Video Series
The Shift:
Insights from
The Founder's Table
Honest conversations with EdTech founders about the moments that almost broke them — and what they did to turn it around.
What happens when the funding dries up?
Season 1 Episode 1
Ever had a stretch where you knew you were good at what you do, but the money just... stopped coming in?
I sat down with a founder recently who went seven months without closing a deal.
Not because he wasn't talented—he's a former teacher and principal, brilliant at what he did. But 85% of his revenue was tied to Title funding, and when schools got nervous about whether that money would come through, everything froze.
The calls kept happening. The interest was there. But nobody was buying.
Here's what struck me about our conversation: he wasn't embarrassed to admit that closing sales didn't come naturally to him. He just knew he had to figure it out or his business was done.
I'm guessing some of you have been there, too. Where you're great at the work itself, but there's this other part of running a business that just doesn't click.
That's why I'm starting "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
Honest conversations with founders about the moments that almost broke them—and what they did to turn it around.
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12 #Entrepreneurship #FounderStories #SalesStrategy
From $8,000 to six figures.
Season 1 Episode 2
That's the shift this founder made—and it wasn't about working harder or finding more clients.
When we first started working together, their biggest sale was $8,000. Most deals were in the $2,000 to $4,000 range—good money, but a lot of hustle for not much return.
Now? Their smallest deals are $25,000. Many are pushing six figures.
What changed? They stopped competing on price. They started working with clients who actually valued what they bring to the table.
They're working with fewer clients but making more money. Better clients, better work, better business.
Too many founders I talk to are talented, experienced, doing great work—but they're exhausted because they're taking on too many small deals to keep the lights on.
Sometimes you don't need more clients. You just need the right ones.
Episode 2 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table"
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #Entrepreneurship
What finally worked.
Season 1 Episode 3
"I worked with two sales consultants before you, Mike. Both were great at what they do. But neither had ever sold to a school."
This founder told me they spent money on ads—Google, Meta, all of it. Got a ton of email contacts. But almost none of them turned into sales.
The problem wasn't the consultants. They just didn't get how different K-12 is. The funding, the timelines, the decision-making process—it's a whole other world.
So we shifted the approach. Stopped trying to catch everyone and started focusing on finding the right people where they already are.
The result? Better conversations. Better leads. And sales that felt natural, not some rigid process.
The founder told me it made everything "comfortable and casual" instead of exhausting.
I think this happens a lot. You hire someone who's good at their job but doesn't understand your industry.
They tell you to spend more on ads. You get a bunch of noise but nothing that sticks.
Sometimes it's not about doing more. It's about doing what actually works.
Episode 3 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table"
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #Entrepreneurship
When I stopped being the expert.
Season 1 Episode 4
This founder spent 20 years in education. Former principal. Really understood K-12. But closing deals? That was tough.
They knew their stuff, but school leaders weren't responding.
The issue wasn't their knowledge. It was their approach.
When you reach out to school leaders like everyone else does, you disappear. You're just another email.
We changed that.
Instead of leading with what they were selling, they led with understanding.
Instead of being the expert, they became a partner.
The message went from "here's what I can do for you" to "I've been where you are. I can help if it makes sense."
That made all the difference. The right people started responding. Conversations felt real.
School leaders don't need another vendor. They need someone who gets what they're going through and genuinely wants to help.
That's what this founder became.
Episode 4 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table"
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #Entrepreneurship
From skeptical to saying yes.
Season 1 Episode 5
This Founder gets 10-15 cold LinkedIn messages a day. They delete almost all of them.
But they responded to mine.
Why?
They told me they were skeptical of anyone reaching out cold. But when they read my message, something felt different. It wasn't pushy. It wasn't selling. It just felt human.
They checked out my profile. Looked through my content. Still skeptical, but curious enough to take a call.
On that first call, I wasn't trying to close them. I was trying to figure out if we were a good fit for each other. That's not how most sales calls go.
Most cold outreach feels transactional. "Here's my 12-step program. Pay this much money. You'll make 10 times more sales in a month." That's a gimmick.
This Founder said my approach felt genuine. And that mattered because education is such a human profession. They wanted to work with someone they could actually learn from and grow with, not someone making impossible promises.
Six months later, their bottom line reflects that decision. They've closed their biggest deals ever by focusing on value instead of price. Not racing to the bottom to be the cheapest option, but showing school leaders how they can actually solve their problems.
When you lead with value and genuinely care about helping someone reach their goal, the money conversation gets easier. It stops being about cost and starts being about the solution.
Episode 5 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table"
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #Entrepreneurship
When I finally understood my value.
Season 1 Episode 6
This founder doubled their prices on the same day of a sales call.
