Edtech 13

 

Should edtech and other startups spend money on IP?

Trademarks and the protection of intellectual property should be vital to any business, particularly those in tech? Wrong! Over the years I have seen too many businesses blow too much of their scare management and financial resources trying to register various types of IP. A few have managed to get trademarks, but I can’t think […]

5 months ago Education More
 

Edtech Exits

Exits in edtech are complicated. and vary widely from intra-investor share sales (often before Series A), share swaps (generally a bad idea), trade sales, listing (high unlikely) and occasionally there might even be some cash (normally tied to impossible earnout targets). Characteristics It’s generally a very illiquid market Changing priorities for investors (portfolios, time horizons […]

10 months ago Education More
 

The stupidity of crowds

Would you let a crowd decide how to operate on your cancerous lesion/child’s appendix, etc? Never, yet I constantly hear references in the tech community to ‘the wisdom of crowds’. When I was a young jackaroo I spent too much time (in my view) herding and counting sheep. Sheep can seem rather stupid and unpredictable, […]

10 months ago Education More
 

Does edtech really work?

I hear and read constantly that edtech doesn’t work. I agree, but for different reasons. First, let’s set the scene. My knowledge is about edtech in the UK; specifically England. In this market the government has spent (rather than invested) billions of pounds, most of which has been completely wasted. My metric for failure is […]

1 year ago Education More
 

Academisation

Education is a political football – as whoever is in office tries to push through reforms based on their ideological perspectives, irrespective of what’s gone before or the impact on schools. In edtech this has led (in the UK and elsewhere) to waves of edtech ‘revolutions’ most of which have failed dismally and at great […]

1 year ago Education More
 

ed-invent closed

One of the most interesting projects that I have developed over the last few years was ed-invent. Initially a JV with Cambridge Assessment I decided to closed it down in late 2015. The idea behind ed-invent was to try and change the discourse about and role of educators in edtech. My fundamental frustration was that […]

1 year ago Education More
 

BETT and some edtech news

It’s 2016 and after more than 10 years of attending BETT I’m still looking forward to what I will see this time. BETT is about edtech but the bit I’m interested in can be found in the Futures section, located fortuitously next to the Press Office. This year I expect to see several companies who […]

1 year ago Education More
 

BETT 2015

BETT 2015 was the biggest and baddest edtech show on the planet; forget FETC and ISTE (just for educators), GSV/ASU (for edtech startups & deals) and SXSWedu (parties and ….parties) – BETT is the bomb. I was all set for 13th visit to churn out another story bemoaning usurious food prices, travel hassles, the lack […]

2 years ago 1 Education More

All mouth and no trousers? My Boris Challenge

I’ve just read a story in the Evening Standard by Oscar Williams-Grut (what a great name for a journalist). His story sang the praise of MMC London Fund, described as ‘a partnership between the Mayor’s Office and fund manager MMC Ventures’. According to Williams-Grut, in 13 months the fund has invested £5.1m (or 36%) of […]

3 years ago Education More
 

How to make money in a gold rush?

Tutoring is a huge market; north of £2bn p.a. in England alone. I have written about it several times including one story titled, Tutoring, unstaked claims to a goldmine? Tutoring can be a goldmine, which is why some edtech investors seem to approach it with all the restraint of a horde of prospectors stampeding to […]

3 years ago Education More
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