Teach Me EdTech: The Podcast for EdTech Leaders and Investors Jess Stokes

Jon Small (GM, Breakout Learning) and Eric Hoffman (VP of Sales, braintrust tutors) share hard-won advice about selling to K-12 districts from their 25+ years of combined experience at high-growth edtech firms.

Jon & Eric explain why cold calls work and how to execute them well, how to sync your efforts with the “heat zones” of a school sales cycle, and the importance of knowing when a founder should hire their first sales leader. This lively episode is a sales primer for first-time edtech founders and packed with wisdom for established sales teams.
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Siya Raj Purohit (Co-Founder & Partner, Pathway Ventures) pulls back the curtain on what she looks for in pre-seed and seed startups that are driving economic mobility through new models of earning, learning, and community building. As an operator and an investor, she offers grounded advice about how to pitch a VC as well as how to become one. Siya also discusses how to succeed in edtech as a generalist and reveals a few community-based networks she thinks are worth watching.
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Fleur Johnston (Founder & CEO, PeopleBench) is a workplace psychology expert who is committed to helping schools improve workforce retention in order to deliver better student experiences.  Fleur unpacks data about the international teacher shortages and offers actionable advice to edtech leaders about how to design implementation and support models that are considerate of teacher workloads.



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Ty Davis (Co-Founder & COO, Enlighten AI) shares his first-hand experience navigating artificial intelligence in the classroom from a unique perspective as an educator, school administrator, and founder. Ty makes the case for why edtech MVPs need to demonstrate immediate value and why having educators on an edtech founding team is an unfair advantage. He also offers actionable advice to edtech founders about how to incorporate user feedback and craft effective K-12 sales strategies.
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Jomayra Herrera (Partner, Reach Capital) demystifies what early-stage edtech startups can expect if they are raising capital in the second half of 2023. In addition to discussing trends that venture capitalists are excited about, including learning enablers in K-12 and skills engines to help businesses close knowledge gaps, Jomayra also shares actionable tips for investor outreach and pitches. 


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Ron Kerbs (Founder & CEO, Kidas) reveals his strategies for building safe edtech products at every step of the user journey from requiring parent participation in onboarding to moderating peer-to-peer interactions with AI. This episode explains how to comply with federal privacy laws like COPPA and CCPA, including the collection, storage, and processing of minor data.
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