Joseph Connor is the CEO & founder of Odyssey, a platform that helps families access state microgrants for K-12 education. Prior to starting Odyssey, Joseph was a former teacher, school founder, and attorney. 

Joseph and his team at Odyssey are on a mission to empower everyday parents by enabling access to public education dollars. Odyssey’s technology provides states with a turnkey platform to manage microgrant programs. A growing number of policymakers view microgrant programs as a tool to bridge equity gaps between families in under-resourced communities and their more affluent peers. Yet implementation has been challenging and these funds have not achieved the desired impact or reached parents’ pockets at scale. Odyssey is partnering with states to help smooth implementation, and ensure all eligible families are able to benefit.

In this conversation, we discuss Joseph’s founder journey in education over the last ten years, why government inefficiencies present such an interesting – but hard – problem to solve, and how a platform like Odyssey has the potential to address fundamental inequality across the US school system. 

This episode is for anyone interested in new possibilities at the intersection of edtech and public policy.

Learn more about Odyssey here: https://www.withodyssey.com/

Keep up with Joseph Connor here: https://josephjconnor.com/