What Students Want

Our guest today is Deborah Quazzo, the cofounder and managing partner of GSV Ventures, one of the earliest and more prestigious venture funds investing in the entire spectrum of education from PreK to Gray including companies that we all use daily such as Coursera, Classdojo, Clever, Quizziz and many more. Deborah is also the cofounder of the annual annual ASU+GSV Summit which attracts over 5000 visitors each year, now 13 years in, and is where the major education trends are revealed each year.

In this episode, we look at EdTech trends post-pandemic, glean a couple of key takeaways from the latest ASU+GSV summit, speculate on the race to the first $100B EdTech company, and, most importantly, talk about Return on Education and what a ROE school would look like.

Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion:

• Check out the GSV portfolio, you will know a lot of the names: https://gsv.ventures/portfolio/
• Why not attend the Summit next year? https://www.asugsvsummit.com/
• We referenced this prior podcast episode: https://blog.enrollhand.com/consumerization-k12-education/

Here are the key takeaways from the GSU+ASV summit:

• Fireside Chat with Eddie Glaude - https://www.asugsvsummit.com/video/stage-x-fireside-chat-with-eddie-glaude-and-josh-anderson
• Isabel Wilkerson on ASU+GSV: https://www.asugsvsummit.com/video/isabel-wilkerson-pulitzer-prize-winner-and-author-of-new-york-times-bestsellers-the-warmth-of-other-suns-and-caste-the-origins-of-our-discontent-discusses-truth-reconciliation

Where to learn more about Deborah:

• Twitter - https://twitter.com/deborahquazzo
• Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_H._Quazzo
• Other - https://gsv.ventures/team/deborah-quazzo/

Where to learn more about Enrollhand:

Website: www.enrollhand.com

Our webinar: https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com

Our free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolgrowth/

Our guest today is Daniel Pianko. Daniel is a Managing Director at Achieve and University Ventures. He has a long experience adviser and innovator in student finance, medical education, and postsecondary education.

In this episode, we talk about how people's focus is shifting from the inputs to the output of education, how personalization is a misplaced idea, and how to successfully invest in job-training for young people.

In our discussion, we cover:

• 02:06 - How people are increasingly focused on the outcome of education
• 04:22 - Why personalized learning is a misplaced idea, the holy grail that will never be achieved. Team work is a better strategy to enhance learning
• 10:34 - We describe an example of a charter school that transitioned successfully from a directive learning style to a more aspirational, student-led curriculum
• 17:21 - Why Zoom schooling has just exasperated the equity challenges
• 23:22 - How last-mile training may be the answer to pull things along
• 27:45 - The concept that schools do job-training in a vacuum is part of the problem. Companies should pay for job training instead
• 29:04 - The public school system should embrace last-mile job training to increase relevance and enrollment

Where to learn more about Daniel:

• Twitter - https://twitter.com/danielpianko
• Website - https://www.achievepartners.com/team/daniel-pianko.html

Where to learn more about Enrollhand:

Website: www.enrollhand.com

Our webinar: https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com

Our guest today is Mercedes Bent, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mercedes is focused on education and consumer early stage investing. Previously she was working in VR and a General Manager at General Assembly.

In this episode, we explore how EdTech is shifting and giving more power to parents and students. We look at social learning and gaming, which together offer a lot of promise for the future of education.

Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion: (links)

• Mercedes' post about the Lightspeed EdTech Portfolio - https://mercedesbent.co/2021/02/24/lightspeeds-edtech-portfolio/
• Mercedes post about 3 trends that are here to stay - https://mercedesbent.co/2021/08/03/edtech-post-pandemic-3-trends-here-to-stay/
• Fiveable and StudyStream are some social learning startups mentioned by Mercedes - https://fiveable.me, https://www.studystream.live
• Mercedes on the Ventures Stories podcast - https://soundcloud.com/venturestories/the-state-and-future-of-edtech

Where to learn more about Mercedes:

• Twitter - https://twitter.com/mercebent
• Personal Website - https://mercedesbent.co/
• Lightspeed Ventures - https://lsvp.com

Where to learn more about Enrollhand: 

• Website - www.enrollhand.com
• Webinar - https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com
• Our free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolgrowth/

Our guest today is Rebecca Kaden. Rebecca is a Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures. She has a particular interest in education and an extremely deep understanding of the evolving EdTech landscape. Rebecca began her career as a journalist and prior to USV was a General Partner at Maveron, a consumer focused early stage fund.

In this episode, we talk about how new technology can decentralize many aspects of what school is today, so that the learning experience can really feel individual for each student.

Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion:

• Our first episode with Sora Schools - https://blog.enrollhand.com/have-you-heard-of-sora-schools/
• Our second episode with Sora Schools - https://blog.enrollhand.com/roadmap-club/
• Venture Stories episode: Redesigning School for Students To Thrive with Rebecca Kaden of USV and Garrett Smiley of Sora Schools - https://soundcloud.com/venturestories/redesigning-school-for
• Our episode: 420 Learning Guides Coach Learners Towards Mastery, with Kelly Smith, CEO at Prenda - https://blog.enrollhand.com/420-learning-guides/
• Our pisode: Will the Consumerization of Education Continue, with Jennifer Carolan - https://blog.enrollhand.com/consumerization-k12-education/
• John Danner on Twitter about Web3 & Education - https://twitter.com/jwdanner/status/1442539746358530056

Where to learn more about Rebecca:

• Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-kaden/
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/rebeccakaden
• Website - https://www.usv.com/

Where to learn more about Enrollhand: 

• Website - www.enrollhand.com
• Webinar - https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com
• Our free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolgrowth/

Our guest today is Benoit Wirz, a partner at Brighteye Ventures, the leading European EdTech venture firm.

In this episode, we talk about the evolving EdTech landscape in Europe as well as the unique attributes of rising European education companies.

Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion:

• Citibank study citing the Edtech Opportunity Gap - https://www.citifirst.com.hk/home/upload/citi_research/eduAXO97.pdf
• YouSchool - http://youschool.fr
• Klassroom - https://klassroom.fr
• Brighteye Ventures open roles - https://www.brighteyevc.com/open-roles

Where to learn more about Benoit:

• Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/benoitwirz/
• Website - https://www.brighteyevc.com/

Where to learn more about Enrollhand:

Website: www.enrollhand.com

Our webinar: https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com

Our free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolgrowth/

Our guest today is Jinal Jhaveri. Jinal is the co-founder and Chairman of Schoolmint, a venture partner at Runa Capital and also co-founder and CEO at enable.us. 

In this episode, we talk about Jinal's lessons growing Schoolmint, how he channeled the tailwinds of the school choice movements, and what his experience can offer for schools today.

Listen and take note of Jinal's obsessive focus on the Customer, continuously trying to delight and really understand who you are serving.

Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion: (links)

• A previous podcast appearance Jinal made: https://www.fundraisingradio.com/acquired-by-bv-investment-partners-founder-of-schoolmint-jinal-jhaveri-shares-his-experience-of-getting-acquired/

• How to design a Portrait of A Graduate: https://portraitofagraduate.org

• A tweet Jinal wrote on how obsessed he is with customers
  • https://twitter.com/jinal/status/1350180072511082496
• How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit - https://review.firstround.com/how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market-fit

• Where to learn more about Jinal:
  • Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jhaveri/
  • Jinal's request for pre-K–12 ed-tech startups - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/request-pre-k12-ed-tech-startups-helping-distance-learning-jhaveri/
• Where to learn more about Enrollhand: 
  • Website - www.enrollhand.com
  • Webinar - https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com
  • Our free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolgrowth/

Summary

Our guest today is Jennifer Carolan. Jennifer started her career as a classroom teacher in a Chicago district. She then moved to California to attend Stanford, and there got inspired to use her teaching experience in support od tech founders. So she joined NewSchools Venture Fund where she learned the craft of VC, while also co-creating and teaching a course at Stanford. After that, Jennifer co-founded Reach Capital, with a first fund in 2000, a second fund in 2018 and a third fund more recently.

In this episode, Jennifer and I talk about how student engagement is an outcome of strong pedagogy. We then describe a new generation of global education companies that are partnering with school districts and we caution policy makers that need to rise to the occasion in order to keep innovation from escaping the public school system. Finally we talk about different promising edtech categories and end up with the conclusion that parents are the stakeholders that still lack a lot of support in the ecosystem.

Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion: 

• A tweet by Jennifer encapsulating her belief in pedagogy-led edtech startups
  • https://twitter.com/jencarolan/status/1402677758820438018
• Our conversation with Amir from Outschool - https://blog.enrollhand.com/learning-is-more-than-a-consumer-experience-with-amir-nathoo/
• Jennifer's hopeful piece on EdSurge serving as a call to action for policy makers - https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-08-23-teachers-drive-innovation-this-time-will-they-do-so-within-or-outside-the-system
• Jennifer's tweet highlighting the increased collaboration between school districts and startups
  • https://twitter.com/jencarolan/status/1422648800192122886
• The Chart of the Century - https://twitter.com/Mark_J_Perry/status/1350826322642296835
• Reach Capital's companies, including the ones mentioned in our discussion - https://www.reachcapital.com/companies/
• Harari's book mentioned by Jennifer as a good depiction of the new age we need to prepare students for - https://www.ynharari.com/book/21-lessons-book/
• A particular mention of Guardians Collective, mentionned by Jennifer as an interesting model to support parents - https://www.aboutgc.com

Where to learn more about Jennifer:

• Twitter - https://twitter.com/jencarolan
• Website - https://www.reachcapital.com

Where to learn more about Enrollhand: 

• Website - www.enrollhand.com
• Webinar - https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com

Our guest today is John Danner. John is an investor in Edtech and the Future of Work. During the last 3 years he has participated in investments that have impacted many learner lives, like Lambda School or Outschool. Before being an investor, John started Netgravity, an internet advertising firm that went public and was sold to Doubleclick now Google. Then he did a U-turn and became a teacher in a school district. After that, he built a school and started Rocketship Education, a charter school network that now has 13K students in 23 schools across. Finally he went on to start Zeal, an online real-time support math tutoring company which he later sold and became an investor.

