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I want to talk about the four words that kill more EdTech deals than bad products, bad timing, or bad presentations combined.   “We don’t have money.”   If you sell to K–12 districts, you’ve heard this before—probably more times than you’d like. Most founders I talk to handle it the same way: they thank the district administrator for their time, make a note to follow up next year, and move on.   I’ve been selling into districts for 40 years. Senior roles at Pearson, HMH, and

Would you believe me if I told you your pipeline is fine? Rarely is it a pipeline problem. The problem is your sales process. You get meetings, give solid presentations, and send well-thought-out proposals. Then nothing happens. You follow up a few times, but eventually move on, thinking you need more leads. But if you add more leads to a broken sales process, you just get more ignored proposals and waste more time on deals that won’t close. The real issue is almost always yo

The EdTech graveyard is full of companies that innovated themselves to death. Not because their technology failed. Not because their ideas were bad. But because they changed direction, which changed their value proposition. I've seen it happen over and over. Founders with solid products—chasing trends, rebranding during funding cycles, and pivoting before districts can implement. And eventually, they disappear. The pattern is predictable. The lesson is hard to learn. The Supe