EdTech Founders

In this episode: ⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/facoates/] is talking with ⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnaudblachon/]Gustav Grimberg [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gustavmgrimberg/?originalSubdomain=fr] who is the co-founder of Ezri [https://ezri.ai/], a company dedicated to developing AI tutors that transform online learning. With a background in human-computer interaction, Gustav has long been passionate about creating technologies that are natural and intuitive for human beings to interact with, especially in education. In October 2023, he co-founded Ezri to bring this vision of affordable, personalised education to life. Recently, Ezri launched its first AI tutors in Germany through a white-label model in collaboration with the K-12 publishers Cornelsen [https://www.cornelsen.de/] and Duden Learnattack [https://learnattack.de/]. Their machine learning systems converted tens of thousands of videos, exercises, and articles into interactive AI tutors, offering personalized student support tailored to the content. The company is now focused on releasing its next generation of AI tutors, which work in multiple modalities to deliver even more effective personal tutoring. We talk about: The role AI tutors will play in the future of education, how to incorporate effective human-computer interaction principles, challenges such as user interface design and privacy, voice interaction and enhanced dialogue management systems ….and lots more. Outtakes: * AI tutors will play a very important role in the future of education. What exactly they will look like and how they will work and how they will fit into the learning process are still questions that need to be addressed fully. But, at Ezri, we believe and we work towards a future where AI tutors will be a learning companion that all students will have. * So how do you compare an AI tutor to a human tutor? There are similarities and there are differences, of course. And I think that going forward there will be ways that these two modes of learning will complement each other definitely. * An important feature of human tutoring is a mutual understanding and feeling some kind of harmony or some kind of connection with the tutor. And this is something that is also important to definitely explore in AI tutoring systems. If you should make this or try to develop this interpersonal connection with the tutee, with the student. From what we see, it is definitely a path to go down to try and develop these more close relationships where the tutor has a better understanding of the student, has an ability to not just tutor, but also, go off topic sometimes to develop a more close connection to the student because that in the end can foster and promote better learning. * I would love to have a really good voice system that works very well, especially with K-12 students. That delivers a very human like voice interaction. And then just find this dialogue manager that can really just steer the interaction as the best tutor in the whole world. So if I could order one thing and plug into our tutors, it would definitely be the best tutor dialogue management system, which we are working towards at Ezri. The ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://edtechgarage.org/] is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. * Sign up to the podcast & newsletter on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://edtechgarage.org/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/] (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [http://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/]) Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/facoates/] Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ehsansation [https://linktr.ee/ehsansation]

In this episode: Frank Albert Coates [https://www.linkedin.com/in/facoates/] is talking with Arnaud Blachon [https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnaudblachon/] who is the co-founder and CEO of Rise Up [https://www.riseup.ai/en/], a specialist provider of learning software solutions that help organisations stay up-to-skill. With an engineering background he began his career as an application developer and in 2014, he co-founded Rise Up with his brother Guillaume, aiming to revolutionize corporate learning through blended learning solutions at the time. They have now raised nearly 50M EUR in funding and have more than 130 employees, support 5 million learners and 500+ clients. This year they are jumping on the adaptive learning bandwagon with the acquisition of the adaptive learning platform Domoscio that will allow personalized learning at scale. We talk about: Overcoming initial market misunderstandings, strategies for expanding across Europe, learning personalization at scale through adaptive learning and AI, market consolidation, how to succeed in a market with a focus on doing more with less ….and lots more. Outtakes: * The difference between Rise Up and the rest of the world is; we want to accelerate what we call the time to skill. On average, if you look at the last Gartner research and Josh Bersin as well, even if we are all convinced that training is key, people spend less than 25 minutes on formal learning every week. * After COVID it also moved from an HR decision to a general management topic, which completely changed the game in terms of how to unlock budget, basically. Companies were convinced that investing in digital was key. It accelerated, and I think not only in the HR space, but the whole digital transformation of every department. * Having the right skills framework is important because it first it will permit to really align learning objectives with business objectives. * Pure players, if they are not delivering enough wide functionality, can't survive right now. The ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://edtechgarage.org/] is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. * Sign up to the podcast & newsletter on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://edtechgarage.org/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/] (⁠⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/⁠⁠⁠⁠ [http://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/]) Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/facoates/] Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ehsansation [https://linktr.ee/ehsansation]

