

When Education-Technology Startups Fail - rafaelc
http://mfeldstein.com/when-ed-tech-startups-fail/

======
techiferous
To solve your customers' problems well, you have to understand their problems
from their point of view. This is why technical people often need a business
co-founder: one who understands the domain well.

I had a brief stint as a teacher (three years in a private school) so while my
experience is not vast, I do have a sense for the teacher's point of view.

Teachers often do resent spending their own money on their classrooms, but
it's _not_ out of a sense of entitlement. Often the budget is tight, so
teachers have to buy pencils, classroom posters, etc. out of their own small
paycheck. Also, simple things like how many copies you can make are limited.

So imagine a software shop where each developer:

(1) had their bandwidth per month capped

(2) if they wanted an extra monitor, productivity software, or anything beyond
the standard developer setup they'd likely have to pay for it themselves

(3) has their salary cut in half (or by two thirds)

So it's not a case of entitlement at all; it's a case of scarce money.

About teachers not wanting technology solutions: as a teacher I had very
little time during the day. There were some days where I very literally did
not have five minutes to spare and had trouble finding time to go to the
bathroom (other days were more sane). My personality is one that _craves_
change, but as a teacher I found that I was juggling so much work that I did
not necessarily welcome changes to existing procedures. So I think there may
be some truth to this in that teachers may not have the time resources to
adapt to a lot of new technology. _That said_ , target the teachers in the
summer. They've got time to make changes then.

~~~
yummyfajitas
I work in such a software shop. Bandwidth is capped because, well, that's how
Indian ISP's work. I have no salary and I bought all my own equipment. Doesn't
mean I think pivotaltracker or AWS should give me a discount. It just means I
need to get funding or revenue.

Also, regarding free time, you were an exception. In general, teachers are not
juggling a lot of work, and have more free time than other professionals.

<http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2008/03/art4full.pdf>

------
derBaumstamm
Knack for Teachers failure seems indicative of a larger trend in the start-up
world, the explosion of doomed-to-fail start-ups founded by mediocre
programmers with no understanding of their target market. These founders
believe that their subpar efforts will somehow lead to the next airbnb or
dropbox, ignoring the careful planning and sheer brilliance at the heart of
all great start-up successes.

My fear is that just as interest in ed-tech is waxing, the field will be
flooded by these want-a-be founders who fail miserably and then blame their
failures on parent, teachers and children. Education is a complex and
difficult market that will requires a founder to have deep knowledge of its
inner workings. For the technological innovation that is desperately needed in
education to be successful, our best hackers must step forwarded and accept
the challenge. Nothing else will do.

I worry. However, John Resig's work at Khan Academy gives me hope.

~~~
buss
I don't know about blaming this on any larger trend. I think that Jarrod just
didn't understand his market. I don't know anything about him, but if this was
one of his first companies then blaming failure on his customers is a pretty
common thing.

When my first company failed, I blamed my customers. When the second didn't
get off the ground, I blamed the technology. And when my third failed, I
blamed myself.

~~~
studiofellow
You're right. I didn't understand the market. However I'd substitute that I
blame myself for not understanding my customers, rather than blaming my
customers.

Also, I posted a follow up here: [http://blog.studiofellow.com/2011/09/26/the-
follow-up-knack-...](http://blog.studiofellow.com/2011/09/26/the-follow-up-
knack-a-web-app-story/)

------
tryitnow
Blaming your customers for failure is never a good idea.

I looked into doing a K12 school related startup and quickly concluded that it
was a no go. The only money is in school budgets and the sales cycle is just
too long and onerous.

The probability of success for an Edtech startup is inversely related to its
proximity to schools.

------
danielford
Maybe I'm approaching this differently since I teach college. My initial
response was, "Why was that guy charging a subscription fee for a gradebook?"
Granted, the gradebooks that come with the Angel and Blackboard learning
management systems probably aren't as good as his was. Still, they do what I
need them to and I'm not paying for them.

I always figured K-12 teachers had similar services available. Assuming they
don't, it's not that big of a deal to throw together a gradebook in Excel.

I feel bad for this guy; based on the demonstration video it looks like he put
an awful lot of work into producing a well-polished product. I just don't see
how using it would save me any time or improve my teaching.

------
molsongolden
sad times. The demo video looks polished and functional. The online gradebook
situation reminds me of day planners and other organizational tools that look
handy (and can be) but in reality take a lot of dedication and time to keep
using them.

------
mise
patio11, your thoughts? I think you sell directly to teachers.

------
rprasad
I tried out the site that is the subject of the OP (Knack for Teachers). I
heartily agree with the sentiments of the OP. The problem wasn't the customer
base, the problem was the product itself.

In a word, it sucked. (Okay, two words). The product looks and behaves like an
alpha. The UI is counter-intuitive and unpolished. It takes way too much
effort just to enter a single student's grade for a single assignment. This
service actually makes a teachers' administrative burden worse, especially
compared to using the gold-standard Excel spreadsheet. Speaking of
Excel...where were the export options?

This product doesn't do enough, or execute well enough, to justify being a
paid product. (The demo video is the only truly polished thing on the entire
site.) Hell, it isn't compelling even as a free offering. Expecting teachers
to pay for it was wishful thinking at best.

This failed startup isn't useful as a data point for other startups seeking to
enter the education technology market, except maybe as an example that
execution matters if you've got competition.

