkedIn Adds AI-Powered Event Highlights
• Covers a new feature that automatically turns live event recordings into short-form clips and chapters, discussed as a reason to treat every livestream as an ongoing content engine.
• Metricool's 2026 State of AI in Social Media Study
• The report showing three in four social media professionals use AI daily, while only about 12% work under a formal company AI policy.
• Richard Vanderblom's LinkedIn Post on Connection Requests
• A carousel and poll on what actually gets a response when reaching out on LinkedIn, with the finding that "helpful" outreach outperforms a generic pitch.
• The Marketing Millennials: The 4 Landing Pages You Need
• Daniel Murray's article on the "Core Four" landing page framework and the "Hail Mary mistake" of sending cold traffic straight to a demo page.
• Leoni Consulting Group's Free Education Marketing Planner (reach out via LinkedIn or the contact page)
• Covers all of the October dates referenced in this episode, with the 2027 edition launching soon.
• AASPA Annual Conference
• The American Association of School Personnel Administrators' conference, October 12 - 15 in Austin, TX
• EdTech Week
• NYC's edtech festival, including the Shark Tank pitch competition and an invite-only CEO Summit.
• ALAS National Summit on Education
• The Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents' national summit, October 15 - 17 in Denver, CO.
• CGCS 70th Annual Fall Conference
• The Council of the Great City Schools' conference for district leaders, October 21 - 25 in Boston, MA.
• NCTM 2026 Annual Meeting & Exposition
• The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' annual meeting, October 28 - 31 in Denver, CO.
• District Administration Awards of Distinction
• The awards program discussed in the segment on why an award strategy matters for credibility, even when clients don't think to apply on their own.
• FullScale Symposium
• An education innovation conference running October 8 - 10 in Indianapolis, IN.
• FETC 2027 Registration
• Registration for the Future of Education Technology Conference, with prices increasing on October 30.
• SXSW EDU Launch Startup Competition
• The pitch competition for early-stage education startups, with applications due November 1.
• Leoni Consulting Group's Dear Colleague Letter Roundup (post 1 | post 2 | post 3 | post 4)
• A collection of the most thought-provoking posts, articles, and podcasts on the Department of Education's recent "Dear Colleague" letter.
• NYC Public Schools' New AI and Screen Time Policy (official guidance | Chalkbeat coverage | NBC News summary of NYT reporting)
• Coverage of NYC's new AI policy, discussed in the closing AI policy segment.
• LAUSD's Generative AI Moratorium on Student Devices (syndicated LA Times coverage via Yahoo News | LAist coverage)
• Lisa Mo, 2026 Riverside County Teacher of the Year, on screen time, "it's not the plane, it's the pilot."
• Connect with Elana: LinkedIn

EdTech go-to-market plans tend to get written as if there's one playbook that works everywhere. But anyone selling into more than one state learns quickly that isn't true. A message that lands in one state can fall flat two counties over, and a funding mechanism that unlocks budget in one place might not exist somewhere else. In K-12, treating all fifty states like fifty different countries isn't an exaggeration. It's closer to how procurement, funding cycles, and decision-making work.

Bryan McCorkle, SVP of Revenue at NovoDia, an AI curriculum infrastructure company for K-12, has built his career inside that reality. Across stops at Amira Learning, PowerSchool, and ClickSoftware, he's learned to read a market before he ever pitches it: what problem a district is actually living with, what data proves the demand is real, and what it takes to turn a signed contract into a product teachers and students use.

In this conversation, Bryan walks through the four questions he says every company has to answer before it can talk about go-to-market, how he verifies real demand using legislative calendars and district heat maps, and why he's banned himself from ever saying "circling back."