The client had no idea. They agreed right away.
Why? Because the client wasn't buying a service. They were buying the result they'd get.
That's the shift. When you focus on the value you bring instead of the transaction, the price conversation changes completely.
Before this, the founder felt nervous before every sales call. They said they felt "slimy" and "too salesish." Like they were trying to push something on people who didn't want it.
Now? Sales calls feel like talking to a friend. Natural. Comfortable. No pressure.
The hardest part wasn't learning a new process. It was changing their mindset. They had to stop thinking "I need to make this sale" and start thinking "I'm offering something that can help them reach their goal."
That took work. Reflection. Feedback. But once it clicked, everything changed.
They stopped selling a service and started offering a solution. And if someone didn't want it? That was fine. No pressure. Just a conversation.
That shift took the pressure off, which made them way more effective at actually closing deals.
I think many founders struggle with this. You know your service is valuable, but you still feel uncomfortable talking about money. You undercharge because you're worried people won't say yes.
But when you truly understand the value you bring, everything gets easier. You stop apologizing for your price. You start showing up confident.
Episode 6 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table"
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #Entrepreneurship
I was playing the wrong game.
Season 1 Episode 7
This founder used to spend hours every day hunting for leads.
Why? Because their deals were small. Between $2,000 and $8,000. They needed a lot of them just to stay afloat.
Then they shifted to selling on value instead of price. Their deals went to $35,000 and up.
That changed everything. Not just the revenue. The time.
When you're closing bigger deals, you don't need as many of them. That freed up space to actually think. To listen to their current clients. To get feedback. To build new services.
They developed a whole new offering while we've been working together. Already making sales on it.
If they were still chasing every small lead just to keep the business going, that wouldn't have happened. They'd still be stuck in the grind.
Bigger deals gave them the ability to slow down. To listen to what schools are actually struggling with. To design custom solutions that work.
The shift wasn't just about making more money. It was about getting their time back. Time to think. Time to process. Time to grow the business in ways that actually matter.
I see a lot of solopreneurs stuck in this trap. You're working harder than ever, but you're spread too thin. Chasing volume instead of value.
Sometimes the answer isn't working harder. It's working smarter. Fewer clients. Better clients. More impact.
Episode 7 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table"
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #Entrepreneurship
Selling to educators is different.
Season 1 Episode 8
"I know how you feel. I've been there."
That's what this founder told me when I asked them what they'd say to skeptical EdTech founders who think they can figure it out on their own.
They spent years learning from YouTube, AI platforms, and other consultants.
But here's what they realized: selling to educators is completely different. You can't take the same approach you'd use anywhere else.
They told me I saved them years of failure. Years they would have spent figuring out what I already know from decades in K-12 sales.
They also said something that stayed with me: "All the best athletes, speakers, and performers have coaches. If you want to be the best, you learn from the best."
The return on investment for them has been huge. Not just financially, but in time.
→ They got their time back.
→ Better clients. Better sales.
→ A better understanding of their own value.
They've worked with other sales consultants before. But those consultants didn't understand the education space.
Their advice to other founders? Don't waste time chasing people who don't know how to sell in K-12.
It's a different game. And working with someone who gets it will get you where you want to be much faster.
I don't usually share testimonials like this, but this conversation meant a lot to me. It reminded me why I do this work.
Episode 8 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table".
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #Entrepreneurship
Don't trust me, test me.
Season 1 Episode 9
"Where would you be a year from now if you didn't solve this problem?"
I ask founders this when they're thinking about working with me.
One founder's answer: "I'd be in really rough shape right now."
They've been through some tough challenges over the past eight to ten months. Without what they learned from our work together, they're not sure they would have made it.
Something else they told me—they keep a sales call outline open on their screen for every single call. Talking points, questions to ask, how to move the conversation forward.
It works.
They almost never get a no. Usually it's yes, give me some time, or reach out again soon because I want to keep talking.
Why?
No pressure.
It's about fit and value. They're guiding the conversation, not telling schools what to buy.
School leaders want someone they can trust. Someone who gets them and actually cares.
Leadership is lonely. When you listen, ask the right questions, and show your value in a way that makes sense, they can decide if it's the right fit.
I don't ask anyone to trust me. I challenge them to test me. Prove me wrong.
That's what I told this founder when they were learning to do things differently.
They tested it. And it kept their business alive during one of their hardest stretches.
Episode 9 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table".
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #Entrepreneurship
I didn't start this to make money.
Season 2 Episode 1
This founder didn't start her business because she saw a market opportunity. She started it because of what happened to her as a kid.
Sonia grew up with an undiagnosed learning disability. She couldn't read and write like her classmates. Got teased and bullied. All this emotional stuff was happening, but nobody connected how she felt with why she was struggling in school.