In this episode, John and I think about trends in K-12 innovation, discuss the benefits of cohort-based courses in a K-12 environment versus adult education, dig into what really is core learning and what is not, dream about different learning experiences that could and should exist, distill what first principles you need to build a school today.

Listen and take note of how one of edtech's more respected investors today thinks about the future of education.

Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion:

• Lambda School - https://lambdaschool.com
• Outschool - https://outschool.com
• Rocketship Education - https://www.rocketshipschools.org
• Maven - https://maven.com
• Prenda School - https://www.prenda.com
• GalileoXP - https://galileoxp.com
• Synthesis School - https://www.synthesis.is
• Ender - https://joinender.com
• Songbird - https://www.songbirdeducation.com
• Building a Second Brain - https://www.buildingasecondbrain.com
• Write of Passage - https://perell.com/write-of-passage/
• John Danner on Venture Stories - https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/village-globals-venture-storie-591423/episodes/the-past-present-and-future-of-59632693
• John Danner on the Future of Learning and Work Podcast - https://anchor.fm/flw/episodes/1-John-Danner---EdTech-Investing--Trends--Opportunities-ep6k91

Where to learn more about John:

• Twitter - https://twitter.com/jwdanner
• Dunce Deals - https://dunce.substack.com/people/3039585-john-danner
• Blog - https://johnwdanner.medium.com

Where to learn more about Enrollhand: 

• Website - www.enrollhand.com
• Webinar - https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com

Our guest today is Andrew Barry. Andrew started off at KPMG where he built out their training, then he created Curious Lion where he and his team help the likes of Pinterest and many other companies to create corporate training programs. I first met Andrew when we were both taking an online writing course called Write of Passage, and I have been eager to talk about learning online ever since. 

In this episode, we learn how everyone can design online learning experiences to repeatably effect transformations in their students' lives. Then we try to sketch out a future of what happens when more and more teachers can generate these transformations, what a world that will be!

• I love Andrew's strong conviction that everyone has a course in them. It's not just an optimistic "You can also do this" type of message. He recognises that on the one hand, the online learning techniques he describes so clearly can effect student transformations in a repeatable and predictable way. 

• But also, on the other hand, his new concept of teacher identity means that we'll all want to learn from different teachers not because the content is better but because we resonate more with one or the other. Learning is hard and very emotional.

• It feels like Andrew is working on a mathematical formula for course creation, something like: Student-centered content + Beginner's mind + Deliberate Practice + Accountability + Reflection = Student Transformation

• There's a craze around cohort-based courses and probably for good reason. Andrew neatly explains the "beauty of the cohort" in the safe environments they create.

• Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion: 
  • K. Anders Ericsson, Deliberate Practice - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Anders_Ericsson
  • Why You Need Two Kinds of Groups to Power Group Learning, Andrew Barry - https://curiouslionlearning.com/why-group-learning/
  • David Perell - Write of Passage - https://perell.com/write-of-passage/
  • Global Teacher Prize - https://www.globalteacherprize.org
    • Ranjitsinh Disale 2020 - https://www.globalteacherprize.org/winners/ranjitsinh-disale-2020/
    • Peter Tabichi 2019 - https://www.globalteacherprize.org/winners/peter-tabichi-2019/
  • The Economics of Superstars, Sherwin Rosen - https://www.jstor.org/stable/1803469
• Where to learn more about Andrew:
  • Twitter - https://twitter.com/Bazzaruto
  • Luma - https://lu.ma/bazzaruto
  • Curious Lion - https://curiouslionlearning.com
  • Course Creators Collective - https://www.coursecreatorscollective.com
• Where to learn more about Enrollhand: 
  • Website - www.enrollhand.com
  • Webinar - https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com
  • Our free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolgrowth/

Our guest today is Indra Sofian, the cofounder fo Sora School, an online project-based-learning high school.
In this episode, we catch up after our first chat 2 years ago. Then the school was just starting, now there is an innovative yet mature high school operating entirely online. It is the first digital-native high school I have studied closely, so I wanted to dig into their entire operating system. We discussed how they motive learners, how they structure their academic standards, how students select the skills they need to master, the projects they design and complete. How the Sora team designs incentive mechanisms so that students navigate through a sea of skills and standards at an accelerating pace, a bit like a video game.
Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion:

• Virtual School is the Future, by Garrett Smiley - https://soraschools.com/virtual-school-is-the-future/
• Redesigning School for Students To Thrive - https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/village-globals/redesigning-school-for-ij6_CO4w1z-/
• MTC Mastery Transcript® - https://mastery.org

Where to learn more about [Name]:

• Twitter - https://twitter.com/indysofian
• Website - https://soraschools.com/

Where to learn more about Enrollhand: 

• Website - www.enrollhand.com
• Webinar - http://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com