What You'll Learn

• Why Bryan treats all fifty states like fifty different countries, and why chasing the biggest state first is usually the wrong move for an early-stage company
• The four questions Bryan says every company must answer before it can talk about go-to-market, and how he verifies real demand with heat maps, state board meetings, and legislative activity before ever pitching a district
• Why closing a deal isn't the same as getting a product used, what it takes to turn a hesitant champion into an active user base, and where outcomes-based contracts tend to break down

Why It Matters

Budgets are tighter, audits are more common, and districts are taking a harder look at whether the tools they're paying for are being used. For EdTech marketers and sales leaders, that means a repeatable go-to-market plan matters as much as a good product. Knowing exactly what problem you solve, being honest about what you don't solve, and picking a market you can win and repeat are what separate a deal that closes from a product that gets used. The idea that all fifty states behave like fifty different countries is a reminder that a one-size-fits-all plan rarely survives contact with a real district budget cycle.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Center for Outcomes Based Contracting
• The nonprofit, part of the Southern Education Foundation, that Bryan references when discussing what makes a district ready for an outcomes-based contract.
• New Report: Exploring Outcomes-Based Contracting for EdTech
• A Digital Promise report on how outcomes-based contracts are playing out across the EdTech industry.
• Current Realities of EdTech Use
• A research brief with data on EdTech usage rates referenced in the episode.
• Amira Learning's Outcomes-Based Contract Case Study
• A video example of an outcomes-based contract in action, from Bryan's time at Amira Learning.
• Starbridge For Tracking State-By-State Activity
• The tool Bryan now uses to track house and senate bill activity, board meeting mentions, and district heat maps in one place. He previously used GovSpend and BoardDocs for the same purpose, and says both still work well for source-level data.
• K-12 EdTech Sales Requires More Than Demos
• All Things Marketing and Education earlier episode with Shelby Jones, referenced by Elana when discussing long sales cycles and the challenge of satisfying every stakeholder in a district.
• Follow Bryan McCorkle: LinkedIn | X

Budget crunches, look-alike products, and vendors that rarely talk to each other are making it harder than ever for school leaders to decide what to buy, and harder for EdTech companies to stand out. Add AI to the mix, and the sales conversation gets more complicated: fast product cycles, thin data privacy answers, and a market flooded with tools claiming the same features.

Dr. Kip Glazer has a front row seat to all of it. She is principal of Mountain View High School in Silicon Valley and author of Ready to Lead with AI: A Practical Guide for School Leaders. Between running a comprehensive high school, fielding vendor pitches, and writing her pointed "Dear EdTech Companies" series on LinkedIn, she has developed a clear, specific sense of what earns her trust and what ends a conversation before it starts.

In this conversation, Kip walks through what happens on her side of the sales process: the identity crisis AI is creating for leaders used to being the most knowledgeable person in the room, why boutique vendors survive on service rather than efficiency, and why she would rather refer a company to a better fit than force a mismatch.

What You'll Learn

1. Why "stop building solutions in search of problems" became the rallying cry behind Kip's "Dear EdTech Companies" series, and what she wants vendors to ask before they build
2. The specific deal breakers that end a sales conversation for her, from vague answers on student data privacy to AI labels slapped onto tools without real substance
3. How a single referral, or a single decline, moves through a principal's professional network and reaches far beyond one school

Why It Matters

EdTech companies are operating in one of the toughest sales environments in recent memory: shrinking budgets, longer approval cycles, and a wave of AI tools arriving faster than schools can vet them. Kip's account makes clear that a school leader's decision rarely stops with one person. Her professional network amplifies both her confidence and her hesitation, so a single strong or weak interaction can shape how ten other schools see a company. For marketers and sales teams, the lesson is that trust functions like currency across an entire referral network, and price becomes a secondary question once trust is established. Companies willing to say "we are the wrong fit for you, here is who might serve you better" build the kind of credibility that outlasts any single sale.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Ready to Lead with AI: A Practical Guide for School Leaders
• Kip's book, written specifically for school leaders navigating AI, safety, and the emotional weight of leading through disruption.
• Dear EdTech Companies (Part 1)
• The post that kicked off Kip's LinkedIn series calling out EdTech companies for building solutions in search of problems.
• Dear EdTech Companies, Part 9: On AI Washing
• Kip's take on what changes the moment a product claims to be AI powered, and the tougher questions buyers start asking.
• What Principals Actually Pay Attention To
• Our earlier episode with Chris Lehmann offers another school leader's perspective on evaluating EdTech and building trust, worth comparing against Kip's take.
• Thinkering Collective
• One of the Substacks Kip reads regularly for long-form thinking on education and technology.
• Mark Racine
• Another Substack in Kip's regular reading rotation.
• Center for Humane Technology
• Rounding out Kip's Substack reading list, focused on the broader impact of technology on human behavior.
• Kip Glazer's website
• Speaking topics, articles, and more from Kip.
• Connect with Kip: LinkedIn