That's when she learned something: if kids don't feel emotionally safe, they can't learn. They're too busy managing their emotions.
So she started Dignity of Children. Her goal? Create spaces where every child can thrive, especially the ones who learn differently.
She doesn't just work with kids though. She works with the adults who care for them. Because if you don't know what you need to feel emotionally safe yourself, how can you teach a child?
When I asked how she pictured success when she started, she didn't talk about revenue or client numbers. She wanted to start a movement. Be recognized for creating emotionally safe, thriving environments.
That's it.
Welcome to Season 2, Episode 1 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #EmotionalSafety #InclusiveEducation
Nobody was listening to me.
Season 2 Episode 2
Sonia had a problem. People kept saying, "I got it together. I don't need that."
She had a purpose, a product, and services designed to help people learn. But she was struggling with her messaging. Nobody seemed interested in what she was offering.
Then she figured out the problem. She was getting ahead of herself and using words people didn't understand. They didn't even know they wanted what she had to offer.
She had to figure out how to speak a different language. One that would get people curious. One that would make them think, "I want to solve that problem."
Instead of leading with her solution, she started talking about the pain points she was solving. All of a sudden, people started listening. They got curious about what she had to offer.
That shift changed everything for her. Her communication became more consistent. People could see the value she was offering. They went from "I don't need that" to "whatever that is, I want some of that."
Sometimes the problem isn't your product. It's how you're talking about it. You might be solving the right problem, but if people don't recognize they have that problem, they won't care about your solution.
Episode 2 of Season 2 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #Messaging #CustomerLanguage
Selling made me invisible.
Season 2 Episode 3
Sonia was making progress, but not the kind that really mattered.
She was selling her products. Selling her trainings. But her message wasn't reaching people. They weren't connecting with what she was really doing.
The problem? She was too focused on selling. Not enough on communicating.
When she realized she had to stop selling and start having real conversations, things got sharper. Her message got clearer.
She also shared something that surprised me. When we first started working together, she had no idea what her book was going to be about. Now she does.
Her book isn't separate from her business. It's connected to everything. Her purpose. Her message. How she communicates. How she attracts the right people.
Once she saw it, she saw how it all fits together. The marketing, the leads, the book, the bigger conversation she wants to start. It all points to the same movement.
When your message is clear, everything else falls into place. You stop selling and start connecting. And people start listening.
Episode 3 of Season 2 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #Messaging #Clarity
The rules changed. So did my business.
Season 2 Episode 4
Sonia built a lot. A learning management system. A leadership model for youth. Workshops for teachers.
But she struggled to gain traction. People didn't notice what she had to offer. To them, it was just another training. Another consultant.
Part of the problem started at the beginning. When she launched her company in 2008, New York State had strict training requirements. So she built her work around compliance. And it worked. People signed up because they needed the training, and they stayed because they liked her.
But when the compliance rules changed, her product changed too, and she didn't even realize it. And she didn't want to be known just for compliance anyway. That wasn't her true purpose.
She was making money through compliance. But that's not what drove her.
I think a lot of us are guilty of this. We take on work for the income, not because it matches our purpose.
So what changed for Sonia? She got clear on her message and the problem she's solving before doing anything else. She had products she couldn't sell because she'd never connected them to somebody else's pain.
Once she found that clarity, the ideas started coming effortlessly. She knew how to deliver her message. She knew how to attract the right people.
Get clear. Get your mindset right. Get your message under control. Now take action.
Episode 4 of Season 2 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #Clarity #Purpose
Now they're knocking down my door.
Season 2 Episode 5
I joked with Sonia about her favorite subject. Of course, it was LinkedIn.
At first, she didn't think LinkedIn was for her. She was shy. Reserved. Didn't really know what LinkedIn was all about.
Then she figured out her strategy. She works in B2B, partnering with organizations and schools. And where do those people spend time? LinkedIn.
That's when it made sense. She didn't need to be everywhere to make progress. She just needed to focus on one platform and be intentional about it. What she was saying about herself. What she's doing. From her profile to her conversations.
Now she's talking to people she never would have met before. People are knocking down her door saying "you're the one I want to talk to."
Her messaging is working.
What I appreciated most was when she said sometimes she got it right, sometimes she didn't. But she kept showing up.
Consistency is key. You don't need to be perfect. You just need to keep showing up.
Episode 5 of Season 2 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #LinkedIn #Consistency
I don't want to work with everybody.
Season 2 Episode 6
I asked Sonia whether our work together made it easier for her to handle objections.
Her answer caught me off guard. She told me it wasn't really about objections.
