(Photo credit @hellokellybrito)
It makes sense to focus on edtech this week for a few reasons. First, I had a great networking call last Friday with a new edtech colleague. (Note: if you miss meeting new and interesting people from biotech to AI leaders because you’re stuck at home, Lunchclub.ai is worth checking out! You can only join via referral, so please join as one of my guests: https://lunchclub.com/?invite_code=liza4). Second, it’s just that time of year when hordes of students from PreK to MBA are heading back to “school.” Many places around the country are struggling with how to define what “school” will look like, and answer that question in a way that is safe for students & teachers, yet also still provides a quality education. Third, I am just passionate about education and enjoy thinking about this topic often!
#TECHTOPIC
Edtech has seen huge growth in the past few months as students, parents, educators and companies tried to fill an immediate gap, and also tried to envision an entirely new way to educate America. Back in May, Mercedes Bent (a VC at Lightspeed & a former student) wrote two great Medium articles predicting trends in K-12 education and higher education/corporate learning. One key distinction she noted was that what we saw as ‘remote learning’ in the late spring is a poor substitute for well-crafted online learning, whether for K-12 or higher ed. This may be part of what drove almost 20% of students at Harvard and other elite colleges to defer enrollment or take leaves of absence (maybe checking out Xoogler School, see below).
A related recent trend is how many tech companies and ex-employees have decided to jump into the upskilling of students & other future workers, and the various forms that these upskilling programs are taking. ServiceNow is partnering with Northeastern University on a new apprenticeship program. (I’m surprised that ServiceNow beat Salesforce to this type of official partnership as Salesforce has been trying to do similar upskilling on their products for years). Eric Schmidt, ex-CEO of Google, is launching the US Digital Service Academy to train & send tech workers into government roles. Xoogler School just launched to provide project skills, mentoring and career advice to college students who are taking a gap semester.
In terms of funding, the VCs are continuing to fund new edtech ventures at some of the highest levels seen in recent years, reaching $4.1B from Jan-Jul 2020. And many say companies like 2U will benefit from closed campuses (Chegg stock is up 100% in 2020). So if you are interested in edtech, now is a great time to invest, to found something, or to join one!