LinkedIn just made a real change to how it ranks content, and it's aimed squarely at AI-generated posts. Captions are getting penalized for running too long, hashtags are being deprioritized, and the platform is now rewarding accounts that show up consistently rather than accounts that post the most. For education marketers already stretched thin, this changes what "good" LinkedIn content actually looks like heading into the busiest stretch of the year.

At the same time, EdTech just closed out the first half of 2026, and the industry felt it. Several companies made layoffs as they reconciled H1 numbers against annual goals, a reminder that marketing budgets and headcount are under real scrutiny right now. It's also a good moment to ask a harder question: which parts of your own marketing mix are you keeping simply because you've always done them, and which ones actually have the data to back them up?

This field notes episode covers what's moving fast right now: LinkedIn's new rules on AI content and consistency, what recent layoffs signal about EdTech budgets, where national conferences like ISTE fit into a shifting events landscape, subject line ideas worth testing before back-to-school email sends, and a full calendar of what to put on your radar for August and September.

What You’ll Learn

1️⃣ Why LinkedIn is rewriting the rules on content, and why it matters more than a ranking tweak

Long, AI-sounding captions and heavy hashtag use are getting penalized, while accounts that post consistently (two to three times a week) are getting rewarded. On top of that, posts are increasingly getting indexed and cited by AI search tools like ChatGPT and Google AI Mode, so what you publish today can still be surfacing your expertise months from now.

2️⃣ What the wave of EdTech layoffs after H1 signals about marketing budgets right now

Several companies cut staff as they reconciled first-half performance against annual goals, a sign that marketing investment is under real scrutiny. It's a good prompt to look at your own mix and ask what you're keeping simply out of habit versus what the data actually supports.

3️⃣ What's actually worth putting on your August and September marketing calendar

From back-to-school timing that varies wildly by region, to where national conferences like ISTE fit as attendance shifts toward smaller, regional events, to the literacy, attendance, and gratitude moments worth planning around before October's conference season ramps up.

Why It Matters

Education marketers are heading into back-to-school season with less room for error than usual. Budgets are under closer scrutiny after a round of EdTech layoffs, the platform that most B2B education brands depend on just changed what it rewards, and the traditional conference calendar that used to anchor a lot of go-to-market planning is shifting under everyone's feet.