"I was attracting the people that were in alignment with what I had to offer."
That's a different way to think about it. When your message is clear, you don't have to battle objections. The right people are already sold on you before they even contact you.
She also realized something else. She doesn't need to work with everyone. Some people just aren't the right fit, and that's fine. Knowing that made things more comfortable for her.
Now she's really building momentum. Heading into 2026, she's getting invites to talk. People from Massachusetts reached out and said, "We looked you up. We did our research. You're the one we want."
She asked how they found her. LinkedIn. They did their homework and decided she was the one they wanted to talk to.
But things weren't always this way. At first, it was tough. She kept wondering if all her effort would pay off. Then it started picking up. And picking up. And picking up.
I'm always skeptical when someone says "trust me." I never use those words. Instead, I say: Test me. Trust the process.
That's exactly what Sonia did, and it worked out for her.
Episode 6 of Season 2 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #Alignment #Momentum
I saw the shift in me.
Season 2 Episode 7
During our conversation, Sonia said something that really made me pause.
"I saw the shift in me. Now I'm operating differently."
That's the whole reason I named this series what I did.
We were talking about objections. She rarely gets them now—not because she picked up a new trick, but because she only talks to people who are genuinely interested in what she offers.
If you're getting a lot of objections, that might be a warning sign you're talking to the wrong audience.
When someone doesn't follow up with her, she doesn't take it as hard. "I'm not meeting their needs. And I'm okay with that." She's not pretending just to get a client.
She told me she resisted niching for a long time. She's seeing the benefits now. You're not everybody's cup of tea. That's fine. I'm not either. The world is big enough that you can still be fulfilled and prosperous serving the people who are looking for you.
She also told me a story I really enjoyed. She's moving from New Jersey back to Brooklyn, downsizing to a smaller place. While sorting through her files, she found tons of manuals and trainings from years of investing in herself. That's always been her way.
But this time, she needed something different. Personal coaching. Guidance in process. Clarity. It took a while to take it all in and put it into action. She stuck with it. Followed the process. Let the process work.
Then all of a sudden, she saw the shift.
Episode 7 of Season 2 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #Niching #TrustTheProcess
Some of us are still figuring it out.
Season 2 Episode 8
I asked Sonia what she's most excited about as Dignity of Children moves into its next phase.
She immediately brought the conversation back to the movement.
She wants us to talk more about our responsibility to create emotionally safe spaces—at work, at home, and in schools. She just feels we're not talking about it enough.
She said something that really stayed with me. We're not helping young people learn how to deal with real life. You're not always going to be happy. Nobody is. But if you can imagine how you want to handle the tough days, you can start to turn things around for yourself.
That's a skill. And if no one teaches it to you, you'll always struggle with your own well-being.
Right now, we're leaving kids to figure it out on their own, just like we had to.
And for some of us, it didn't work.
I was honest with her—I said some of us are still trying to figure it out, myself included.
That's why her movement matters. Not just for kids, but for all of us.
Episode 8 of Season 2 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #EmotionalSafety #WellBeing
Your biggest challenges are your biggest breakthroughs.
Season 2 Episode 9
In the final episode with Sonia, I let her have the last word. I asked what advice she would give to mission-driven founders just starting out.
Her answer: know that you're going to have challenges. And the challenges are what grow you the most.
Don't give up on your mission, your purpose, or your why. Just keep moving forward. Even if you have to take a couple of lefts and rights to get there. It's not a straight line.
Your biggest challenges are your biggest breakthroughs.
Then she got a little choked up. She's been in business for 18 years, and three times she thought she was going to close the doors.
The third time was just before we met. She was close to shutting it all down. But she kept telling herself, I'm going to keep trying. I'm going to keep going.
I've been there too. There were days I got up in the morning and said, just take one step today.
She also shared something that meant a lot to me: she learned resourcefulness from our work together. She figured out how to be effective and get things done, even with little or no staff.
But honestly? I learned from her just as much as she learned from me.
Thank you, Sonia, for your time, your honesty, and everything you shared with us this season.
Episode 9 of Season 2 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #Perseverance #MissionDriven
It should have been a No-Brainer.
Season 3 Episode 1
Season 3 starts with Adam Rockenbach, founder of Bloomsights.
Adam was a classroom teacher. In 2017, a colleague showed him an idea—a better way for students to share their experiences at school with their teachers.
He saw the value right away. With large class sizes, he'd always struggled to find the students flying under the radar. The kids who look like they're doing okay. The work they turn in is pretty good. But if you had a chance to ask them a few questions, you might learn something that could make their experience at school better.
And that matters. If a student doesn't feel like they belong, it's pretty hard for them to worry about math homework or raise their hand in class.
