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Reviewing the Education Entrepreneurship Summit @ U Penn

Writer's picture: Jolie RadunichJolie Radunich

To: You

From: Catalyst Summit Attendee

Date: June 22, 2024

Subject: How to Launch an Education Venture


Intro: Catalyst Summit @ U Penn


Yesterday, the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania hosted a day-long conference. The Catalyst Summit, called "Propel Your Edtech Venture" brought together hundreds of entrepreneurs and industry professionals for networking and an agenda of workshops centered around:


  • Finance: Navigating funding strategy

  • Product: Development informed by data

  • Market: Commanding the landscape

  • Leadership: Laying the foundation for rapid growth


I went into the summit with an idea that hasn't "left the building" yet: to connect K-12 students to inspiring career pathways, through their homework.



Goals of the Education Entrepreneurship Summit @ U Penn


  • Understand what it takes to lift an education venture off the ground

  • Make in-person connections and carry them over to LinkedIn



Values for Education Ventures


The Education Entrepreneurship Summit @ U Penn hosted education researchers, VCs, and other professionals who shared important values for education entrepreneurs:


Work with teachers, not with teachers in mind. You don’t have to be the best product if you're cheap. Don’t keep research in the Ivy [League] tower. Share it with everyone. If you're approaching a researcher, don't be a salesperson. Talk about your impact, not your product.

Other remarks are important reminders of the thoughts and feelings that some students carry with them:


How I learn isn’t necessarily how other students learn. Students shut down the inquiry process to avoid the embarrassment of not knowing. We need to believe in who we’re trying to help. Students are in a system that doesn’t always believe in them.


State of the Business


  • Intermittent research: K-12 career pathways, gamification, tutoring

  • Getting familiar with the National Career Clusters Framework

  • Mocking up a few wireframes on Figma

  • Pivoting to customer discovery before building out anything



Lessons Learned


  • VCs are biased toward what they think is important: In this case, the presenting VCs look for founders who:

    • Have traction

    • Are coachable

    • Are willing to sell

    • Have a defensible business model

    • Become deep subject matter experts

  • It's okay to add VCs to a distribution list: Before hearing this, I would've thought doing so would harm not help a venture. It looks like this isn't as spammy and gutsy as I thought.

  • Don't wait until the product is ready to start selling: Build relationships and get through the fundraising cycles.

  • Don't pack your MVP with features and functionalities: Customers want their problems solved, not shiny features.



Strategic Priorities


  • Think through the pros and cons of a B2B vs B2C education venture

  • Subscribe to the Whiteboard Advisors newsletter

  • Sign up for Catapult Accelerator

  • Consider Catapult Advanced Membership



Appendix


projector signage of edtech venture


Diary building a founder's mindset in edtech💪

© 2025 by Jolie Radunich

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