None of this is a reason to freeze. It's a reason to be more deliberate: know what you're measuring and why, know what LinkedIn actually rewards right now instead of what worked a year ago, and know exactly when your audience is heads-down in back-to-school mode versus ready to hear from you. The marketers who take the time to recalibrate this summer will be in a much stronger position once the fall buying cycle picks back up.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Why This EdTech Startup Hired Marketing Before It Had a Product (Karen Borchert, Alpaca)
• Our episode with Karen Borchert, referenced for her tip on booking demo times on the spot at conference booths instead of relying on post-event follow-up.
• LinkedIn AI Visibility Study (Semrush)
• The study behind the stat that LinkedIn was the second most-cited domain across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and Perplexity, out of nearly 89,000 LinkedIn URLs analyzed.
• LinkedIn's Algorithm Update on AI Content and Consistency (Search Engine Land)
• Covers LinkedIn's move to penalize long, AI-sounding captions and heavy hashtag use, and to reward accounts posting two to three times a week.
• LinkedIn's own post about keeping conversations real on LinkedIn
• LinkedIn Corporate Communications, June 4, 2026 (originally published by Laura Lorenzetti on LinkedIn, May 20, 2026).
• Fast Company Article on LinkedIn's AI Slop Crackdown
• Covers LinkedIn VP of Product Laura Lorenzetti's announcement, framing it as an "AI solving AI" approach targeting generic posts, attention-bait videos, and automation-driven comments.
• LinkedIn's Shift from Relationships to Interests
• Our breakdown of how LinkedIn's algorithm moved from surfacing content based on who you're connected to, to surfacing it based on what you engage with, meaning smaller, focused accounts can now outperform bigger ones with unfocused followings.
• Jay Schwedelson's Podcast Episode on Subject Line Testing
• Referenced for the case for absurdly long, cut-off subject lines and other unconventional formats worth testing.
• WeAreTeachers: When Do Kids Go Back to School
• Source for the stat that 48% of U.S. public schools begin before August 16.
• Pew Research: Back-to-School Dates in the U.S.
• Additional back-to-school timing data, including the regional split between early-starting Southern states and later-starting Northeastern states.
• Rye Consulting's Florida deep-dive
• A live webinar Tuesday, August 11, 2026, 12:00–1:00 PM ET, with registration open.
• Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence, Back to School 2026
• Application deadline is September 4.
• District Administration's 2027 Top EdTech Products Awards
• Application deadline is October 9; notifications go out November 1.
• Hallie Smith on LinkedIn
• Referenced for her post on ERDI, outcomes-based pricing, and the contradictions district leaders shared about board relationships and screen time.
• Katie Test Davis, Forthright Advising
• Referenced for her LinkedIn post on the psychology of negative contrast framing in spam emails ("this is not a scam"). Need her correct tagline confirmed before publishing.
• LCG Newsletter Sign-Up
• Elana curates the best marketing and education jobs monthly. Worth a mention here for anyone affected by recent EdTech layoffs.

Most EdTech companies pitch schools before they understand how decisions get made inside them. School budgets are tight, sales cycles are long, and trust is hard to earn and easy to lose. In a market this crowded, the vendors who succeed are rarely the loudest ones. They are the ones who understand what a school leader is weighing before they ever pick up the phone.

Smita Kolhatkar has sat on both sides of that equation. She spent 15 years in high tech before becoming an educator, and today she is Assistant Head for Innovation, Responsible AI and EdTech at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto. She evaluates new products constantly, built her school's AI Tinkery program to teach AI literacy from kindergarten up, and has a clear, specific list of what earns her trust and what ends a conversation before it starts.

In this conversation, Smita walks through her actual buying process: the no-gos that end a pitch immediately, why conference expo halls still outperform months of email outreach, and why a single "no" from her can quietly close the door at several other schools too. It's a clear look at what that decision-making looks like from the other side of the table, for anyone marketing or selling into K-12.

What You'll Learn

• The specific deal-breakers that end a vendor conversation immediately, including SSO integration and cross-platform compatibility
• The buying signals that earn her attention, and the outreach habits that shut a conversation down fast
• Why a single school leader's "no" often reaches ten other schools through her professional network
• Why conference expo halls remain one of her most valuable discovery channels, even in a digital-first market
• Why AI literacy needs to start at age five, and how her school's AI Tinkery program puts that into practice
• Her take on the no-screens debate, and why treating EdTech as all-or-nothing misses the real question schools are asking