So he became an EdTech founder. And here's where his story gets honest.
The passion for the product was always there. That was never the problem. He looked at Bloomsights and thought, this is a no-brainer. I'd use this in my classroom tomorrow.
But by the time we connected, he'd spent years struggling with the business side. Struggling with marketing. Struggling with nos. He was confident talking to principals and counselors. Selling to them was a different story.
He told me he was at the point of asking himself, how do I even do this anymore?
What changed? He learned to talk about his product in a conversational way. Not "here's all our amazing features, here's our pricing, let's get started." Just understanding the problems schools are facing and asking questions.
He said the switch made him comfortable. He gets to listen, support, and solve problems. He gets to be himself.
That's what this season is about.
Episode 1 of Season 3 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #StudentWellBeing
The cost kept going up.
Season 3 Episode 2
I asked Adam a question that I figured might open an old wound.
Before we met, he'd worked with other consultants and coaches. Sales advice. Marketing advice. I asked him what went wrong.
His answer: they didn't understand schools.
The first group he worked with helped him do social media outreach. He's sure they were great with other industries. But reaching out to schools is a different beast. He found himself doing a lot of work just getting the people he hired to understand his own messaging.
And there was another problem. Every time he wanted to try something different, the cost kept going up.
Authenticity means a lot when you're reaching out to schools. No matter what level you're talking to, their first interest is making sure students feel safe, connected, and happy to be at school. If your outreach doesn't get that, it doesn't land.
So what was different this time? He learned to do the things he'd been paying others to do. And do them more effectively. We took a step back, locked in his messaging, and focused on problem-solution conversations in an authentic way.
He said something I didn't expect. Going through that process made him love what he'd built even more.
And it took the stress down. It stopped being about "did I get 30 emails out today, did I call counselors today?" It became about a process that fit who he is as a person, not what he always thought sales was.
Episode 2 of Season 3 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #Authenticity
I just needed people to see it.
Season 3 Episode 3
Adam used to believe something a lot of founders believe: if I could just get people to see my product, I can get business.
So that's how his demo calls went. He'd ask a couple of questions to get started, then feel this need to jump into sharing his screen. Talking and talking about Bloomsights.
The truth? He needed to be a better listener.
We worked on shifting his focus away from features and toward the problems he solves—and aligning those to mandates that actually get funded.
Take school counselors. Adam knew they're overwhelmed. He knew they were already doing a lot of this work manually, trying to understand who needs support across hundreds of students. So instead of presenting, he let them share. What their struggles were. What their successes were.
And as he listened, he knew right away where he could help. Then he could show one slide—just one—and keep the conversation going. Would this help? How could this make that problem easier for you?
The meetings became more conversational. Easier.
But he told me something else it did. He got to see people get excited about the things he was excited about. Because it's easy to go from "here's your problem" to "I've got something that can help with that."
People walked away thinking, these guys are building something helpful. It has my needs in mind. I want to keep learning about it.
There's a saying I love: nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. Adam's story fits it perfectly.
Episode 3 of Season 3 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #Listening
Hearing no is not fun.
Season 3 Episode 4
I asked Adam what shifted for him personally. Not the sales tactics. Him.
He was honest about where he'd been. Running a small company means wearing too many hats. Product. Accounting. Marketing. It got overwhelming, and he felt stuck.
And being stuck was doing something he didn't notice at first. It was making him not appreciate what he'd built.
He was so focused on "why didn't this email campaign work" and "why am I not getting the reply rate I wanted" that he lost sight of the platform itself. Finding an approach that fit who he is reminded him: we do have something special here.
Then he said something every founder should hear.
"Hearing no is not fun. Hearing no a lot is not fun."
Before, the pressure of no felt demeaning. He felt like he was never doing a good job.
Now? A no means we aren't a good fit right now. And that's okay. It might not even be a Bloomsights problem—the school just prioritized something else.
Because he built a foundation in those conversations, schools come back when the timing is right. It's happened more than once. He'll get a call six or seven months later: "I've been thinking about what we need for next year. Let's start that conversation again."
He told me those random emails are uplifting.
His advice for founders who say "I'm not a salesperson, I'm an educator"? He still catches himself feeling that way. But he thinks about it like teaching. You can build what you think is a great lesson plan, but you won't know until you try it. Then you reflect, tweak, and try again.
When things feel low, you don't quit. You ask, what can I tweak here a little bit?
Episode 4 of Season 3 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #Perseverance
It only worked while I was paying them.
Season 3 Episode 5
I asked Adam a question every solopreneur wrestles with: how do you think about investing in support?
He was honest. At the time, the investment felt a little frightening. He was cautious. Concerned. And he had every reason to be—he'd spent money on help before.
