Mandela Schumacher-Hodge, a former educator and Ph.D. candidate studying urban schooling, stood on stage in a small auditorium at the America Online offices, as three investors from Silicon Valley provided her with advice on effectively communicating with teachers. This was a rehearsal for the following day, when she would present her education company, Tioki, to a crowd of 100 teachers and school administrators. Among the 10 other entrepreneurs pitching their businesses, the event, known as "educator day," is considered to be one of the most crucial and nerve-wracking in Imagine K12, the largest incubator program in the United States specifically for edtech startups.
Many entrepreneurs in the K-12 education sector believe that technology is the solution to the problems in education. However, they often fail to understand these problems before attempting to address them with technology. This can lead to frustration among educators and a recipe for failure for these new companies. The founders of Imagine K12, Tim Brady, Alan Louie, and Geoff Ralston, who have made their fortunes working for tech giants like Yahoo and Google, are trying to change this dynamic. They aim to help aspiring education entrepreneurs gain a deep understanding of what educators truly need and then create products that fulfill those needs.
Twice a year, Imagine K12 provides a select group of companies with seed money, business guidance, and connections to major investors over a three-month period. Some of these companies have gone on to raise millions of dollars in funding, capitalizing on the growing interest in edtech from venture capitalists. This influx of venture capital can be compared to the boom in consumer technology that has given rise to companies like Facebook and Twitter.
Ms. Schumacher-Hodge, drawing from her own experiences as well as interviews with educators, believes that Tioki has the potential to help teachers. However, she will soon have to convince a room full of skeptics, and the three partners at Imagine K12 who are critiquing her pitch are experts in speaking to end users.
During the practice session, Ms. Schumacher-Hodge presented a hypothetical story about a teacher wanting to showcase her skills to education bloggers. However, the partners advised her to change her approach. "Great voice, great enthusiasm; we just need cases that resonate more with the audience," said Mr. Brady. Ms. Schumacher-Hodge, with her hands folded at her waist and wearing a headset microphone, forced a smile and nodded. The feedback continued, with the partners suggesting that she focus on how Tioki can help teachers find jobs. However, Ms. Schumacher-Hodge was concerned that this would overshadow the other services provided by the company. The partners countered that it is not about whether the user needs a job or not, but rather how the product makes them feel. Mr. Brady emphasized the importance of empowering teachers and elevating the teaching profession to the same level as other fields.
Imagine K12 was founded a year and a half ago by Messrs. Brady, Louie, and Ralston, who were seeking a change in their professional lives and decided to focus on education. "The availability of knowledge and information has expanded to new heights, yet we continue to teach children the same way we did a hundred years ago," said Mr. Ralston. "There is a clear disconnect that we must address."
Education Week is introducing a new online platform that focuses on the latest news and analysis of the education market and innovative approaches to K-12 education. Take a look at the new Industry & Innovation homepage.
Venture capital investment in the K-12 market is also on the rise. In 2005, only $10 million was invested in this sector, a significant decrease from the dot-com bubble years. However, in 2011, venture capitalists invested $334 million in K-12, according to GSV Advisors, an education investment bank based in Chicago. The money invested now goes further due to the decreasing costs of web hosting, faster bandwidth, and the emergence of cloud-based applications that are more cost-effective. As a result, smaller investments can turn promising ideas into successful companies within a matter of weeks. Kevin Carey, Director of the education policy program at the New America Foundation, states that starting a new venture is now so affordable that it no longer requires connections to billionaires. A teacher with a good idea is all it takes.
The participants in Imagine K12, an education-focused startup incubator, include individuals with K-12 teaching experience as well as computer programmers, web designers, business strategists, and experts in quantitative finance. These participants range in age from 18 to 51. Laurie Racine, co-founder of Startl, a New York-based incubator, acknowledges that finding great technology is a challenge in the education sector, but finding great teachers is not. However, organizations like 4.0 Schools and Startup Weekend Edu believe in fostering entrepreneurship within local communities of educators rather than taking a national, technology-centric approach like Imagine K12. Matt Candler, founder and CEO of 4.0 Schools, believes that Imagine K12 lacks a sufficient number of educators in their program. His organization provides seed funding and resources to educators and matches them with technologists. He states that while Imagine K12 can code exceptionally well, they often lack an understanding of the challenges and landscape within the education system.
