Education Week - May 21, 2014 - 7

INDUSTRY & INNOVATION > Tracking business trends and emerging models in K-12
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Baltimore and Boston
Orchestrating Efforts
To Build Ed-Tech Hubs
By Danielle Wilson
Baltimore and Boston are cities with
their own distinct economic identities, but
more recently they've shared an economicdevelopment
strategy: Both have organizations
working aggressively to establish their
metro regions as hubs for educational technology
companies and startups.
The efforts in Baltimore are being led by
an ed-tech advisory group focused on building
support in the city and across Maryland.
In Boston, a nonprofit that began by creating
a networking group across the city has now
launched an "accelerator" program designed
to help young ed-tech businesses succeed.
The Baltimore and Boston initiatives come
amid an influx of money into the ed-tech sector.
Venture capital investors poured more
than a billion dollars in 2013 into technology
companies across the country that are
working in the education, training, and testpreparation
markets. That money is flowing
into supporting the development of products
and services in areas such as digital content,
assessment, management systems, and professional
development.
Richard Culatta, the director of the office
of educational technology at the U.S. Department
of Education, said "we can certainly see
that certain areas of the country seem to be
better engaged with the ed-tech community,"
and that is the case for Baltimore and Boston.
But he added that Pittsburgh and New
Orleans are also "thriving ed-tech cities."
Building Collaboration
The Greater Baltimore EdTech Advisory
Task Force was established a year ago to
bring together professionals from education,
technology, and business. Led by a 10-person
executive committee, it began with the goal of
evaluating and supporting the ed-tech community
in Baltimore. It later expanded its reach
statewide.
One of the Baltimore organization's projects
is EdTechMD, a task force launched in February
to create networking opportunities, development
tools, and a formal mentoring network
to help entrepreneurs and others hoping to
enter the ed-tech marketplace.
"Maryland has the key features that make
it a great place for ed-tech startups," said
Andrew Coy, the chairman of the ed-tech
advisory task force. He is the executive director
of the Digital Harbor Foundation, a
Baltimore-based nonprofit that focuses on
improving students' technology and innovative-thinking
skills.
Mr. Coy said the EdTechMD project is
seeking to create "organic" interactions between
people in the education, technology,
and business fields. It plans to offer financial
support to startups by raising $3 million by
the fall to invest in new companies and entrepreneurs.
In
Boston, an organization called LearnLaunch
is trying to help ed-tech startups
in the city and the greater New England
region by building stronger links between
educators and the technology community.
LearnLaunch co-founder Eileen Rudden
said that Boston's reputation as a city with
a lot of venture capitalists and investors
makes it an ideal setting for new companies
in need of financial backing.
The founders of LearnLaunch created the
nonprofit after co-founder Marissa Lowman
hosted a series of successful meet-ups and
networking events in 2011 with her previous
organization, EdTechUp, which is now
a part of LearnLaunch. LearnLaunch offers
classes, conferences, and networking events
for anyone in the ed-tech community with an
interest in ed-tech startups.
In 2013, the organization began the LearnLaunchX
Accelerator program to provide a
centralized workspace that offers mentorship
and funding to companies. The highly
competitive, residential program gives seed
funding of $18,000 to early-stage companies
in return for a 6 percent stake in their businesses.
The accelerator also hosts "demo
days," in which the founders of the companies
make presentations to other potential
investors.
Many startup companies see this kind of
networking and building of business relationships
as important strategies for helping
them grow. Both Baltimore and Boston
are located in regions that provide a large
ecosystem of technology companies and research
universities. Baltimore, for instance,
is home to Laureate Education, formerly Sylvan
Learning, and Johns Hopkins University,
while the Boston area features Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt, the textbook publisher
and digital-learning-tool developer, as well
as Harvard University and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
For example, one ed-tech company that
said it was drawn to Boston by the opportunity
to be close to like-minded businesses
was Cengage Learning. The educational publishing
company announced that it's moving
its corporate headquarters from New York
City to Boston.
"We believe that Boston is one of the key centers
for future growth of education technology,"
Cengage Learning ceo Michael Hansen said in
a press release.
Cengage Learning's headquarters will be
in Boston's Innovation District, a waterfront
neighborhood that is home to an estimated
200 companies that operate primarily in the
technology and creative-design industries.
The district was set up under former Mayor
Thomas Menino with the goal of establishing
an urban environment where established
companies and entrepreneurs could
collaborate.
Schools Testing Products
Getting access to established companies
and mentors is crucial to startups, said
Jennifer Carolan, the managing director
of the NewSchools Seed Fund, a part of the
NewSchools Venture Fund, based in Palo
Alto, Calif. NewSchools makes investments
in early-stage ed-tech companies, and the
organization has worked with both the Baltimore
EdTech Advisory Task Force and
LearnLaunch by co-investing in startups.
"Connections and networks are vital to the
education market," Ms. Carolan said. "Education
is a local endeavor," she continued, and
Jess Gartner, the CEO and founder of the
Baltimore-based educational technology
startup Allovue, a resource-planning
platform, received help from the city's
Emerging Technology Center and the
Greater Baltimore EdTech Advisory Task
Force to start and develop her business.
local ed-tech investment groups are familiar
with local and state laws, "can align financial
capital and support," and provide a base of
knowledge to new businesses.
Organizations supporting ed-tech entrepreneurs
in Baltimore and Boston also say
the two cities offer other advantages, including
a socioeconomically diverse landscape of
regular public, charter, and private schools
for businesses hoping to test products in
schools. Developers of education products
often complain about their inability to gain
access to schools willing to put their products
through the paces.
"Baltimore has an amazingly diverse school
population, within a small distance, with wide
ranges of performance levels," said Mr. Coy.
"Innovators want to solve problems, and the
schools are willing to take part in implementing
the new technology. The school districts
in the region are "entrepreneur-friendly," he
added. Ed-tech startups participating in the
EdTechMD program benefit from the existing
relationships the organization has fostered
with schools, Mr. Coy said. Those ties allow
them to test their products and services in
classrooms faster than if they tried to forge alliances
on their own, he said.
Whether the Baltimore efforts will pay off in
the long run remains to be seen, but a number
of education entrepreneurs have chosen the
city recently, in some cases with support from
EdTechMD.
Ed-tech startup Citelighter-a bibliography
program that allows students to store, organize,
and share research-moved to Baltimore
from its New York City office in 2013. Likewise,
Three Ring, which allows teachers and students
to capture photos, video, and audio of student
work with a mobile app, announced in February
it was moving its main office from New York to
Baltimore; and education companies Allovue,
Moodlerooms, and Straighterline already called
Baltimore home.
Yet both the Boston and Baltimore initiatives
are also likely to have to overcome challenges
associated with focusing on developing
educational technology within a specific region,
a number of observers say.
Ms. Rudden, of LearnLaunch, said the relatively
strong achievement of Boston area
schools may not make the city the right one
for all companies, particularly ed-tech startups
that are aiming to show they can make major
improvements in schools' performance.
Ms. Carolan of the NewSchools Seed Fund
said she didn't see a downside to the geographic
focus of the Boston and Baltimore efforts,
but she said both programs would need
to remain flexible in trying to help new education
companies grow.
"It's really important to focus on the scale
of the business," she said. "You can't constrain
yourself or limit the potential of a business by
putting too much focus on its location."
Coverage of entrepreneurship and innovation in
education and school design is supported in part by
a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Education Week retains sole editorial control over
the content of this coverage.
EDUCATION WEEK | May 21, 2014 | www.edweek.org | 7
Matt Roth for Education Week
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Education Week - May 21, 2014

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