Watch Cost vs Quality in Edtech by YC

[shervine]

https://blog.ycombinator.com/cost-vs-quality-in-edtech-keith-schacht-avichal-garg-and-geoff-ralston/

[shervine]

@grumo Watched this and my take on it is:

• We need to prepare for long-term/gradual growth
• We need to optimize for value more than we need to optimize for quality, even though we need to offer quality as well
• "People in the middle class don't care", which means people who are below the middle class care much more about education to become a Middle class citizen, which is money-driven

[grumo]

@shervine My notes:

• TakeAways
  • Education lags about 10 years adopting new tech
  • Opportunity to create better systems to run schools
  • Better to get many teachers onboard so the Directors of IT take notice and buy in (bottom-up Salesforce approach) than the other way around
  • What do we mean by higher quality education?
    • Better outcomes: all that matters is to assess if students pass certain tests
    • Better product: students are more engaged, they enjoy the learning experience
  • They key is value for MysteryScience is motivation
    • You can’t teach a child something they don’t care to understand
    • There is no need for a long cycle to measure quality of education. Finding out if students are motivated or not can be assessed almost immediately
  • There is not social alignment as to what is the purpose of education
    • For MysteryScience the ultimate goal is that children grow up and live happy and productive lives
    • The reasons should not be: let’s teach science because there is a lot of STEM careers that need to be filled
  • Avichal Garg was the CEO of Spool which got acquired by Facebook. I produced their demo video in 2012!
• 2011 vs 2018 - Original posed by Avichal Garg - He agrees that most of those statements don’t fit anymore.
  • Don’t make a better product. Make a cheaper product.
    • Keith Schacht: MysteryScience creates better science lessons and teachers really appreciate them
  • Don’t start in the US. Start in other developing countries. Start in Asia.
    • Still true.
  • Don’t take VC money
    • Not true.
  • Don’t target the middle class because they don’t really care
    • They care. See organic food stores. Or better furniture design made affordable by IKEA
  • Don’t expect a quick flip or quick growth.
    • Still true but true for most other industries.
• Advice for EdTech entrepreneurs
  • Avichal Garg
    • What is your motivation?
    • What would be the best way to make your goal happen?
      • Does it have to be and EdTech company? Or something adjacent to it?
      • Homeschool, Elementary, High School, Post-Secondary, Specialized Training (Insight Data, Lambda School), Interview prep training
    • The fringe opportunities outside of traditional education are more interesting
      • Models to help people stay relevant and stay educated
      • They are also free from a lot of the red tape from traditional systems
      • Changing the entrenched public education system will prove very difficult
  • Keith Schacht
    • Pick something you are so excited you’re not going to give up after 2-3 years
    • Kevin says MysteryScience is a “learning company” not an “education company”
      • He is interested in how to improve learning: the effectiveness, the quality
      • “Learning” or learning how to learn is sill in its infancy
    • Focus on the science of learning - that space is wide open!
      • Ie: deliberate practice, spaced repetition,
    • Most opportunities will be outside of the traditional education stack
• Examples of Successful EdTech Companies
  • ABC Mouse - helps kids learn to read through phonics, and teaches lessons in math, social studies, art, music, and much more. For kids age 2 to Kindergarten (they sell straight to parents)
  • TeachersPayTeachers - The world's first and largest educational marketplace with more than two million original teacher-created resources available for use today.
  • Chegg (2 Billion): Connect with an online tutor instantly or get step-by-step Textbook Solutions for your hard classes. As always, save up to 90% on textbook rentals
  • HackerRank: Join over 2 million developers in solving code challenges on HackerRank, one of the best ways to prepare for programming interviews
  • MysteryScience (CEO Keith Schacht) - Mystery Science offers open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science. The hook, visuals, and activity have all been prepared for you. Less prep, more learning. (Sell to schools)
  • Udemy.com is an online learning platform. It is aimed at professional adults. Unlike academic MOOC programs are driven by traditional collegiate coursework, Udemy uses content from online content creators to sell for profit.
  • Clever: Powering technology in the classroom - With Clever, learning applications get a platform to easily connect with schools and school districts have a central location to manage their technology.
  • Insight Data Science Fellows Program - An intensive 7-week post-doctoral training fellowship bridging the gap between academia & datascience. Join top companies working on data science