Why It Matters

EdTech companies are working in one of the toughest sales environments in years: tighter budgets, longer sales cycles, and a market flooded with AI tools faster than schools can evaluate them. What Smita describes is not just one school's experience, it is a window into how school leaders across the country are making these calls right now. She is not only a buyer, she is a connector: when something works, it moves through her professional network, and when something falls flat, that travels just as fast. For EdTech marketers and sales teams, the lesson is that a sale is never just to one person. The trust built or lost in a single conversation compounds across an entire network of schools.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School
• The K-8 school where Smita serves as Educational Technology and Innovation Director.
• AI Tinkery at Hausner
• The maker-style AI lab Smita built for students to experiment hands-on with AI tools and concepts.
• AI Tinkery at Stanford GSE
• The Stanford Graduate School of Education program that inspired Smita's AI Tinkery model, credited to Dr. Karin Forssell.
• Stanford Accelerator for Learning
• An overview of the Stanford initiative behind the AI Tinkery framework.
• AI Quests and Day of AI
• A resource Smita references for structured AI literacy activities.
• Hour of AI
• A companion resource to Hour of Code, focused specifically on AI literacy.
• "The Learning Frontier"
• Hausner's AI in Education confererence for educators.
• Smita Kolhatkar on LinkedIn

Most early-stage EdTech companies build in a familiar order: product first, sales next, marketing whenever there's budget left over. It's an understandable instinct in a sector where school budgets are tight and every dollar needs to prove itself quickly. But that order also means many companies spend years chasing the credibility they could have built from day one.

Karen Borchert, founder and CEO of Alpaca, a school culture and teacher retention platform, took the opposite approach. When she started the company four years ago, her first hire wasn't an engineer or a salesperson. It was a marketing leader, brought on the payroll before Borchert herself was. That decision has shaped how Alpaca has grown into a trusted name among school leaders with a small team and a category that didn't fit neatly into anyone's existing playbook.

The conversation traces how that early bet on marketing played out: a listening-first culture that shaped Alpaca's brand before it ever built software, a resource library that earned trust with principals long before any sales conversation began, and the hard lessons about when long-term brand building needs to give way to a more direct sales motion.

What You’ll Learn

• Why Alpaca's founder hired a marketing leader before she was even on payroll, and what that decision signaled about how the company planned to grow
• How a "listen first" approach, including days spent interviewing educators for what became a book-length story, shaped Alpaca's brand and messaging from the start
• Why earning trust with school principals meant giving away complete, standalone value, like a full resource library, instead of gated previews of the product
• How pairing every resource download with CRM data turned free content into a warm, ready-to-call sales pipeline
• Why Alpaca initially avoided conferences, and what changed once the team started booking meetings on the spot instead of just showing up with a booth
• How keeping marketing and sales leaders working side by side, rather than in separate lanes, kept both teams aligned as the company scaled

Why it Matters

Most EdTech marketers are told to prove ROI fast, which often means marketing gets treated as something to add later, once there's revenue to defend it. Alpaca's experience complicates that narrative. Every dollar the company put into brand and listening before it had a sales team became the foundation that made later sales conversations easier, not a distraction from them. For marketers working with tight budgets and skeptical school buyers, the lesson isn't to skip short-term tactics like conferences or paid outreach. It's to recognize that the trust those tactics eventually convert depends on credibility built well before anyone asks for a demo.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Alpaca Resources Hub
• Free downloadable resources created for school leaders and educators, including the staff recognition and culture-building tools referenced throughout the episode.
• The School Culture Report 2026
• Referenced during the discussion of educator wellbeing, leadership confidence, and school culture trends.
• The Secret to Sales & Marketing Success? A Shared Revenue Mindset
• The earlier LCG episode with Dan O'Reilly that Elana references when talking about sales and marketing working in lockstep.
• Little Wins Newsletter
• Alpaca's weekly newsletter for school leaders, the same low-lift, high-trust channel Karen described building from 200 subscribers to thousands.
• Alpaca
• Karen's company site.
• Karen Borchert on Substack (Team Letter)
• Karen's real-time chronicle of building Alpaca, referenced when Elana points listeners to it for more of her story.
• Karen Borchert on LinkedIn

There is a real tension building in K-12 right now. The "no screens" conversation that started with cell phone bans has moved into legislative territory, with 17 states introducing screen time bills in 2026 alone and four already enacting laws that go beyond phones to target district-issued devices and classroom technology directly. If your product sells into schools, this is no longer a trend to monitor. It is a business reality to plan around.