But here's what he realized about that earlier spending. The budget he put toward marketing seemed to fizzle out. It was only as effective as long as he was working with those people. When the engagement ended, so did the results.
This time was different, and he explained why.
He learned strategies he could make his own. Understanding his unique value. Locking in his messaging. He said it felt like being a student with a teacher again.
And he had the freedom to push back. "I don't think this is going to work. I want to try this." It was a partnership, not a program.
The part that stuck with me? He said the investment keeps helping him. The strategies are fluid enough to evolve with him, and that doesn't cost anything. There's no upgrade to the next feature. No upgrade to the next plan.
Marketing is going to be an expense no matter what. But now he feels like he's getting more out of it than he has to put in.
That's the difference between renting results and learning something you keep.
Episode 5 of Season 3 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #SmallBusiness
I might have walked away.
Season 3 Episode 6
I asked Adam a hard question. What would have happened if you'd kept going the way you were going?
He didn't have a polished answer. He said, "I'm not sure."
Then he got honest. Maybe he would have reached the point of feeling like he couldn't do it anymore. Like Bloomsights wasn't something he wanted to devote his time to. The process had gotten too heavy.
Think about that. A former teacher with a product he believed in, built to help students feel seen. And he was close to walking away. Not because the product failed. Because the weight of figuring out the business side was crushing the joy of it.
He described the sleepless nights. His wheels spinning so much he didn't know what to do anymore. He was at the point of "I'm too far into this and I don't know what to do."
What's different now? He wakes up thinking about what's going well. When things feel low, he goes back to an exercise we did and refines it. Finds one little piece. Then he reaches out to a school he talked to months ago: "I've been thinking about this for your school. Not sure if it's still an issue, but if it is, I'd love to show you something."
He said those no's are no's, but they're not forever no's.
And he told me something I'll remember. In the dark spaces, the areas of stress, there's always a little light in there. Something that says, let me try this right now. Let's see if this works.
Before, he didn't have that.
Episode 6 of Season 3 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #FounderJourney
Talking to educators was never the problem.
Season 3 Episode 7
For the last episode with Adam, I asked him one final question. Who should reach out for the kind of work we did together?
His answer described a very specific founder. Someone in education, or with education experience. Someone with a product that already solves real problems. But stuck feeling like they don't know how to tell the world about what they've built.
Because that's where he was.
Put Adam in a room with a counselor, one on one, and he was fine. He was never worried about talking to people in education. That world was home.
The struggle was everything before that meeting. How do I do the outreach part? How do I get people interested enough to even get to a place where we could meet?
And he described something I hear from founders all the time. You're doing all the right steps. Outreach. Marketing. Posting on LinkedIn. Writing blog articles. Developing all this content about what you've got.
But you're still not getting to the next step. The joy of a conversation starting. Somebody replying to something you posted. Ideas you're sharing actually landing with someone.
His words: if you've got the student side, the teacher side, the school side dialed in, but the challenge is the business side—that's when you reach out.
Adam, thank you for your time, your honesty, and everything you shared this season.
And to everyone reading: go check out Bloomsights. It's a product our current generation of students needs now more than ever.
Episode 7 of Season 3 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #StudentWellBeing
I left big tech for a science classroom.
Season 4 Episode 1
Season 4 starts with Jonathan Teske, founder of ReframeXR.
Jonathan describes himself as a practitioner first. A full believer that the classroom is a feature, not a bug.
He taught English as a second language across every grade level, K to 12. Then he ran an ESL program at a middle school that became the best in Montgomery County, Maryland for language proficiency improvement two years running. The district noticed and pulled him out to coach leaders across all their middle schools.
Then his path took a turn most educators never see. One of the biggest tech companies in the world hired him as the first educator on a secret EdTech R&D team.
His mantra there is one he still believes in: creators over consumers. Help students create through learning, not just consume content. He built a project-based learning product and scaled it from a 400-student pilot to 10,000 students across multiple states.
He went on to lead their future-of-education work. Bringing VR into schools. Funding startups and classroom research.
But here's the part that tells you who Jonathan is. He left. Because he couldn't solve all the problems he wanted to solve there.
So he started ReframeXR. It's a mixed reality solution for science classrooms. Students observe a phenomenon first, before anyone asks them to explain it. They make sense of it together.
Today he's in seven schools in Broward County, Florida, about to be in twelve. Expanding from middle school into elementary, and soon high school.
From the classroom, to big tech, to founder. This season, we'll dig into how he's learning to sell what he built.
Episode 1 of Season 4 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12 #VRinEducation
Alone together.
