Transforming Education through Marketplace Innovation

This chapter explores the innovative marketplace Teachers Pay Teachers, where educators can buy and sell instructional materials. It highlights the financial advantages for teachers and shares poignant stories of how the platform has positively impacted their careers and income.

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In this episode, CJ sits down with John Connolly, Managing Director at Spectrum Equity, to explore the evolution of consumer investing. They discuss how investor sentiment toward consumer companies has shifted over the past 15 years and why traditional SaaS metrics like net dollar retention (NDR) don’t always apply in this space. John explains what signals indicate a strong consumer business, whether brand or product wins in the long run, and how consumer companies have adapted their monetization strategies over the last decade. Plus, John shares the story behind Spectrum Equity’s investment in Teachers Pay Teachers and the craziest thing he’s ever done to land a deal.

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@cjgustafson222 (CJ)

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TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00) Preview and Intro

(02:32) Sponsor – Subscript | Rippling Spend | Vanta

(06:04) The Evolution of Investing and Defensibility

(08:50) Cooling Investor Appetite for Consumer Businesses

(10:13) Efficiency Metrics for Consumer Businesses

(12:24) How To Navigate Retention and Churn

(14:12) Sponsor – Tropic | NetSuite | Planful

(17:47) When Churn Is Necessary