Category: Customer Validation

How Can An Edtech Startup Enter the K-12 Market?

The answer is the same for any other market: Find an agonizing problem that a significant number of people have, then offer a better solution than the existing alternatives.

And I would add: Identify a sustainable business model for your solution as well. It does schools no good if you build a great solution, only to make no money, run out of savings, get no funding, and close up shop. I know this from painful personal experience.

It may seem difficult to make money in the K-12 market, but there is more money than most realize. If your customer is a K-12 school district, their total IT expenditure in 2011 was $9.4B.

Also, all school districts want to know that you have a sustainable business model because they want to know that you will be around for years and years, rather than be a transient startup that could disappear at any time. This is a very important point that many aspiring edtech entrepreneurs don’t realize. Selling to schools is a B2B business model. Both businesses and schools prefer to procure products from companies that will be around – and schools even moreso, because integration can be such an intensive process.

This is in stark contrast to individual classroom teachers who don’t control a budget, however. Selling to teachers is a B2C business model where most consumers have come to expect free products.

My suggestions for an aspiring edtech startup entering the K-12 market are:

  1. Validate that your product is solving an agonizing problem.

    This problem should make your solution a “must-have” and not a “nice-to-have.” The average teacher does not have a lot of extra mindshare for new products that are only a nice-to-have. They have to need it. A lot can be written about this. If you have not done so already, go read The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, since his methodology can apply well to B2B businesses.

  2. Validate that your solution solves that problem effectively.

    Find some local teachers or students and watch them use your product. Test the outcomes using the scientific method. See if there is a demonstrable and repeatable improvement from the use of your product. Finding teachers or students willing to do this is not an easy task, but if you are truly solving an agonizing problem, it shouldn’t be that difficult. Being able to come up with quantifiable data to prove your solution will help you win more customers and provide you with a valuable case study and testimonials. These teachers or students are essentially your innovators, as detailed in Geoffrey Moore’s book Crossing the Chasm.

  3. Identify your actual buyers.

    In the K-12 space, the end-user is often not the same person as the buyer. There are many buyers in a school district. They can range from superintendents to principals to IT directors to curriculum directors to department heads. Some end-users can at least be influential in the buying process than others. If you cannot identify the buyer, your end-users may be able to help you too. Note that schools often pay with purchase orders (POs), which could take the form of a check that will arrive in months.

  4. Validate that your buyers will pay for your product.

    Concentrate on making that first sale. Your price point doesn’t matter that much in the beginning. As long as it is not absurdly low, don’t obsess over the right price. If you are lucky, you will have a buyer who is willing to work with you on a reasonable price. Look at competitive products and their pricing structures as a basis for yours. Understand the issues that the buyer cares about. Having a case study to validate your efficacy will go a long way in convincing them. Some may even require this kind of proof first.

Once you have made that first sale, listen to your end-users and buyers, then tweak your product as necessary. Meanwhile, go focus on your next 10 sales. Then your next 100. Then 1000. Going in small incremental steps will keep you realistic.

Or even better, look into different distribution and viral growth models that can accelerate your sales. The best kind of growth is the kind where your customers naturally want to tell their colleagues about you.

This is a simplified view and each step has many nuances, depending on the exact nature of your solution. Hopefully this provides enough of a starting point for any aspiring edtech entrepreneur.

This article was originally posted as an answer on Quora and modified for this blog.

How to Find K-12 Teachers for Edtech Product Feedback

“Every company’s greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there is no company.”
– Michael LeBoeuf

If you are building an edtech product aimed at K-12 teachers, you’re going to need feedback from them. Be it for customer discovery and validation, market research, beta testing, or something else, it is critical to talk to your customers.

You may be surprised to hear that there are many enterprising educators out there. I don’t mean they are profit-seeking; I mean they are inventive, progressive, and oftentimes tech-savvy. Some call them edupreneurs, some call them teacherpreneurs. Whatever you call them, as a startup, you can see them as innovators or early adopters, in “Crossing the Chasm” parlance.

This means they are willing to try out untested software. While they are not representative of the mass market, they can be a good reference customer for the majority later.

So how do you go about finding K-12 teachers who are willing to help you out? The resources here can help you identify and connect with teachers directly.

Use Personal Connections

Chances are, there are people within your own network that can connect you with teachers.

Your own teachers
If you’ve been through the K-12 education system, reach out to your former teachers. Since they know you, they may be wiling to help. Keep in mind that they may not be early adopters though.
Your children’s teachers
If you are a parent with children in the K-12 education system, go to their teachers. Since they know your children, they may be willing to help, and are also likely to be part of the mass market too.
Friends and family
Your own network of friends and family may contain, or be acquainted with K-12 teachers. 2nd and 3rd degree connections may not be as willing to help, but will likely be part of the mass market as well.

