Six things to know before starting an edtech company

On your mark, get set, go!

Starting a company is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for most founders. It’s an incredibly exciting time — you get to create something from scratch, pursue a personal passion, and be your own boss. It can also be a time filled with hard-earned lessons that can lead to stress and anxiety. Education startups are no different. In fact, I’d argue that they’re even more challenging to get going and can take longer to mature, especially if you’re selling to educational institutions such as schools and districts. Here are some thoughts from my time as a founder, startup operator, and impact investor who backs and advises edtech startups on what you should know before starting an edtech company:

1. You don’t have to quit your day job.
   
   If having a steady stream of income gives you piece of mind and is necessary to pay the bills, do it. I don’t buy the view that just because you have a day job means you’re not committed to startup success. If you want to align your desire of starting a business with continuing to pay your bills on time, think about securing some consulting work that puts you in the education market you want to address, works with the customer profile you want to serve such as a teacher, principal or superintendent, and/or gets you working on problems that could lead to business ideas. Getting paid to learn about the market and identifying problems you might be keen to solve are good ways to get closer to launching a startup. There are many examples of side projects that became successes, so take inspiration from some of these examples, including the now ultra-successful Khan Academy.
2. Pick a problem you’re obsessed with solving.
   
   I don’t think the desire to just build a business and make lots of money is enough. More and more people are looking to find meaning and fulfillment in their work, and that means choosing mission-driven work. Education is full of mission-driven work opportunities and the industry needs more and more people to take on difficult problems. Smart, ambitious people have options for making a living and when the going gets tough in a startup, it’s easier to quit when you’re not obsessed with finding a solution to an important problem. There are tough times in every startup, so choose something that’s going to motivate you to persist through the tough times. You’ll be glad you did after you push through the challenges and find success.
3. Be prepared to work on the business.
   
   When starting an edtech business, most founders are pumped up and ready to dig in and make a difference. They start a company because they love building a product or working with customers to solve problems. This is all good, but there are so many other elements of building a company that involve things that you probably won’t love doing. This includes marketing, selling, administrating, answering tons of email, etc. The stuff you love might be 20% of the job to be done, but there’s another 80% that needs attention in order for the business to work. Without this stuff getting done, you can’t build a successful company. To truly succeed, accept that all the other stuff is important and needs to get done. Check out Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy for advice on how to manage this. To focus more on the things you love doing, think about finding founding partners and employees who love to do the necessary stuff that you don’t enjoy doing. This leads us to the next point.
4. Find a co-founder or two to share all the hard work.
   
   To succeed as a startup team, there are lots of skills you need to get the job done. I’m talking about product design, project management, customer service, marketing, selling, human resources, and on and on. I certainly have my own strengths, but I have a lot of things I’m not good at as well. I think that goes for every founder. With all these different skill needs, you’ll want to find at least one co-founder that complements what you do well. If you’re unsure about what you do well, make a list of the things you love doing and the things you don’t. Chances are you’re good at the things you really enjoy and not so good at the things you don’t enjoy. You’re going to need to bring a lot of energy to your startup, so it’s better to set things up so that you can optimize your time on activities that energize you and have a partner or two focus on other things that need to get done that give them energy.
5. Pivots happen — be open to them!
   
   The truth is that every company pivots to one extent or another. As a startup operator, I was involved in seven product development cycles and each had a pivot to some extent. We tried our best to listen to prospective customers, take in feedback, and adjust the product or business model. Every time we made some kind of pivot from where the idea started. For inspiration, check out these famous pivots, including the legendary pivot of Odeo into Twitter.
6. You’re in for a marathon, not a sprint, so pace yourself.
   
   In fact, startups can sometimes feel like you’re running a marathon at a sprinter’s pace! This is a bit cliché, but I think it’s important to point out that we all have limits as to how far and fast we can go. Founders are driven and go fast by nature, which is important in a race to beat someone in a market, but not to the point of burnout. We must all find a way to relax and recharge from time to time. I burned out in my first startup, so I had to make adjustments to my routine to avoid repeating the mistake. I started running more and set aside days and times where work was off limits for me. Build in your own recharging habits before you begin so that you develop this important capacity and have it to fall back on when you need it most.

These thoughts apply to education startups, but they can also apply to other startups as well. Founders — what am I missing here? I would love to hear your thoughts.