Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur | Start and Grow Your Own Business 1284: From GED to Harvard: How this Founder is Using AI to Disrupt College Admissions w/ Jane Alexander
In this episode, Brian sits down with Jane Alexander, the founder and CEO of Emma Advisor, an AI-powered platform transforming the chaotic college admissions process. Jane shares how her own unconventional journey—from homeschool in rural Idaho to graduate work at Harvard—inspired her to build a tool that makes college guidance accessible to all families, not just the wealthy. This episode is a masterclass for any entrepreneur looking to build a truly user-centric company. You'll learn why listening to your customers is the ultimate business hack, how to strategically build a direct-to-consumer product first, and why AI is most powerful when it’s used to solve deep-seated human problems.
💡 What You'll Take Away For YOUR Business
- From Pain to Platform: Learn how to transform your unique personal experiences and frustrations into a powerful, scalable business idea that solves a real-world problem.
- Customer-Led Innovation: Discover why the best business ideas, features, and strategies come directly from your target audience and how to build a system for consistently gathering their feedback.
- AI as an Equalizer: Understand how to leverage AI not just for efficiency, but to democratize access to information and services that were once only available to the elite.
- The Strategic D2C Launch: Hear Jane's brilliant reasoning for building a product for end-users first (parents and students) before approaching larger B2B partners (schools) to ensure product-market fit.
- Building in Public: Get the tactical advice you need to overcome the fear of sharing your journey online and use platforms like LinkedIn to attract your founding team, partners, and early adopters.
- Solving the Human Element: Learn why even the most advanced tech companies succeed by focusing on the human challenges they solve—in Jane’s case, reducing family conflict and student anxiety.
📝 About Jane Alexander
Jane Alexander is the founder and CEO of Emma Advisor, an AI-powered college admissions companion. With a background that spans homeschool, public school, a GED, community college, and graduate studies at Harvard, Jane brings a uniquely empathetic perspective to the world of education. After advising over 200 universities on enrollment strategy, she is now on a mission to use technology to give every student ownership of their admissions journey and provide parents with much-needed peace of mind.
🎯 Jane’s BEST Piece of Advice for Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs
"Build in public. Find your social media channel of choice and start consistently building your audience."
📢 Memorable Quotes
- “A.I. is neither good or bad. It's a tool. And we need to have the guardrails and rules and guidelines in place to use it.” – Jane Alexander
- “Where I'm getting the energy and the vision and the problem solving and the feature list, it's from the users themselves... All I have to do is sit and listen.” – Jane Alexander
- “I want to intentionally design up front for the parent and the student an incredible experience that these kids and these families love and then I'm going to take it to the school.” – Jane Alexander
🔗 Links & Resources