Edtech Insiders

Send us a textAnada Lakra is the co-founder and CEO of BoldVoice. Her mission is to empower every non-native English speaker to fulfill their potential through confident English. . BoldVoice is an app that helps learners to improve their English speaking clarity and confidence through videos from Hollywood accent coaches and instant feedback from speech artificial intelligence.Previously, Anada built and launched 5 products (1 IPO, 1 exit via acquisition) in both enterprise and consumer, across verticals including retail, entertainment, and recruiting. She was recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Education, and holds a BA from Yale and MBA from Harvard Business School.Recommended Resources:How You Say It: Why You Talk the Way You Do―And What It Says About You by Katherine D. KinzlerAtomic Habits by James Clear

Send us a textRyan Craig is a Managing Director at Achieve Partners and was formerly an MD at University Ventures. Ryan’s commentary on where the puck is going in education and workforce regularly appears in the biweekly Gap Letter, Forbes, and Inside Higher Education. He is the author of the upcoming book Apprentice Nation: How the "Earn and Learn" Alternative to Higher Education Will Create a Stronger and Fairer America (November 2023). He is also author of A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College (2018), which describes the critical importance of last-mile training and the emergence of bootcamps, income share programs, staffing and apprenticeship models as preferred pathways to good first digital jobs and was named in the Wall Street Journal as one the Books of the Year for 2018. Ryan’s first book was College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education (2015), which profiles the coming shift toward competency-based education and hiring. Ryan is a co-founder of Apprenticeships for America, a national nonprofit dedicated to scaling apprenticeships across the U.S. economy.Previously, Ryan led the Education & Training sector at Warburg Pincus. His prior experience in higher education was at Columbia University. Ryan also founded and built Wellspring, a national network of boarding schools and summer camps for overweight and obese children, adolescents, and young adults. He began his career at McKinsey & Co.Ryan received bachelor's degrees summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University, and his law degree from the Yale Law School.

Send us a textAl Kingsley has over 30 years’ experience in educational technology and digital safeguarding.For the last 25 years Al has been the Group Managing Director of NetSupport, an international software company developing market-leading software solutions used by over 18 million customers, designed to support the effective use of instructional technology in classrooms alongside eSafety technologies to safeguard students online.Al writes for a range of international titles on all aspects of education, with a particular focus on Digital Strategy, the use of EdTech, Blended Learning, Safeguarding and broader strategic planning.He is the author of “My Secret Edtech Diary” and “My School Governance Handbook” and the co-host of the “EdTech Shared” podcast.Recommended Resources:The Innovator's Dillema: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business by Clayton M. ChristensenDisrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen

Send us a textSheryl Cababa is a multi-disciplinary design strategist with more than two decades of experience and has worked extensively in human-centered design within the social impact space. She specializes in developing tools and methods for designers to expand their mindsets beyond user-centered design, anticipate unintended consequences, and engage in systems thinking. Some of her recent work with the Gates Foundation includes leading student voice research to inform the K-12 Balance The Equation Grand Challenge, working with Gates Foundation teams to provide equity-centered technical assistance to their grantees. She’s worked with IKEA, Microsoft, frog design and at Substantial, A hybrid-first Insights, Design + Development Studio, where she is the Chief Design Officer. Her newest book, Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers, came out in Feb 2023; you can find a link to it in the shownotes for this episode .Recommended ResourcesClosing the Loop: Systems Thinking for DesignersGholdy Muhammad, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy

Send us a textIn this Week in Edtech, Ben and Alex talk about the rise of open-source LLMs and what it means for education, Sam Altman's Congressional testimony and coming AI regulations, and  systemic changes affecting the entire Edtech venture landscape.We also speak to Hussainatu (Hussa) Blake, who leads Edtech and Workforce for the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation about global AI and Edtech We check in with Arman Jaffer, Tom Whitnah and Corey Crouch, the founding team of the powerful AI Teaching tool Brisk Teaching.