At the same time, summer is not a selling season, and pretending otherwise is a fast way to lose trust with the educators and administrators you need on your side come fall. The question is not whether to show up in July. It is how to show up in a way that actually serves the people already using your product and the ones about to start.

This field notes episode covers what is moving fast right now: the legislative landscape around EdTech and screens, what smart marketing looks like in a non-buying season, what is working on LinkedIn this summer, and a few posts from district leaders and educators worth paying close attention to.

What You’ll Learn

1️⃣ Why the no-screens movement has moved from conversation to legislation

What started as cell phone bans has expanded into bills targeting district-issued devices and classroom technology in 17 states in 2026 alone. For EdTech companies, this is no longer a sentiment issue. It is a product positioning and sales reality that requires a clear, proactive stance.

2️⃣ What smart marketing actually looks like in a non-buying season

July is not a selling window, but that does not mean going quiet. The brands that show up well right now are shifting into implementation and support mode, meeting educators where they are and building the kind of trust that converts when procurement opens back up.

3️⃣ Why LinkedIn carousels are one of the biggest underused opportunities right now

Carousel posts make up less than 5% of content on LinkedIn and still drive some of the highest reach and engagement of any post format. The bar for standing out is low, and the data-backed best practices are straightforward.

Why It Matters

Education marketers are heading into one of the most complex back-to-school seasons in recent memory. Legislation is reshaping what schools can buy and use. Budgets are tighter. Educators are more skeptical of vendor outreach than ever. And AI is changing how content gets surfaced and who gets trusted as a credible voice in the space.

Showing up in July with the same playbook as the rest of the year is not just ineffective. It signals that you do not understand how schools actually operate. The marketers who will be in the best position come fall are the ones using this window to support, listen, and build credibility in ways that compound over time.

Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Screen Time Legislation Tracker (Claire Hollenbeck) and Clare Harrison
• A free tracker of screen time and device legislation across all 50 states, built by the co-founders of AlchemyK12. As of June 2026, 42 states have enacted phone laws or policies and 17 states have introduced screen time legislation this year alone.
• Elana Leoni on the screen time debate
• Elana's own take on the no-screens movement, including what EdTech companies should be doing proactively to get ahead of it.
• Andy Marcinek on LinkedIn
• Referenced for his framing of the critical questions educators and companies should be asking about technology in the classroom: Why is this tool here? Are students creating or consuming? What did the screen actually cost and what did it add?
• The SAMR Model (Edutopia)
• A widely used framework for evaluating how technology augments or transforms learning. Referenced as a useful lens for understanding when and how technology adds real value in the classroom.
• Amos Fodchuk on LinkedIn: AI Adoption Gap
• Shared a graph from Microsoft's AI Diffusion report showing that AI usage in metropolitan counties (32.9%) is nearly double that of rural counties (16.2%). A critical equity signal for EdTech marketers.
• Kip Glazer on LinkedIn
• School principal and author of Lead with AI, referenced for her honest post about the complexity of school leadership, inherited tech stacks, and the resistance leaders face when trying to make change.
• Kyle Brumbaugh repost: Build Products Our Agents Can Use
• A post from Chris Hagel, CIO at Peninsula School District, about why the future of EdTech is not more chatbots but district-owned agents that coordinate safely across every system a district runs. A signal vendors should not ignore.
• Richard van der Blom / Just Connecting HUB
• Referenced for his LinkedIn algorithm report and the three-positive-signals framework for social selling. Elana cites him as her go-to authority on growing reach and engagement intentionally on LinkedIn.
• Richard Moore on LinkedIn
• Founder of The Art of Sales community, referenced for his practical approach to social selling. Note: please confirm this is the correct LinkedIn handle.
• Connect with Elana: LinkedIn | Have a question or topic you'd like covered? DM Elana directly.