In this episode: Frank is talking with Mindaugas Petrutis [https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindaugaspetrutis/], the CEO of Coho [https://www.joincoho.com/], which is enabling companies to curate peer groups at scale. This came as a spin-off from On Deck [https://www.beondeck.com/], the global startup community for founders. For Mindaugas, his journey in community building began nearly a decade ago, creating spaces for meaningful interactions and learning while working at InVision [https://www.invisionapp.com/] and On Deck [https://www.beondeck.com/]. Through his work in assembling nearly 400 peer-groups, he unearthed a key insight: true professional growth stems from a blend of challenge and support found in diverse, thoughtfully curated peer groups. Now he's scaling this concept and the MVP or v1 will be out later this year. The goal is to democratise access to this rich learning model, ensuring professionals across all fields can tap into the power of peer interaction. This approach counters the prevalent issues of loneliness, disengagement, and retention in the modern workplace. We talk about: The transformative potential of collective learning experiences, the integration of AI for group facilitation, the significance of customer feedback and prioritizing customer interactions for validation, the opportunity & complexity of implementing peer learning in large companies….and lots more. Outtakes: * A lot of companies have thought about implementing like the true concept of peer learning, but they either started and failed or got scared of the complexity. * And what fascinates me is; how do people build relationships and learn from each other when you bring a group of people together in various settings. * If this is successful, it falls way beyond the kind of basic learning tools because you start tackling, truly tackling employee engagement and retention with something like this. And that unlocks very different budgets and speed as to which you can move within an organization. * You know that these folks are talking about, in real time, the things that they need, that they care about. And so being able to integrate with, say, learning management systems, you then can start building nearly a true recommendation system for the employee needs. The ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://edtechgarage.org/] is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. You can find the transcript from each podcast on the site below. * Join the community on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://edtechgarage.org/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/] (⁠⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/⁠⁠⁠ [http://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/]) Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/facoates/] Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ehsansation [https://linktr.ee/ehsansation]

In this episode: Frank is talking with ⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/luladeleon/?originalSubdomain=es]Noam Gerstein [https://www.linkedin.com/in/noamgerstein/], the CEO of the bina school [https://www.thebinaschool.com/] - a fully online primary transnational school for kids aged 4-12. Noam started university at 16 in Tel-Aviv, worked for physichians for human rights. Founded, bootstrapped and exited a business at 26. Then did more than 7+ years of global K-6 research that culminated in the bina school. We talk about: The need to solve serious problems as an entrepreneur and not small consumer problems of discomfort, how building a school takes time, effort and careful adjustment, how entrepreneurship is like eating dirt for a long time, why getting a white male in the room helps for funding ….and lots more. Outtakes: * When kids go to a local school, they meet their local peers, and the educators that are available to them are the ones that are in their neighborhood, more or less. In Bina, children can learn with children from the very north to the very south of their time zone. They are matched according to their needs, not according to their location. Also to their educators by the way. And then we see wonders like two kids from very different sides of the aisle or of the wall or of the war learning together every day and becoming best friends. And that's marvelous. * I think, you know, success would be to walk into a village in the middle of nowhere and that there are children there in multiple aged, in a grandma's hut or whatever, that are all recipients of like the world's best education. That's the dream, right? * So either you have a strong enough network or enough financial resources to put things off the ground on your own with whatever it takes, and then start when you have something to actually sell. That's a one option. Or you like eat dirt for like four years. And hopefully you have the ability to do both. The ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://edtechgarage.org/] is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. You can find the transcript from each podcast on the site below. * Join the community on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://edtechgarage.org/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/] (⁠⁠www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/⁠⁠ [http://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/]) Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/facoates/] Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ehsansation [https://linktr.ee/ehsansation]

In this episode: Frank is talking to Lula de León [https://www.linkedin.com/in/luladeleon/?originalSubdomain=es], a designer, teacher, entrepreneur and mother. She is the CEO and co-founder of Leemons [https://www.leemons.io/], a startup born in May 2021 with the goal of transforming the digitalization of learning in educational centers with its innovative SaaS LMS platform. We talk about: How the lack of innovation in the LMS/LXP segment pushed her to create the company, that you need to be ready to move fast in an uncertain market, how peer connections help to maintain mental health and get support, how she raised the 1,5M EUR….and lots more. Outtakes: * And then I enter the education technology market, and I thought, what is happening in LMS or in LXP technology. That the companies that are developing this kind of software for the educational centers don't need to innovate at the same level that the e-commerce, travel or banking industries. * But, there are a lot of startups that are trying so hard, that have great products and they are now in danger to close because the market is difficult and the moment is very complicated. So even though you have a secret sauce, you need to be prepared always to move, move forward because things are not easy, not easy in this industry. * We know a lot about a person, to whom we want to sell a T-shirt. But, we don't know anything about a person who wants to learn something new. So it is a bit stupid that educational centers are not learning organizations when they are teaching all the time. The ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠EdTech Garage⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://edtechgarage.org/] is a community for early-stage European EdTech startups where founders can scale up faster through the founder community, matchmaking and specialized resources. In this podcast series we interview startup founders & players supporting early-stage EdTech startups from across Europe. We get straight to the point in 20+ minutes and publish new episodes roughly every month. You can find the transcript from each podcast on the site below. * Join the community on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠edtechgarage.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://edtechgarage.org/] * ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on Linkedin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/] (⁠www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/⁠ [http://www.linkedin.com/company/edtechgarage/]) Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Frank Albert Coates⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/facoates/] Music: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Ehsansation [https://linktr.ee/ehsansation]