{"id":20889,"date":"2012-12-18T20:29:42","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T01:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rbachnet.wwwmi3-ss40.a2hosted.com\/index.php\/"},"modified":"2021-08-12T21:34:37","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T01:34:37","slug":"vcs-take-on-ed-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/vcs-take-on-ed-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"VC&#8217;s Take on Ed Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180928143847\/http:\/\/lventuregroup.com:80\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-108897\" title=\"VC's Take on Ed Tech\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/money_tree.jpg?resize=120%2C69&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"VC's Take on Ed Tech\" width=\"120\" height=\"69\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/money_tree.jpg?resize=150%2C86&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/money_tree.jpg?resize=75%2C43&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/money_tree.jpg?w=699&amp;ssl=1 699w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 120px) 100vw, 120px\" \/><\/a>\u00a0<a title=\"Posts by Ki Mae Heussner\" href=\"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/author\/kimaeheussner\/\" rel=\"author\">Ki Mae Heussner<\/a> at <em><a title=\"GigaOM\" href=\"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GigaOM<\/a><\/em> <a title=\"Fred Wilson on ed tech: 4 takeaways for educators and entrepreneurs \u2014 Tech News and Analysis\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20220312050742\/https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2012\/10\/24\/fred-wilson-on-ed-tech-4-takeaways-for-educators-and-entrepreneurs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reports<\/a> on an open online course on <strong>entrepreneurship in education<\/strong>\u00a0called <a title=\"Ed Startup 101\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20220619164151\/http:\/\/edstartup.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ed Startup 101<\/a>. During the course, <a title=\"Fred Wilson\" href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20130903115730\/http:\/\/content.usv.com\/pages\/fred-wilson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fred Wilson<\/a>, a managing partner at <a title=\"Union Square Ventures\" href=\"http:\/\/www.usv.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Union Square Ventures<\/a>, gave a little insight into how <strong>venture capitalists<\/strong> view opportunities in education technology. Union Square Ventures has invested in education social network Edmodo, <a title=\"Skillshare\" href=\"http:\/\/www.codecademy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Skillshare<\/a>, <a title=\"Codecademy\" href=\"http:\/\/www.codecademy.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Codecademy<\/a>, and <a title=\"Duolingo\" href=\"http:\/\/duolingo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Duolingo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/collaborativetechtools.weebly.com\/the-what.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-108899\" title=\"skip over institutional buyers to target teachers and students\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/idea.gif?resize=110%2C94&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"skip over institutional buyers to target teachers and students\" width=\"110\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/idea.gif?resize=150%2C128&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/idea.gif?resize=75%2C64&amp;ssl=1 75w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 110px) 100vw, 110px\" \/><\/a>VC Wilson said that education&#8217;s, notorious reputation for bureaucracy and long sales cycles have traditionally turned off VC&#8217;s (full video <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gV3SKcJD9rw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">available here<\/a>). But as startups have attempted new models that<strong> skip over institutional buyers to target teachers and students,<\/strong> investors have steadily warmed to the sector, including K-12 education. The blog cites data from <a title=\"GSV Advisors\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201127012601\/https:\/\/www.gsvadvisors.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GSV Advisors<\/a>, a Chicago-based investment firm that specializes in education, which says that transactions in K-12 education climbed from just $13 million in 2005 to $389 million in 2011. Funding has been so strong that some have already started asking the inevitable question about whether an ed tech bubble is brewing.<\/p>\n<h3>Takeaways from the video<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/financialhelpandinformation.wordpress.com\/2012\/12\/08\/what-is-a-cash-advance-payday\/cash_advance-_payday_loan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-108901\" title=\"VC's Take on Ed Tech\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/money_in_hand1-1-e1570999350119-150x123.jpg?resize=122%2C100&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"VC's Take on Ed Tech\" width=\"122\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/money_in_hand1-1-e1570999350119.jpg?resize=150%2C123&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/money_in_hand1-1-e1570999350119.jpg?resize=75%2C61&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/money_in_hand1-1-e1570999350119.jpg?w=404&amp;ssl=1 404w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 122px) 100vw, 122px\" \/><\/a>Consumer tech offers plenty of models for freemium ed tech startups &#8211;<\/strong>The venture capitalist gave several examples in which consumer startups with a free service eventually found a path to profitability after years of venture backing, including <a title=\"Dropbox\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dropbox.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"homepage noopener noreferrer\">Dropbox<\/a> and Twitter. In those examples, he said, venture capital played a key role in helping them reach the scale that would make a freemium model work.\u00a0 As the ed tech market expands, he expects models of all kinds \u2013 from those supported by advertising to those with enterprise licensing models \u2013 to emerge. Both Dropbox and Twitter are problematic to an enterprise network.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Someone, PLEASE give me a long-term educational reason to give students on-network access to Twitter that outweighs the distraction and cheating factors.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Dropbox is a potential data theft tool if allowed. We have seen 600 &#8211; 800 Mb of Dropbox space on user shares, then they complain when they can&#8217;t save their work to the network. Dropbox&#8217;s network behavior is annoying. Dropbox wants to check in with the mother-ship thousands of times a day. On our network, we block file sharing with the content filter. When a user installs a Dropbox client on their workstation (don&#8217;t get me going about local admins) we have seen 60,000 attempts to connect to the Dropbox mother-ship over the course of a week. Dropbox could improve their product by throttling their checking in &#8211; the longer it doesn&#8217;t connect throttle down their phone homes.