Season 4 Episode 2
That phrase kept coming up when Jonathan and I worked on what makes ReframeXR different. You hear VR, immersive learning, all the buzzwords. This is not that.
I asked him what "alone together" really means.
He talked about a resentment that's been growing among teachers for the last decade. EdTech that steals more and more time away from teachers, moving toward a computer teaching a student.
And he said VR in schools was the culmination of it. Thirty kids in the same room, each fully immersed in their own world. You can't even use your peripheral vision to see the kid next to you. You're not talking to anyone—and if you are, it's probably an AI avatar.
Alone. Together. In a room with 29 other students, not interacting with each other.
Here's what the research says. Students learn the most, and retain the most, when they have to make sense of their world with someone else. What do I think? What do you think? It doesn't have to be a debate. It can be two kids observing the same object from different perspectives.
That's been getting lost for ten years. And now AI is the cherry on top: we're going to hyper-personalize your content.
Jonathan built ReframeXR to prove the technology doesn't have to work that way. Mixed reality, where you see the world with your own eyes and move with your own feet. Social. An actual teaching and learning tool.
Then he told me the part that made it personal. He has a son. And his wariness is his son going to school, sitting next to another kid, doing the same thing on a computer, never talking.
Time in a classroom around other people should be spent with other people. Not just next to other people.
Episode 2 of Season 4 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12 #VRinEducation
I was Anti-VR. That was the problem.
Season 4 Episode 3
Jonathan said something you don't expect from a founder building with headsets: his positioning was anti-VR.
And that was the problem.
He knew his system was better than the competition. He knew the research behind it. But when your why is defined by what you're against, you've got a lot of educating to do. For someone to care that you're different from VR, they first have to know what they do and don't like about VR. They have to have been in it enough to judge good from bad.
Most educators haven't. So every conversation became about the technology instead of the classroom.
That's what we spent the past year working on. Pulling out the research that connects to the why of a classroom. The why of content. The why of what a student and a teacher actually care about.
He said something in there that I want every founder to sit with. The work wasn't just making the why visible to teachers. It was making the why visible to themselves.
That's why they doubled down on science. On collaborative sensemaking—a research-backed term, not a buzzword.
And it gave him language for what ReframeXR actually does. Content that's abstract, dangerous, or impossible has always been stuck on a 2D webpage. Or worse, a piece of paper. Now you can de-abstract the abstract. With other people, together.
His words: you can only do that with a face computer on your head. But you've got to build the technology to harness it the right way.
Episode 3 of Season 4 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12 #ScienceEducation
We already have enough data.
Season 4 Episode 4
A district told Jonathan something every EdTech founder should tape to their monitor.
"We don't need another tool that collects a ton of data. We already have enough data."
Here's the context. ReframeXR doesn't collect any student data. None. They rely on teachers to make their own judgments about how they assess their students.
That's rare. And Jonathan explained why the industry runs the other way.
The thesis in EdTech goes like this: if we capture enough data about a student, we'll know everything about them, and we'll be able to serve them completely. He said that thesis has continued to bear out as a falsehood. And the AI hype has skyrocketed it.
Then he said the part that stopped me. When you build on that thesis, what you're really saying is you don't trust the teacher's judgment. You don't trust the practitioner to absorb their own data and use it.
I've been in this industry a long time. When I started my career, technology that worked in isolation wasn't a bad thing. Systematic, explicit, one student and one screen—that's what was needed then. But schools today are dealing with isolation and disengagement. Technology has a role, and in my opinion a responsibility, to foster collaboration. Not technology for the sake of technology.
And, as Jonathan put it, not data for the sake of data.
He's not anti-AI. He sees smart ways to use it—for the sake of the outcome teachers can provide students, not the collection. But all of that stays secondary to one thing: making sure the technology fits into a classroom in a succinct and intuitive way.
Episode 4 of Season 4 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12 #StudentPrivacy
It's not what I say in the room. It's getting to the room.
Season 4 Episode 5
In his last year at big tech, Jonathan did a roadshow through eight cities. Hundreds of teachers in each one, demoing the products of startups he was funding.
The typical teacher response coming out of a demo for the first time? "This is awesome. My kids are going to love it. How am I going to teach with this?"
What they were really saying was, how do I see myself in my classroom with this technology? They'd never say those words. But that's the emotion behind them.
And Jonathan had to play the party line. "We're working on it." "These startups will figure it out." When no one was really figuring it out.
He knew something from his teaching years. Teachers are incredibly creative, gifted folks. More of them than you think—if given the space, time, and training.
So when he built ReframeXR, that became the wedge. Give a teacher the confidence that they can put on a headset for five minutes and design a lesson that looks exactly like one they'd build with physical materials. Everything is just a 3D hologram.
