Edtech is a space that attracts grifters of all types. From the mundane who endlessly self-promote themselves and their failing businesses, through those whose entire careers seem to be as ‘experts’ with no real expertise, to fraudsters and criminals.
I was pondering this wide field and thought I’d give a few anonymous examples from my 30 years of sifting through investment pitches and the people making them. Let me preface this by saying I’m not an absolutist and recognise that people make mistakes and can go on to do great things. My first employee 30 years ago was a 16 year-old geek expelled from school, who turned out to be a notorious hacker. I only really realised this when he pulled up a screen showing one of the platforms at the main railway station in Melbourne. “I can access most public cameras”, he said, and zoomed in on a large lady waiting for the next train. “Watch” he said and what came from the platform tannoy was, “Hey you, the fat lady on platform 8”! The lady spun around looking at the speaker in shock. “Turn the bloody thing off” I croaked, “you’ll have the police around here”. As it happened the Federal (not state) police came to interview him twice at the office, but on the advice of my lawyer he declined. He later went on to have a serious career in computer science.
In 2018 I had a pitch from a founder whose edtech product seemed OK. It was getting some traction but something about his pitch triggered my mole-like instinct to burrow into his many claims. After a few days of serious digging (using what might be called OSINT – Open Source intelligence Tools – now) I found out he was a teacher who had been banned for life without appeal, for helping students cheat in exams. Even worse, after changing his name he’d then worked as an examiner for the same exam board where he helped his students cheat. I put this to him in a call – he hung up, then called back admitting everything, but as with many liars he had a compelling ‘personal issues’ excuse. I told him I would not publicly out him but that he had two options; to keep lying, eventually get found out and have his business implode or admit the deception, tell his story and hope for forgiveness (50:50 the business survives).
He chose the first option. When his company went bust in mid-2021 it owed over £1m to a major UAE investor and £1.25m to various creditors including HMRC. Along the way to raising what was then a decent pre-Series A for a UK edtech startup, he was also in every educational media outlet and even recruited a high-profile US tech person to the company board (they resigned two days after I reached out with some questions in 2021). Not content with this, he then set up a business as an expert in ‘inclusive products + GTM strategies’ (dissolved after 24 months) and in-between had a very brief spell as the Chief Commercial Officer at another UK edtech business.
At the opposite and completely legal end, are the edtech boasters and hucksters, who make huge claims and often spin what was a failed product or financial disaster for investors into a personal and corporate success story. I was slightly financially burned by one person who did it in a fairly blatant way, but whose personal charisma was so great (he really is an amazing entrepreneur) that I completely forgave him. The ones I don’t feel as charitable towards are ones who claim to have made huge edtech breakthroughs or successes, only for them to go all DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) when their bullshit is called out. They are few and far between and despite being well-known in investor circles they still manage to weave stories that get them on government/quango boards, invited to make keynote speeches and inverted by the old school media onto TV as edtech/AI/entrepreneurial ‘experts’. I groan every time I see them. I feel rather the same about founders who want help but who claim to have no cash but some sweat equity, only to later conveniently forget their commitment. This has wasted several months of my life, but never really hurt my hip pocket as none of these startups has ever gone onto any real financial success.
So why are edtech startups seriously high risk? I was once talking with a founder who had gone through the early stage of 4.0Schools, a US edtech incubator in 2016. I described how the usual edtech founder story usually plays out during year one as: move to a share house, break up relationship, no holidays, fine dining being a cheap takeaway. “Oh my god,’ she yelped, “it’s like you’ve been reading my personal diary!”. It was just what I had seen happening to 95% of edtech founding teams. I said something similar to a high-profile educator whose startup I liked (but didn’t invest in). My last correspondence with them was via a 3rd party as they had been sent to prison for what sounded like an painful implosion of their long-term relationship due to the pressures of startup life. This was someone I really like, respect and would work with tomorrow. Sadly, from what I can see this situation has put what was a great and viable business, on a rapid path to terminal decline.
QED – Edtech, is not for wimps and you have to be prepared to have your heart broken, money stolen, and to see great ideas beaten by piffle and poppycock puked by patronising poltroons. You have been warned.
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