For EdTech.
I have worked with startups for years. That is not the useful part. The useful part is that I own and run a school, so I can show you what a school actually needs, how a head of school or an owner decides, and what has to be true about your product before any of that can happen.
I. The gap.
You are optimising for the demo. The school is deciding about parents, staff time, safeguarding, and next year's budget line.
Most rejections are not about features. They are about who would own the tool inside the building, what happens in week six when the enthusiastic teacher stops using it, what the school tells parents about student data, and what gets dropped to make room for your product. If your materials do not answer those, the head of school cannot say yes even when they want to.
II. What I do.
I.
Who actually decides in a school, who only appears to, and what each of them is afraid of. Where your deal really stalls, and the questions you will be asked with the door closed.
II.
Your onboarding, pricing, data story, teacher training, and support read the way a school reads them. I mark what a head of school would push back on, and what to change first.
III.
What a real pilot needs to look like so it produces evidence instead of goodwill: named owner, small scope, agreed success measure, and an end date the school will honour.
III. How this starts.
One or two companies reach me most weeks. I take on few, and I say so early if the fit is not there. Tell me what you are building and where schools go quiet on you. This page will get fuller as the reference work I have already done becomes public.
Write to meNo brokering. No introductions, referral fees,
or commission, in either direction, ever.
Schools do not pay me to be sold to. Founders do not pay me to sell.