StartEd

Most EdTech stories start with the tech. Telo's started with English learners who weren't talking in class. When Alexis Jamin and Oliver Scott joined StartEd, Telo AI had zero U.S. classroom customers. Less than a year later, through mentor support from our advisor network on procurement strategy, district relationships, and pilot design, they have: • 5 reference sites across Alabama, New York, Texas, and Georgia  • First paying district customers converting from pilots • Early teacher reports of multilingual students speaking more, staying engaged longer, and participating in ways traditional screen software didn't unlock • Procurement infrastructure – 30+ district and cooperative approvals, plus a national TIPS contract – built deliberately so adoption can follow teacher demand instead of waiting on multi-year RFP cycles The pattern we see again and again at StartEd: the founders who break through in K-12 aren't the ones with the flashiest tech. They're the ones who get matched early with mentors who already know how districts actually work – operators who can compress years of trial-and-error into months, and who insist on real classroom signal before pushing for scale. Telo's next phase is in service of special education, where many of the same engagement gaps and need for personalized practice show up. That expansion will follow educator demand and pilot evidence, not a roadmap built in isolation. "Kids already spend enough time staring at screens. We think the future of AI in education looks less like a tab in a browser and more like a conversation – with a teacher in the room and a tool that helps students actually use what they're learning." – Alexis Jamin, Telo AI This is what the StartEd model is built for: EdTech founders earning trust at the district level, faster, with mentors who've already done it. Demo of Telo's classroom robot: https://lnkd.in/dVjvbpxd

Ahead of October’s StartEd CEO Summit, our latest podcast features Dana Stephenson (Riipen) on how applying systems thinking can dismantle the classic college-to-career experience paradox, “To get a job you need experience.  To get experience, you need a job.”  We explore how AI is removing entry level jobs and making the problem worse. If this is relevant to what you're building, you can listen to the full conversation or request an invite to the StartEd CEO Summit via the links in the comments.

Pikmykid Scales Nationwide to Transform School Safety and Student Dismissal 👏 Pikmykid, led by Saravana Pat Bhava, is redefining school safety by building a full student journey platform – from the moment children leave home to when they safely return. What began as a solution to simplify chaotic school dismissal has evolved into a comprehensive K-12 operations and safety ecosystem used by thousands of schools. Pat’s journey began after a personal moment at his daughter’s school, where he noticed major inefficiencies in student pickup and transformed that insight into a nationwide edtech platform. Today, Pikmykid connects parents, schools, and administrators through real-time visibility into transportation, attendance, hall movements, extracurriculars, and emergency response – creating a unified system for managing student flow throughout the school day. Since its early days, Pikmykid has: • Expanded from a single school in Florida to 7,000+ schools • Grown across all 50 U.S. states and 7 international markets • Built a full student lifecycle platform covering dismissal, safety, and school operations • Managed everything from hall passes and after-school programs to emergency alerts Looking back at his time in the StartEd, Pat highlights two game-changers: 1. Navigating the Ecosystem: "StartEd gave us inroads into the BOCES system, which became a massive component of our GTM strategy." 2. The Peer Power: "EdTech is hard. Finding a cohort of founders facing the same K-12 challenges gave us the confidence to keep going." What’s Next: ➣ Focused on seamless integration for the next stage of growth  ➣ Maximizing revenue against committed targets ➣ Ensuring a strong outcome for the team and successful transition post-deal Advice for Founders: “Stay close to real problems – the biggest opportunities come from solving something you’ve personally experienced.” ✨

Why the Most Profitable Companies Put Profit Second Ahead of October’s StartEd CEO Summit, our latest podcast features Karl Rectanus (LearnPlatform by Instructure, Really Great Reading) on how a single "Impact Metric" can synchronize every pillar of your business, from Product to GTM. We explore why the most enduring companies achieve scale through Obliquity: the principle that profit is best achieved as a second-order effect of pursuing a higher purpose. Most EdTech CEOs are optimizing for the wrong number. Usage, ARR, minutes watched, seats sold — the metrics boards ask about, so the metrics companies run on. Karl's argument is that the companies that actually win align around impact instead, not as a value statement but as an operating metric. At LearnPlatform, that metric was "decisions made." Not minutes on the platform. Decisions educators actually made because of what the platform showed them. When the metric changes, the conversations change. Sales stops asking Product for cosmetic features that close this quarter and starts asking for things that make the customer better at their job. Product stops shipping noise. The financial outcomes follow as a second-order effect of doing the actual work well — which is precisely Sir John Kay’s point about Obliquity. The harder part is what this requires of the CEO. Karl's view is that you cannot run this from 30,000 feet. You have to be close enough to the work to tell the difference between a customer who likes the product and a customer whose life is measurably better because of it. He calls the result conviction, and distinguishes it from confidence. Confidence is a posture. Conviction is what's left after you've seen the thing work, in person, enough times to bet the company on it. The question Alan and Karl leave open: if you removed the usage dashboards tomorrow, would anyone on your team still be able to tell you whether the product was working? Episode and Summit links in the comments.

