I’ve written about recommendations for EdTech startups (PLG, Advice, K12), but I feel that the overall GTM strategy needs more emphasis on the sequence and priorities (see figure below). Traditional Product Sequence. The traditional development cycle for an EdTech product is to build a product with limited user research and…

All EdTech market segments are challenging to cost-effectively find and create paying customers. I’m generally not a fan of EdTech vendors creating curricula because it is expensive and most companies don’t have enough capital to build a comprehensive content library. …

In a previous post, I mused about the potential of an LLM that used both a publically trained model and a privately trained model. Schools could train assistants to mirror each of their teachers. Instead of one massivaly trained oracle of knowledge, schools could train assistants for specific grade levels…

Back in January, I did a webinar for StartEd aimed at EdTech startups. It was a combination of the best (and worst) ideas from a range of conversations. The slides are purposely sparse (old presenter trick to get you to listen to learn). In subsequent conversations, I found myself referring back to the webinar slides often. To make them more useful, I added some annotations. Here is the slightly annotated slide deck

Startups who are building products these days should strongly consider adding Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Historically, APIs enable other programs to drive a program. This could be developers at other software companies or power users using automation products like Zapier, Make, or IFTT. …

The fanfare surrounding ChatGPT3 has attracted (stolen) my attention and my mind eventually wandered to think about how software provides value. When developing traditional applications, you start with a data model and design functions that will create, read, update, and delete the data. Validation and business rules were defined to…

I’ve been keeping up with the dizzying explosion of AI EdTech companies. The current generation of EdTech tools is foundational. That is, these tools generally provide digital versions of analog practices. The next generation of EdTech tools will (hopefully) start to automate aspects of teachers’ workflow so that they can…

Classroom discussions are powerful learning activities that engage students, although they may not be universally loved by students. Discussions require some background knowledge, inquisitiveness, active listening, some note-taking, and knowing when to speak. Discussions also take a skilled facilitator to ensure that the class stays focused, pivot away from misconceptions…

I didn’t want to be the only person without a ChatGPT article (read: FOMO). Here is one I wrote for ATLIS (Association of Technology Leaders in Independent Schools), a professional organization to which I belong. Aside from discussions of the benefits versus pitfalls of ChatGPT, there is a larger narrative…