The EdTech Startup Show

This episode of the podcast is brought to you by The EdTech Shop – Copywriting & Marketing Strategy for Education Startups. Get more schools to sign up and buy with The 5-Day Copy fix. Click here to enroll for free.

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Jordan is a Forbes 30 Under 30 and serial education technology entrepreneur.

He has started two EdTech companies that help higher-ed programs bridge the skills gap for their students through experiential learning. His method is to integrate real companies into the education process through hands-on collaborations that expose learners to new circumstances with real stakeholders, challenges, and outcomes. 

His company CapSource is a fast-growing marketplace where educators and students can find companies interested in collaborating through specially designed project-based learning engagements. So far, CapSource’s has leveraged 100+ different host company partners to provide in-depth learning experiences to 1,500+ students at 25 different schools and universities around the globe including Fordham University, UT Dallas, the University of Illinois, Pace University, and Notre Dame

Jordan started his first company, Real Time Cases, while an undergraduate at Lehigh University studying Accounting, Finance, and Entrepreneurship. That company has since raised over $8M in private funding and is working on reinventing the case study method for the 21st century leveraging real companies and their current business challenges. During his tenure there, he built the product and sales team and helped the company reach over 30,000 students at 200+ universities through the original content and platform.

Outside of work, Jordan is passionate about cooking, photography, networking, mixology, travel, sailing, tennis, public speaking, and coaching/connecting fellow entrepreneurs.

Highlights include:

• How Jordan's own experience at Lehigh University led to his future ventures
• The products CapSource offers to help democratize career preparation in college classrooms
• Jordan walks us through how a cap stone or live business case happens when a classroom partners with CapSource
• Why content learning is "the fuel for the engine" of real learning
• An unconventional class called "The Garage" and the impact it had on Jordan's career
• The advantage of a marketplace model vs. content distribution
• Advice on networking, B2B sales, and business development for education entrepreneurs
• "You have to fight for your first customers" and other insights on navigating the early stages of sales for your education product
• StartEd: Jordan explains incubators vs. accelerators, his own experience with StartEd, and the benefits of joining
• 18 projects simultaneously running coast to coast through a Notre Dame and CapSource partnership
• The big question: how do you scale this? and more on the future of learning with CapSource

If you liked this episode then please subscribe on iTunes, leave a review, and share it with a friend.

 Thanks for listening!

Gerard Dawson

www.TheEdTechShop.com

This episode of the podcast is brought to you by The EdTech Shop – Copywriting & Marketing Strategy for Education Startups. Get more schools to sign up and buy with The 5-Day Copy fix. Click here to enroll for free.

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Research scientist Dr. Carolyn Brown has spent more than 30 years studying the needs of struggling readers and has received support from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Education and the state of Iowa to develop and test strategies that work. She and Dr. Jerry Zimmerman are the co-founders of Foundations in Learning, a provider of research-based tools designed to assess struggling readers, address their foundational skill deficits and empower them to achieve significant gains in reading fluency and comprehension. They recently contributed an op-ed to SmartBrief entitled 10 Ways to Combat Middle School Reading Failure and another one to Hechinger Report on the need to connect cognitive science to reading instruction. 

Developed in close collaboration with school districts, Foundations in Learning’s premier product Access Code is an innovative blended assessment and intervention system designed for students who persistently struggle with reading comprehension and fluency. Using Access Code, teachers can diagnose struggling readers and help them develop automatic word recognition — the critical bridge between phonics and fluency. 

Episode highlights: 

• The damaging assumptions our education system makes when teaching children to read
• Just how critical it is to get kids reading well by the third grade (Carolyn shares some shocking statistics)
• A deep dive into the “varied practice model,” a research-based approach to literacy instruction
• Why Carolyn decided to use the lessons she learned in research to start a company
• Carolyn quickly learned the difference between a research environment and the classroom – hear what she said about this
• The reason EdTech startups need education experience and business operators
• The “heavy lifting” technology can do for reading teachers (and why you can never take the teacher out of the room)
• Advice to teachers and researchers who want to start an education business venture

Learn more about Carolyn's work here:

https://www.foundations-learning.com/

If you liked this episode then please subscribe on iTunes, leave a review, and share it with a friend.

 Thanks for listening!

Gerard Dawson

TheEdTechShop.com

This episode of the podcast is brought to you by The EdTech Shop – Copywriting & Marketing Strategy for Education Startups. Get more schools to sign up and buy with The 5-Day Copy fix. Click here to enroll for free.

