The episode follows Hallie Smith’s journey from two decades in reading intervention and speech pathology to becoming a fractional marketing leader and founder of Hey There Insights, a new marketplace that connects edtech companies with educators for paid, unbiased product feedback. She explains how advances in technology and AI have lowered the barrier to building edtech tools while dramatically increasing competition and making it harder to get educators’ attention and authentic input. The conversation highlights why early, specific, and compensated educator feedback is essential for true product‑market fit, reducing costly engineering missteps, and building tools that actually address on‑the‑ground pain points in schools.
Learning Can’t Wait