Will it be effective if I build it? And how do you measure it? These are important questions for education technology innovators as they launch their ventures, secure funding, and expand their impact. In a crowded market with fierce competition for scarce capital, smart entrepreneurs use research to fuel, hone, and scale their businesses.
Post-pandemic, the edtech market exploded with new products and services, and investments flowed freely. But investors exited almost as suddenly as they appeared. The promise that your venture will transform literacy, math, social-emotional learning, and professional development is no longer enough to secure funding. Your concept needs to be supported by reliable empirical evidence that follows its path from research to practice.
It was a wild ride. When schools closed in the spring of 2020, More than 1 billion students worldwide transitioned to online instruction in less than a month. Educators have struggled to meet student needs without the right technology tools, training, and infrastructure, and edtech innovators have leveraged funding to implement much-needed solutions.
As demand soars, bullish investors pour money into the sector. Edtech capital raised jumped 297% from $7 billion in 2019 to $20.8 billion in 2021.
A new billion-dollar unicorn has emerged, with 38 edtech ventures valued at $89 billion as of March 2023, including some of the biggest names in education, such as Newsela and Quizlet.
What happened next is a warning. In a saturated market filled with unproven solutions, investment in edtech has waxed and waned. Global edtech funding plummeted by 49% from 2021 to 2022, dropping to $10.6 billion. And it looks like we’re going to have a hard landing in 2023. Annual funding is expected to end at pre-pandemic levels of $3.5 billion..
The industry is currently in a period of reset. Today’s investors and buyers are demanding more information, data, customer discovery, and product testing in order to commit to funding. Venture companies that take this path will be in a better position to secure funding and build sustainable businesses.
Research and evaluation are critical to uncovering results and influencing change. These steps serve as a roadmap.
Step 1: Conduct research-based research
Press pause before you start marking up your whiteboard. When conceptualizing your business, look for research to ground your concept. Research qualitative and quantitative data about your target audience and their immediate needs.
To demonstrate your value proposition and business model, consider these four questions:
- What basic research supports your idea?
- What research supports your product or service?
- Who are the experts who can add context and insight?
- What have these researchers learned from their research and what are their recommendations?
This framework builds evidence to support, or possibly disprove, your concepts. This analysis informs product features, customers, and builds a solid framework for product development.
In addition, the researchers consulted may act as early advisors, providing valuable insights and studying the impact of the product when the time is right. These early connections save valuable time and resources when further designing and co-creating solutions with customers.
Step 2: Support unmet needs and address identified pain points
Your venture must be more than just an exciting idea. To attract the much-needed funding, edtech startups need to solve existing problems. If you’ve done research to support your concept, it should point to future use cases. What “pains” are you addressing within the school ecosystem? What value are you adding with the solution you are providing? Buyers of your product, such as district leaders and principals, and students and instructors? From there, innovators can refine and validate their concepts.
For example, not all educational solutions fit existing needs. A small suburban school district in New Jersey is very different from a large county-based school district in Florida. Small, rural community colleges simply don’t have the needs of big-city universities. Young readers may require significantly different reading and writing support than high school students whose first language is not English. It’s important to understand and communicate whether your solution is niche or offers a wide range of applications.
And keep in mind that most K-12 school districts and higher education systems publish strategic plans. Do your homework to align your solution with your strategic goals. Be creative in identifying unmet needs. Decide how you will differentiate yourself from competitors who are doing similar things.
Step 3: Seek guidance, coaching, and feedback.
It’s time to nurture your developing business. Startups in any industry can benefit from experienced and insightful support. Experienced investors, entrepreneurship educators, and established innovators in your field can help guide you. Catalyst @ PennGSE We support entrepreneurs through resources, mentorship, and community, including our support. Catapult, a free virtual accelerator.
Rely on your advisors to gain critical insights about your market, your team, your prospects, your partners and competitors, and your employees. Be prepared for in-depth conversations and be willing to adapt or pivot based on feedback and user testing.
End users are also an important point of contact. Ask educators, students, and administrators about their needs and challenges, and get a sneak peek at the model.
Educators need early insight into the effectiveness of the learning tools their schools and districts purchase. In a recent survey, About a quarter of teachers and principals They say they have information about the effectiveness of digital learning tools. Developers should consult their key user groups to ensure they have the opportunity to get genuine feedback. This opens up opportunities for product adaptation and reorientation.
Step 4: Prove effectiveness and determine scalability
Whether it’s ways to expand your customer base or tweak your products, it’s never too early to start planting the seeds for future success.
Unicorns like Newsela and Quizlet have learned how to scale by making sure their solutions are engaging, educationally tailored, and easy to implement.
As companies grow and scale, research remains their north star. Gather quantitative and qualitative information from early users and subject matter experts as you test and implement your solution. Discoveries can change the direction of your plans or open new paths.
Gathering user feedback early and continuously is essential to informing these strategic decisions, and proper measurement can help build more sustainable and successful ventures.
Conclusion: Research leads to effectiveness and sound practice.
Innovators start from a position of strength by basing their work on basic research. This builds the foundation for design through customer discovery, co-creation with users and buyers, and driving towards evidence of effectiveness. When curious investors seek evidence, innovators following a research-to-practice trajectory find the logic, insight, and support they need to secure critical funding and build successful ventures that deliver the impact they seek. You can get it.
