Education Week - September 17, 2014 - 12

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS > STARTING UP: First of a series tracking three ed-tech businesses
www.edweek.org/startupblog
Business Skills
Are in Demand
For 'Edupreneurs'
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11
cepted $20,000 from an angel investor and established
a "freemium" business model, in which
the basic tool is free, but customers pay for an
upgraded product or service. Several hundred
users are paying for the upgraded model and a
few dozen schools are paying for the service, Mr.
Levy said.
The financial boost didn't end eduCanon's fiscal
concerns, but made it easier to focus on developing
the product, instead of raising capital.
Mr. Levy said he and Mr. Raju are being careful
about how much influence over the company they
cede to investors in return for financial support.
"We've been very conscious that we want to
make sure the vision of the company is sustained,"
Mr. Levy said. "It doesn't mean investors
won't have a bigger role to play as we roll out, but
right now we want to maintain control."
But startup founders' worries about providing
investors with a piece of the company in return
for investment, like those voiced by Mr. Levy,
though common, can be "the biggest mistake of
education entrepreneurs," said Barbara "Bobbi"
Kurshan, the executive director of academic innovation
and a senior fellow at the University of
Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.
"The investor might want 30 percent, ... but
the truth of the matter is, you haven't created
any value yet," she said. "A few pilots and some
paying customers are not evidence of scalability
or traction."
Difficult Business Decisions
But Ms. Kurshan emphasized that despite the
need for many edupreneurs to build business
acumen, the characteristics of great teachers and
successful entrepreneurs often overlap. Both are
innovative, can iterate quickly, and adapt to new
situations, she said.
ProfessorWord co-founders Betty Hsu, a former
English teacher, and Ivan Chang, a former
stock-investment analyst and a self-taught web
developer, saw a problem they thought they
could fix. Both are the children of immigrants
and helped their parents learn English. Ms.
Hsu taught English at an elementary school
in France after graduating from college in the
United States, and both have done a significant
amount of SAT tutoring.
When Ms. Hsu found herself using reading materials
to teach her students English vocabulary
words, instead of giving them lists of words to
memorize, she felt that she was on to something.
Mr. Chang, who has one failed startup under
his belt-not uncommon, given that most startups
don't succeed-went to work on the prototype
for ProfessorWord. Ms. Hsu realized she
needed to add to her business knowledge and
enrolled in the M.B.A. program at the University
of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. She
graduated in May.
Ms. Hsu and Mr. Chang have operated ProfessorWord,
which highlights and defines vocabulary
words on most websites, on a shoestring
budget that includes dollars they invested themselves
along with about $30,000 they won in
contests such as the Milken-Penn competition.
Right now, the fact that it's just the two of them
working on the Philadelphia-based company is
part of the appeal-and the peril-of being entrepreneurs,
Mr. Chang said.
"What you do has a big impact," he said. "But
EdConnective > Founder: Will Morris, 25
Product: Research-based online
coaching and mentoring for
teachers. Teachers videotape
their classroom practice and
receive coaching through Skype
sessions and other online
methods of feedback from
experts.
Business Model: Free trial for
one teacher per school. Current
packages for sale include seven
weeks of coaching. May soon
offer other types of packages
providing shorter or longer
periods for coaching.
through the university's education school,
which awarded him a spot in its Education
Design Studio incubator along with $10,000
in seed money. The studio provides mentors
and advice on how to navigate the business
aspects of a startup.
And Mr. Morris began looking for a partner-someone
who could shoulder some of
the day-to-day burden of trying to launch
a business. "Solo is cool, but it gets a bit
heavy after a while," he said. "I needed
someone with business-operation or financial
expertise."
it's also the biggest risk and the scariest
part."
So far, the co-founders have not determined
how to make money from their product.
They're weighing the possibility of subscription
sales and a freemium version.
"We don't want to give away too little so
that people don't try it, but we also want
some people to become paid users," Mr.
Chang said. "It's a delicate balance."
STARTUP STORIES
This article is the first
installment in an occasional
series about the ongoing
successes and setbacks of
three educational startups.
The series-which will appear
throughout the 2014-15
school year-will also feature
interactive and multimedia
elements, such as online
chats, video stories, LinkedIn
discussions, and a blog.
Read The Startup Blog,
a blog on edweek.org coauthored
by the founders of
the three startups featured in
this article.
www.edweek.org/go/startupblog
'Crafting My Own Destiny'
Those business questions are the ones
that educators may find themselves struggling
with.
In response, William B. Morris III, the
founder of EdConnective, a Richmond, Va.based
startup, has decided to take on a
co-founder with a financial background to
complement his own experience.
After a year spent mentoring students
and teaching a character education course
at a Chicago charter school, Mr. Morris focused
on the idea of coaching to improve
teacher quality-with a particular emphasis
on improving educator practice to reach
minority students.
He got his master's degree in education
from the University of Pennsylvania, and
after a deep dive into research on how to
improve teacher practice, he founded EdConnective
last year.
But he quickly realized he needed help.
So, now, he's getting some assistance
12 | EDUCATION WEEK | September 17, 2014 | www.edweek.org
He spent several months courting a
Wharton School graduate, only to have the
relationship fizzle when the business expert
asked for 30 percent of the company-something
the mentors at the Education Design
Studio recommended against.
More recently, Mr. Morris has been working
with a former college fraternity brother
and accountant, but the two still have not
discussed official financial details, Mr. Morris
said.
In the midst of the uncertainty, Mr. Morris
is still trying to snag his first real sale. He's
piloted projects with individual teachers,
and a grant is paying his costs to work with
teachers at a high school in New York City
this school year. He also believes he's on the
cusp of striking a paying deal-the details
are still unclear-to work with teachers at
a charter school.
Meanwhile, finances have been tight. Mr.
Morris kicked off his startup with $19,000
he raised on the crowdfunding site Upstart,
some of which he has to repay eventually.
He moved back home to live with his
mother in Richmond, and recently took a
part-time job with his undergraduate alma
mater, the College of William and Mary in
Williamsburg, Va., as an administrative fellow
to pay the bills.
Even with some hardships, Mr. Morris believes
in what he's doing.
"I'm creating something that wasn't out
there already," he said. "I'm crafting my
own destiny."
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.
Pat Jarrett for Education Week
http://www.edweek.org/startupblog http://www.edweek.org http://www.edweek.org/go/startupblog http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - September 17, 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - September 17, 2014