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Clarence Tan is an EdTech entrepreneur who has been working in games and the e-learning industry for over 8 years. He grew up in China, Singapore, and the US, and has experienced private, public and homeschool education.

He started his entrepreneurial journey back in 2011. While he was still a junior in college he worked with friends he met online to develop educational games and learning platforms for government municipalities in Colombia and South America. Additionally, he partnered with companies in North America to launch educational entertainment projects.

Since then, he has been championing the positive impact of student engagement using educational gamification through his ventures and speaking engagements. He has the heart and mind of a creative and has always been fascinated by games and creative projects.

Clarence is currently the Co-Founder & CEO at Boddle Learning, an EdTech company founded in 2018. Boddle Learning offers a game-based learning platform that delivers e-learning materials to K-8 students in game-format to engage and motivate them in academics.

The game app also comes with a management platform that generates analytics & reports for teachers and parents to stay in the loop. Boddle is designed to use gamification to help elementary and middle schools benefit from higher student engagement and automated reporting.

• Why games can help teachers assess students better (this is something I had not considered before)
• Just add points is not gamification - Clarence explains a better definition
• The role of "unnecessary steps" in making learning fun
• Clarence addresses the argument that game play doesn't lead to learning
• The moment in South America that set Clarence on a path to building educational games
• Make this mistake Clarence made in the past and your education venture will really struggle. Clarence explains what to do instead.
• Piloting your EdTech product in schools - Clarence has done this and he shares his lessons learned
• Clarence gives advice to education entrepreneurs just starting out
• Before we go...Clarence explains what Boddle means

Sign up for the Boddle Learning pilot here: https://www.boddlelearning.com/

Say hello to Clarence on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/clarencetanjl

If you liked this episode then please subscribe on iTunes, leave a review, and share it with a friend.

Thanks for listening!

Gerard Dawson

This episode of the podcast is brought to you by The EdTech Shop - Copywriting & Marketing Strategy for Education Startups. Get more schools to sign up and buy with The 5-Day Copy fix. Click here to enroll for free.

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On this episode of the podcast, I talk to Ami Shah. Ami is the CEO and Co-founder of Peekapak, an award-winning social-emotional learning platform that engages elementary students to learn skills like self-regulation, empathy, and teamwork and reaches over 200 000 educators and students. Using stories, evidence-based lessons, and game-based learning, Peekapak empowers educators to be proactive in helping curb future mental health issues.

Ami has earned an MBA from INSEAD and has previously taught in K-4 classrooms and advised and volunteered at education-related non-profit organizations. After gaining marketing experience through roles at Procter & Gamble and driven by her passion to improve youth education, Ami made the jump to entrepreneurship and has since been featured on Toronto Life, Flare, TechVibes, CBC, and numerous other outlets.

Ami and I take a deep dive into SEL & serving elementary schools. Highlights include:

• The mission for Peekapak
• Ami's TED talk - She talks about our real answers to the question "how are you?"
• I'm curious about how a tech platform can help build social-emotional skills. Ami explains how that's possible.
• The dynamic relationship between early childhood education and parental involvement when it comes to Peekapak and SEL
• Serving elementary schools, teachers, and students is special in EdTech - Ami tells us why.
• Ami has interviewed over 300 teachers. Here's what she's learned.
• The importance of modeling as the leader of a company.
• How teachers can get started with SEL (Ami recommends casel.org)

Say hello to Ami on Twitter: (@amishahdotca)

Try Peekapak: www.peekapak.com

If you liked this episode then please subscribe on iTunes, leave a review, and share it with a friend.

Thanks for listening!

Gerard Dawson

Today on the EdTech Startup Show, I talk to Chris Castiglione (@castig).

Chris is the Dean of One Month, an adjunct professor at the business school at Columbia University, and the host of his own podcast, On Books.

(Note: One reason to start your own company - you get to give yourself an awesome title like "Dean.")

In simple terms, Chris is a twenty-first-century teacher. His company One Month is an online education platform teaching people technical skills like coding and project management through real-world projects in just 30 days.

The company started when Chris and his co-founder Mattan began traveling around the world teaching people how to code. The problem was clear: they couldn't clone themselves, and there was a flood of students who wanted to learn from them.

One Month was born.

I first connected with Chris and his company in 2013. Having just sparked my own curiosity in learning to code, I dove into the course, which was one of the first Chris and Mattan offered on their site.

I eventually wrote about the experience for Edutopia here.

In just a few short lessons, probably under an hour, I had downloaded a new programming language onto my computer and created the basics of an app that was a clone of Pinterest.