Congrats to Roxxem (StartEd ‘25) and Shawn Lee for the win at TiE Angels!

UPDATE: The event has been rescheduled. New Date: May 26th Next Tuesday, 12 May at 12:00, we’re hosting an interactive AMA with Jason Katcher, Global EDU GTM Leader at Superhuman (formerly Grammarly). Jason has led education businesses at companies like Google and Dropbox, and brings a rare mix of strategic thinking and hands-on execution across sales, partnerships, product, and go-to-market. We’ll explore how modern EdTech companies actually build and scale revenue across both K-12 and Higher Ed. We’ll also dive into: • Building high-value partnerships that drive real revenue • Navigating complex institutional buyers and long sales cycles • Aligning sales, marketing, product, and customer success • What it takes to build a scalable GTM engine in today’s market If you’re building in EdTech and thinking seriously about growth, GTM, or partnerships, this one’s for you. RSVP to join the conversation: https://lnkd.in/dYAcbYE4

Next Tuesday, 5 May at 12:00, we’re hosting Charles H. for a hands-on session on building your AI co-founder. We’ll explore how founders can move beyond using AI as a simple chatbot and start turning it into a true working partner embedded in their startup. We’ll also dive into: • Integrating AI into everyday workflows (not just one-off use cases) • Moving from prompting → execution • Building a customized AI co-founder tailored to your product, market, and users • Using tools like Claude Projects to create a system you can rely on daily By the end of the session, you’ll have a functional AI partner you can start using immediately to support decision-making, execution, and growth. If you’re building and want to move faster without burning out, this one’s for you. RSVP to join the conversation: https://lnkd.in/dc6X46_W

“Are you a visionary leader, or are you a micromanager?” In the new episode, Alan Todd sits down with Sara Leoni, CEO of Ziplines Education, to unpack a tension many CEOs quietly wrestle with. A few ideas that stood out: - The “vision vs. execution” tradeoff is often a false one - The most effective leaders operate as player-coaches—not just setting direction, but staying close to the work - Clarity of vision only matters if it translates at the individual level - Transparency—especially around what’s not working—is a leadership discipline - Scaling too early, before true traction, creates more fragility than momentum This is the kind of conversation that challenges how CEOs think about their role—not in theory, but in practice. These are reflections from the discussion—but they point to a broader question: Are we stepping back too early from the details that actually drive the business? This is exactly the set of conversations we’re curating for the CEO Summit at EdTech Week 2026. A small group of CEOs, investors, and operators—focused on real decisions, not abstractions. If you’re building or investing at scale, you should be in that room. Links to listen and apply are in the comments.

🚀 Brooklyn Tech Expo is back! Brooklyn’s largest AI & tech conference returns to Dumbo on May 12, 2026, bringing together 1,000+ founders, operators, and tech professionals for a full day of innovation, insights, and high-impact networking. If you’re building, scaling, or just want to stay ahead in AI and tech – this is one to attend. 🎟️ Exclusive offer: 50% off tickets (limited time) Use code: PARTNER5 👉 Get tickets here: https://lnkd.in/dhi9YEhn 🔎 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eqpfPsAT

Next Tuesday, April 28 at 12:00, we’re welcoming Timothy Toomey — former CEO of Ascendient Learning (acquired by Accenture) and now Managing Director at Accenture — for a live AMA. We’ll talk about what it really takes to build, scale, and sell a learning company. We’ll also dive into: • Recognizing real product–market fit in the learning space • Designing training that actually fits into the workflow of employees • What makes a workforce EdTech startup credible to large organizations • The biggest trends in corporate learning and workforce skills If you’re building an EdTech or workforce learning solution, this conversation is for you. RSVP to join the conversation: https://lnkd.in/d_7JFTar