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Sell to the learner first, not the institution<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20211021090645\/https:\/\/fistfuloftalent.com\/2011\/06\/my-ninja.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-108903\" title=\"Work-around\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/workaround-e1570999455565-150x110.jpg?resize=150%2C110&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Work-around\" width=\"150\" height=\"110\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/workaround-e1570999455565.jpg?resize=150%2C110&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/workaround-e1570999455565.jpg?resize=75%2C55&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/workaround-e1570999455565.jpg?w=281&amp;ssl=1 281w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Mr. Wilson says that ed tech firms should bypass traditional education sales channels. \u201cWe should compete with the existing education system as opposed to sell to it,\u201d Wilson said. He thinks that entrepreneurs can make faster progress by bringing their tools straight to the learners and the teachers providing instruction. That\u2019s the way Edmodo has gained its strong traction and the approach Codecademy has taken with its after-school program targeting students in schools without computer science instruction. As students and teachers adopt new platforms, Wilson said, the institutions will come around.<\/p>\n<p><em>Gee I don&#8217;t know, sell to the end-user and then force the entire enterprise to change to accommodate a new toy, how very Apple of him. But VC&#8217;s don&#8217;t have to do the work. Maybe if he had to make <a title=\"Apple TV\" href=\"http:\/\/www.apple.com\/appletv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"homepage noopener noreferrer\">AppleTV<\/a> work on a network or get <a title=\"IMac\" href=\"http:\/\/www.apple.com\/imac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"homepage noopener noreferrer\">iMac<\/a>&#8216;s to regularly log in to Active Directory.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Vendor exclusivity is a bad thing<\/h3>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-108907\" title=\"Vendor lock-in\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/vendor_lock_in.jpg?resize=126%2C100&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Vendor lock-in\" width=\"126\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/vendor_lock_in.jpg?resize=150%2C119&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/vendor_lock_in.jpg?resize=75%2C60&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/vendor_lock_in.jpg?w=216&amp;ssl=1 216w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 126px) 100vw, 126px\" \/>As more companies turn their attention to online learning and digital education, Wilson said universities shouldn\u2019t standardize with just one vendor but support the range of tools that faculty members choose. Exclusivity, he said, makes vendors \u201cfat and happy\u201d and less incentivized to innovate.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any benefit anyone would get by standardizing on one platform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><em>I agree with him here, the perfect example is Blackboard. They don&#8217;t seem to want to make our life easier. The restoration process is stupid. Bring on Moodle.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Other areas of opportunity in ed tech<\/h3>\n<p>The VC says that his firm also thinks there are ed tech opportunities include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Credentialing (Grades) Now that plenty of platforms offer courses and instruction, the next step is figuring out whether students are actually mastering the skills and knowledge that they\u2019re setting out to learn.<\/li>\n<li>He also said he thinks there are opportunities in peer-to-peer platforms, which leverage online communities to reduce the cost of creating curriculum and learning content,<\/li>\n<li>Vertically focused startups, such as those similar to Codecademy and Duolingo.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><em>rb-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/techliberation.com\/2012\/07\/31\/the-feds-play-the-spectrum-shell-game\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-108909 size-medium\" title=\"freemium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/shell-game.jpg?resize=150%2C100&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"freemium\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/shell-game.jpg?resize=150%2C100&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/shell-game.jpg?resize=75%2C50&amp;ssl=1 75w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rbach.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/shell-game.jpg?w=275&amp;ssl=1 275w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>It&#8217;s not only my opinion that the freemium model is a bait and switch <a title=\"Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell\" href=\"http:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2009\/10\/31\/scamville-the-social-gaming-ecosystem-of-hell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scam<\/a>. It sucks users into a product and then does a switch at some time in the future to a <a title=\"Paid ESPN Radio App Locks Out Users On August 1\" href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20201112020734\/https:\/\/appadvice.com\/appnn\/2012\/05\/paid-espn-radio-app-locks-out-users-on-august-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pay model<\/a>. But that is a VC&#8217;s take on Ed Tech, what is yours?<\/em><\/p>\n<h6>Related articles<\/h6>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2012\/10\/28\/most-ed-tech-startups-suck-heres-where-theyre-going-wrong\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Most ed-tech startups suck<\/a> (venturebeat.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><a title=\"Ralph Bach\" href=\"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/new-resume\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ralph Bach<\/a>\u00a0has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his\u00a0<a title=\"Bach Seat\" href=\"https:\/\/rbach.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bach Seat<\/a> about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on <a class=\"broken_link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/rb48334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">LinkedIn<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ralph.bach.14\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/rbach48334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>. Email the Bach Seat\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:\/\/bach.seat@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>K-12 ed tech VC start-ups succeeding by targeting teachers rather than traditional paths invested $389 million in K12 ed tech in 2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[2197,1406,1407,1408,128,60,1405],"class_list":["post-20889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-k12","tag-2197","tag-dropbox","tag-duolingo","tag-edmodo","tag-k12","tag-twitter","tag-union-square-ventures"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20889"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130846,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20889\/revisions\/130846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbach.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}