Send us a textAdrian Ridner is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Study.com and an industry leader in education technology.Adrian has created the leading online learning platform in the world at delivering a personalized learning experience to students and teachers from grade school through college and beyond. Adrian has spent the past two decades bringing together academic experts across all subjects, with the leading technologists and learning scientists to build the most innovative micro-learning platform with the sole purpose to eliminate the most common educational barriers and make education accessible.Adrian has been committed to advancing personalized and engaging learning at scale for students of varying needs and diverse backgrounds to help level the playing field. Study.com's short video lessons and online courses help students achieve their educational goals and degrees needed to unlock economic opportunities. As an Argentine immigrant, Adrian is particularly proud that Study.com helps students, teachers and parents in the U.S. and around the world. He gets excited about each learner that shares their personal story, from every corner of the globe, about how Study.com empowered them to achieve their education and career dreams.In 2017, Adrian launched the Working Scholars® program as an accelerated pathway to a bachelor's degree offering flexibility, convenience and little to no student debt for working adults. The program has expanded nationally to dozens of cities, uplifting underserved communities one college graduate at a time. Adrian is very proud of the impact Working Scholars is having and humbled that is was named CA Non-Profit of the Year.

Send us a textKatie Kirsch is a designer, engineer, and social entrepreneur. At Stanford, IDEO, and Designer Fund, she has launched several products, programs, and ventures in education. A few favorite projects have included working & living at a K-12 boarding school in India, scaling a menstrual healthcare organization in Uganda, and road​-​tripping across the US for 14 weeks in an RV to teach leadership workshops for 1200 girls. Most recently, Katie founded Twenty, a coaching & community platform that empowers young adults to crush their twenties. Katie holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Product Design Engineering from Stanford.Recommended Resources:The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter--And How to Make the Most of Them Now by Meg JayWhat I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 by Tina Seelig

Send us a textAudrey Wisch is the CEO and Co-Founder and Curious Cardinals, a global community where K-12 students discover and pursue their passions, build confidence, and unlock their greatest potential with the guidance of college mentors they aspire to be.Audrey started Curious Cardinals as an undergraduate at Stanford University; after teaching her first workshop on mass incarceration to high school students at the start of the pandemic, Audrey decided to mobilize her most ambitious peers at Stanford and beyond to join her in teaching the topics they were passionate about to K-12 students and serving as their near-peer mentors. Since then, Audrey has taken time off from Stanford to pursue Curious Cardinals full time, now a community of over 400 college mentors mentoring students around the world. The company has raised $6.8 million in seed funding led by Anthos Capital and Audacious Ventures, and has been featured on CNN and Bloomberg. Audrey was also recognized in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Education and Youngest category.Recommended ResourcesCurious Cardinal student Matthew’s video game that he has been building with mentors over the past two years can be seen here and a video of Matthew + his parents here.Failure to Disrupt by Justin ReichSystem Error by by Rob Reich, Mehran Sahami andJeremy M. Weinstein Infinite Game by Simon SenakCurious Cardinals is Hiring!Lucy Chen is hiring for two roles on my team. Both work directly with the most amazing part of Curious Cardinals: our mentors, a community of the most passionate and ambitious college students in the world! 1. Mentor Success Manager (mid-level) Looking for a system-minded ops person with strong learning background to scale our current ways of supporting mentors and preparing mentors to teach. 2. Mentor Talent & Community Manager (entry- OR mid-level)  Looking for a passionate community person to recruit and curate the mentor community. Strongly prefer someone with prior experience managing both virtual and in-person communities. 

Send us a textIn this Episode, Guests:Nishaad Balachandran of Avathon Capital on Private Equity for Edtech Kavitta Ghai of Nectir on the launch of Soma, their new AI community toolBig Story: Byju's Properties Raided by Indian AuthoritiesExplained: Why Edtech start-up Byju’s is facing heat from EDOther articles discussed:Teachers Feel Growing Obligation to Incorporate ChatGPTCalifornia bill proposes 50% school staff salary hike over 7 yearsBias in AI: Do Chatbot Tutors Work Better When They're Upbeat — and Female?Unionization Efforts Spread Through Higher Education As Colleges Double Down

Send us a textMichael Wegerbauer is the Vice President, Learning Solutions/Educational Publishing at M & R Consultants Corporation (MRCC). With 25 years of experience focused on technology in education, project management, process improvement, technology consulting, and business development, Michael spent 6+ years at UCLA developing solutions to support both administrative and educational initiatives and 12+ years at MRCC supporting learning technology, rich media, and content development.Founded in 1996 MRCC is an accredited IT solutions company that has dedicated over 25 glorious years to supporting clients and partners across the global spectrum. They offer a vast suite of services under Learning, Publishing, Technology, and IT Staffing.Recommended ResourcesYour Kid's Going to Be OK by Michael Delman