In response to such criticism, Imagine K12 has hired its first "teacher-in-residence," Jennie Dougherty, who brings her experience as a former high school teacher in Massachusetts to offer a classroom perspective to the participating teams. Founder of Raise Labs, an online scholarship financing platform, Preston Silverman emphasizes the importance of getting firsthand experience in schools and classrooms before starting an education-focused business. For Kasey Brown, a participant in Imagine K12 who has 19 years of teaching experience, there are still areas of business expertise that she is unfamiliar with, such as marketing. Ms. Brown and her co-founder, Elliot Feinberg, have created DigitWhiz, an online math gaming program.
Feedback is crucial to the success of these startups. In preparation for "educator day," the entrepreneurs dressed in a slightly more formal attire and set up tables in the auditorium with laptops for product demonstrations. They also had various items like pens, highlighters, and snacks to attract users. SmarterCookie, an online professional development tool, even brought containers of cookies from Trader Joe’s. The co-founders of Raise deliberated on how to arrange pieces of chocolate on their table.
Overall, the education sector is seeing an increase in venture capital and a growing number of entrepreneurs venturing into the K-12 market. By combining the expertise of educators with that of technologists and business strategists, innovative solutions for the education system are being developed.
The teams started networking as the teachers, who had been transported from different areas, entered the venue. SmarterCookie assisted a woman in leaving a comment on a video of a teacher in class, and the woman later provided her email address. She wrote "Take a deep breath" on a large sheet of paper that asked for the best advice a teacher had given her.
The partners of Imagine K12, when developing the program, closely followed the format of Y Combinator, a well-known consumer technology incubator also located in Silicon Valley. However, they added "educator day" because they believe that teachers should play a larger role in the software development process. During his speech to an audience of approximately 100 people, Mr. Louie stated, "Feedback from the people who actually use the product is crucial… Educators no longer have to settle for bad technology." According to the partners of Imagine K12, new products in education usually require extensive research, expensive focus groups, and long sales cycles that limit innovation. In the current technological environment, teachers can test products online and can be directly reached through cell phones, Skype, Facebook, and Google Chat. Companies can introduce their products to the market in early versions, also known as "minimum viable products," and can quickly receive feedback from teachers on what works and what doesn’t. "Take a pile of dirt and add one feature to it. That’s your first product," said Mr. Candler of 4.0 Schools. "And then you ship it to a teacher." During the educator day event, Ms. Brown hoped to gather feedback on DigitWhiz as the audience visited the display tables of the Imagine K12 companies.
Lorin King, a 5th grade math teacher at a charter school in East Oakland, Calif., expressed her desire for a fractions lesson for her students. However, DigitWhiz does not have a fraction game as Ms. Brown explained that by learning fundamental skills like multiplication, students can then learn more complex concepts such as simplifying fractions. She showed Ms. King a beach-themed game for sorting like terms and stated, "If they master these skills, everything else becomes an application." She then added, with the spirit of educator day in mind, "But if you think we should consider it…" The day began with presentations from the partners and Ms. Dougherty, followed by pitches from each of the 11 companies. The entrepreneurs seemed well-prepared and delivered their pitches flawlessly after numerous practices and revisions. As advised, Ms. Schumacher-Hodge did not use the blogger story, but instead presented a number of hypothetical scenarios that would require a teacher to have a professional profile, including interacting with bloggers, networking, and sharing project-based learning portfolios. Feedback from teachers that day eventually led Tioki to incorporate other social networks into its platform and change its interface for posting teacher videos. In a recent interview, Ms. Brown stated that based on Ms. King’s feedback, DigitWhiz is developing a game on prime-number factorization that can further support fraction learning.
Overall, the pitches were well-received and teachers stayed long after the presentations to try out the companies’ products and meet the entrepreneurs. However, amidst the optimism and idealism of the event, the entrepreneurs were aware that starting an education company can be more challenging compared to other ventures.
Ms. Brustein and her companions experienced immense frustration while attempting to obtain valuable guidance and professional growth. This experience ultimately sparked the inception of SmarterCookie. Having been a Teach For America alumna, she identifies herself as a teacher at her core, and embarking on the journey of establishing a company signifies venturing into the unknown. Ms. Brustein expressed her unwavering commitment to the education sector, emphasizing her belief that it is her true calling and the domain where her passion lies.
