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Forty years in EdTech. I've watched a lot of companies come, and a lot of companies go. Most didn't fail because of bad products. They won a contract. Threw a party. Started chasing the next one. Meanwhile, the district they just signed was struggling. Teachers didn't know how to use it. Principals had questions. Nobody from the company is picking up the phone. When the renewal came around, the district said “no thanks.” The companies that are still around? They did it differ

Not listening and paying attention to body language cost me a deal. The curriculum director was telling me about her teachers burning out. Thirty kids per class. Multiple different reading levels. No time for intervention. I kept trying to convince her with features and benefits: adaptive remediation, real-time, data-driven decision-making, and integration with the district SIS. She finally stopped me: I hear what you're saying. But that's not what I need right now. I need an

I used to wing every deal. Different pitch for every district. Different approach for every conversation. No repeatable process. Sometimes it worked. Usually, it didn't. After losing enough deals, I realized the chaos wasn't the market. It was me. The Pattern I Kept Seeing After decades in EdTech, I started noticing the same pattern with founders I worked with—and in my own early career. Smart people. Good products. Genuine passion for helping students. But complete chaos in

Background Travis Hostetter spent more than two decades working as a teacher and principal. During his time in schools, he developed solutions for problems such as student enrollment and teacher development, and realized that other school leaders could benefit from them. This led him to found AT Learning , a company that helps K‑12 schools grow their enrollment and improve teacher quality. Despite his deep understanding of education and coaching, Travis admitted that transact

Way back, early in my career, I lost a $300K deal in July. Not because the product wasn't a good fit. Not because the district didn't want it. Not because the committee didn't love it. I lost because I missed the March School Board Meeting. The curriculum director told me later:  "We love this. But our budget was locked and board-approved in March. We can't add anything new next fiscal year." That hurt. Because I thought I was early. I'd started conversations in April, given

I was losing deals because I was spending the whole time during presentations talking about features. Adaptive remediation.  Real-time data-driven decisions.  Integration capabilities. And the list goes on…. District administrators would stop me mid-presentation and say things like:  "I have 200 third graders who can't read at grade level. How does this help them?" Honestly, my answer was clunky and awkward. Truthfully, I didn't have a good answer. Not because our product cou