Now, with every teacher they work with, the friction is never the technology. It's the content. What do you have? Can you build this? Can you build that?
He'd rather have that problem than the other one: what's the point?
Then I asked him the harder question. What's been the toughest part of getting districts' attention?
He admitted it straight out. He thought it would be easier. Relationships matter more in education than almost anywhere—for what gets understood, let alone what gets purchased. Distribution is becoming a bigger lever than having the best product. And there's more gatekeeping around decision makers than ever.
His words: it's not necessarily about what I say when I'm in the room. It's about getting to the room.
Episode 5 of Season 4 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #TeacherVoice
Why don't people get it?
Season 4 Episode 6
For two years, Jonathan kept asking himself the same question. Why don't people get it?
The people who understood ReframeXR really got it. They championed it. They'd say, no duh, Jonathan, this makes so much sense.
But then he'd walk into rooms where, after five minutes of explaining, someone would still say... "so, what do you do?"
I asked him what shifted. His answer: it was gradual, and then it came all at once.
The gradual part was the work on the why. Studying how other EdTech companies build their logic models and theories of action. Looking at what research they lean on. He's built on more research than probably anyone in his field—his years in big tech and his years as a practitioner made sure of that.
The all-at-once part? He finally found the right words. And they weren't his words.
Sensemaking is a specific term used across 47 NGSS states. As he put it, Texas can have its way, but even with its TEKS standards, it does the same thing. How do students make sense of the world? They have to experience it. And they can only do so much of that when the content is dangerous, impossible, abstract, or conceptual.
His technology shows students exactly those four things. Together, with other people. So he married two ideas people thought were separate: collaborative sensemaking.
Two years of explaining, solved by adopting the language schools already speak.
He said the last six months have been illuminating. There's early traction. Conversations are finally about dollars and cents instead of conceptual understanding.
I told him I've had the same feeling for 40 years. What don't you get? It's so obvious. Sometimes the product was never the problem. The words were.
Episode 6 of Season 4 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #ScienceEducation
I took every intro I could get.
Season 4 Episode 7
Jonathan worked with consultants before me. He told me what that looked like.
"I believe in you. The product looks really cool. Let me get you in front of folks."
Very lead-gen focused. And sure, he'll always take that. He got a few calls out of that relationship.
The calls landed flat.
To his credit, he doesn't knock those consultants. He owns his part. He didn't know what stage of readiness he was in. The pitches were tech-forward, expecting a lot from the people listening. He's not even sure they were the right audience in the first place.
Getting in front of people wasn't the problem. Being ready for the room was.
Then he told me a story that says everything about who he is. When he used an MBA to move from the classroom into the private workforce, it was an online program at Maryland. He drove to the Office of Career Services anyway. Every month. Mock interviewing for an hour or two at a time.
Why? Because he knew language was incredibly important. How he spoke. What he said. How he translated his experience.
As a founder, he realized he needed the same thing. He's heavy on the tech, in an industry that has been so bad at messaging. So he wanted to workshop and practice with someone he could trust. Discovery. Solution selling versus consultative selling. The why work around what his product solves.
His words: the difference between the past experiences and this one is immediate value versus long-view value.
Getting more ducks in a row before you come out to talk to folks. Or as he put it, giving yourself better ammo.
Episode 7 of Season 4 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12Sales #FounderJourney
I can't control what's coming.
Season 4 Episode 8
For the last episode with Jonathan, I gave him the last word. What are you most excited about right now?
His answer had two parts, and I appreciated the honesty of the first one.
There are things happening in EdTech he can't control. They're going to impact ReframeXR. That's just true.
But then: "I have never felt more confident in both the product and the positioning for the company."
After six months of work on the why, the messaging, the language schools already speak, he's eager to test all of it against the new school year. He's ready to get into more rooms and describe the solution with confidence. Your problem might look slightly different from someone else's. But there's a unified problem out there—alone togetherness, loneliness, the need to treat the classroom as a feature, not a bug.
Those problems are universal. His words: we just happen to solve it in a science classroom.
He also admitted he's been silent on socials all summer. Heads down, doing the work. Now he's eager to put it out there and see the response.
And I loved how he closed. Gather more data for the next step. Go out there and do the right thing every day. Trust the process.
Jonathan, thank you for your time, your honesty, and everything you shared this season. From the classroom, to big tech, to founder—your journey has a lot to teach the founders watching.
To everyone reading: go check out reframexr.com. A fantastic product from a founder with real purpose behind it.
Episode 8 of Season 4 of "The Shift: Insights from The Founder's Table."
#TheShift #FoundersTable #EdTech #K12 #ScienceEducation