Just contrast that with the way a typical in-person course syllabus plays out. How long until students work on an exciting project? Days? Weeks?

These satisfying wins, or "gold coin moments" as Chris calls them, are at the heart of great learning experiences, both online and in-person.

Chris knows a thing or two about the power of lifelong learning. We discuss:

- How in-person teaching experience led Chris to start his online education company - "Gold Coin Moments" and the difference between an online course and college class - The History of the Internet, an inspiring new writing project - Why knowing the mindset folks bring to your educational content is a difference maker - Motivating students in online education - And more

Fun links from this episode:

• As a listener to the Edtech Startup Show, you can get 10% off coding courses at One Month.
• The History of The Internet: https://hackernoon.com/the-history-of-the-internet-cdb844ff460c
• Syllabus for Digital Literacy for Decision Makers: https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/courses/mba/2018/fall/b8125-001
• On Books podcast: https://castig.org/on-books/
• And more

Like the show? Please give it a rating on iTunes and don’t forget to subscribe.

You can also give me your feedback by tweeting @GerardDawson3 with the hashtag #EdTechStartupShow – thanks for listening!

Today on the EdTech Startup Show, I talk to Matthew Gross (@matthew_gross), founder and CEO of NewsELA.

NewsELA is an instructional content platform that solves "the problem of reading engagement holistically for students, teachers, and principals." Many teachers will recognize the company for its powerful text-leveling features, though they do much more.

Matt showed a sincere dedication to improving education during this conversation, and he shares stories and observations that both educators and EdTech industry folks will find fascinating.

Highlight include:

• How poetry taught Matt he shouldn't skip his college classes.
• "I really don't think about technology at all." Matt explains this surprising statement.
• Why Matt and NewsELA reject "sit and get" EdTech.
• Expectations Matt has for Newsela and his peers in EdTech.
• The #1 pain point Matt hears from school and district administrators (and how he addresses it).
• The amazing transformation Matt has noticed in schools since 2012.
• "Good news" results from Newsela's surveys of teachers and principals.

Remember to checkout NewsELA at www.newsela.com

Like the show? Please give it a rating on iTunes and don’t forget to subscribe.

You can also give me your feedback by tweeting @GerardDawson3 with the hashtag #EdTechStartupShow – thanks for listening!

If you like the show, please subscribe and leave a rating. In fact, the first 5 people to leave an honest review of the show on iTunes will win a free book. Just listen to the show, leave your honest review and email a screenshot of the review to contact [at] gerarddawson [dot] org. Then, I’ll mail you a real physical copy of Hacking Literacy or The Best Lesson Series: Literature.

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy the show.

-Gerard Dawson

PS – More episodes are coming soon, and I publish new articles regularly. To join the group of readers who get the latest updates first, click here.

Today on the EdTech Startup Show, I talk to Eileen Murphy Buckley (@eileencerca), founder and CEO of ThinkCERCA. ThinkCERCA offers personalized close reading and argumentative writing lessons for students.

This conversation was so interesting to me because Eileen has worked in all facets of education: in the classroom as a teacher, leading schools and districts as an administrator, and now leading her company as a startup founder. She's learned a lot along the way.

Eileen shares something for everybody in this episode, including:

• The special experiences she had teaching poetry (and her favorite poem to teach)
• What it's like to become "a vendor" after you've spent years in the public education world
• Why literacy skills are foundational, even for those pursuing STEM
• How to overcome the challenges of selling a solution to schools and districts
• Advice and an offer for education entrepreneurs

Remember to checkout ThinkCERCA at www.thinkcerca.com.

Like the show? Please leave it a rating on iTunes and don't forget to subscribe.

You can also give me your feedback by tweeting @GerardDawson3 with the hashtag #EdTechStartupShow - thanks for listening!

Michlle Brown knows that a teacher's favorite word is...free! Today, Michelle and I discuss the powerful CommonLit platform, the free service offering teachers thousands of texts, at different levels, to help engage students and boost their literacy skills.

Today, on the very first episode of the EdTech Startup Podcast, I talk to Brett Kopf - founder of Remind.

• What Brett learned from talking to 100s of teachers (before they ever wrote a single line of code)
• Lessons learned from the impossible expectations of Brett's high school football coach
• If every student had a Mrs. Whitefield (Brett's favorite teacher), what would school look like?
• Student privacy and security - the role it plays in running his company
• And more

Visit Remind at www.Remind.com

Say hello to Brett on Twitter @brettkopf

Leave me your feedback about the show by tweeting me @GerardDawson3 with #EdTechStartupPodcast

Thanks for listening!

Gerard Dawson