Use Educator to Entrepreneur Networks

As the edtech revolution is growing, so are the resources available to edtech entrepreneurs. Some organizations have risen up to complete the missing link between educators and entrepreneurs, though some are not as active as others.

edSurge Tech for Schools Summits
These are a series of local conferences for educators and entrepreneurs. For a fee, you can present demos, offer trials, and solicit feedback. Teachers can evaluate products and suggest implementation plans for their schools. This is more suited for beta and final products than for customer discovery.
Teacher Tech Talk
This is an exciting new effort to physically bring entrepreneurs and educators together. Discussions are focused around the concerns of educators rather than entrepreneurs, making this a great avenue for customer discovery.
edUpgrade
This is a non-profit organization that connections beta products with educators willing to try them out. Products must be in an experimental state and companies must be willing to work with educators on a regular basis. This is not a good avenue for marketing or customer discovery.

Use Online Teacher Personal Learning Networks

A lot of teachers seek to form PLNs as a way to informally increase their professional development. The resources and guides that help teachers do this can be reverse-engineered to find tech-savvy innovators and early adopters. Here are some of the more popular resources.

Edmodo Communities
Since Edmodo is a social network specifically for teachers, this is a great place to find them. Like any other community, don’t jump right in and start promoting your products, however. Understand the etiquette of the community before making any posts. Or identify specific teachers and contact them directly.
Ning networks for teachers
Ning is a social network platform that allows anyone to create a social network like Facebook or Edmodo. There are many teacher-specific networks out there, though Ning doesn’t include a directory of them all. Some are more active than others.
Twitter
A lot of tech-savvy teachers use Twitter as a means to expand their PLNs. It’s a relatively low-effort way to publish and consume information. Most prefer it over Facebook too. You can often find teachers using hashtags such as #edchat, #edtech, #education, and others specific to conferences, organizations, and subjects of which they are a part.
Tumblr
There is a vibrant and engaged community of teachers on Tumblr. Their demographic tends to be younger and more tech-savvy. Most tend to use the tags #education, #edtech, and #teaching. You can work backwards from these tags to find teachers. Most have some kind of contact form on their profile pages.
Pinterest
According to recent comScore statistics, Pinterest’s demographics skew heavily towards female. Most are in the 25-34 age range and 50% have children. Within this audience is an active community of teachers who’ve been using Pinterest to pin project ideas, lesson plan ideas, and other educational resources they can use. Though you can’t send a message to teachers directly from Pinterest, some include a link to their other social media accounts.
Diigo Groups
Diigo is a popular bookmarking tool amongst tech-savvy teachers. They use it to organize all the websites they use. Many users don’t fill out their profiles, so it’s not always easy to reach out to teachers from this source. But some do include links to their other social media accounts.
Teacher forums
There are dozens upon dozens of online forums for K-12 teachers, though quality varies significantly. Some, like A to Z Teacher Stuff, The Teacher’s Corner, and WeAreTeachers have fairly active communities. That also means they moderate their posts and don’t tolerate product promotion posts. Lurk in the community to understand the members and etiquette before joining in. You can also find forums on specific subjects if you search enough.
LinkedIn Groups
There aren’t as many active teachers on LinkedIn as on other social media sources. However, you’ll be able to find a handful of active groups of teachers with some effort. LinkedIn has the added benefit of providing a way to connect with the teachers you find.
DonorsChoose
Here’s a little-known tip that may not be suitable for every startup. If you see a project in which your product could be used, help that teacher fund the project, then send the teacher a free copy of your product. Teachers love free stuff, and if your product solves the problem well, you may have earned a new product evangelist.

Use Face-to-Face Sources

Sometimes meeting with a teacher face-to-face is better than an online interaction. You’ll find them more forthcoming with information, especially about controversial topics.

Craigslist
A fair number of teachers peruse the education jobs section, usually for part-time work. Though it costs money to post a listing in the jobs section, a well-timed listing (i.e. during Winter break, Spring break, a long weekend, etc) may attract a lot of responses. For best results, offer some kind of compensation, such as a free meal (for a face-to-face meeting) or gift card.
Teacher conferences
There are hundreds of conferences for teachers across the country. Most won’t be relevant to you. Identify a few that are worth attending and focus on those, such as ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), one of the largest for IT professionals in education.
Meetups
Unfortunately, not all cities have a large enough edtech community to host meaningful edtech meetups. Silicon Valley has one, but not many others do. These meetups tend to attract more entrepreneurs than educators. But popular ones, such as Ed-Tech Meetup in San Francisco, do host events with educators on occasion.

Innovator and early adopter K-12 teachers are out there, many of whom would be eager to meet you. It’s just a matter of doing the legwork to find and connect with them.

Know of other resources? Please leave a reply and let me know!

This article was originally posted on the Edtech Handbook and has been updated for this blog.