Teamwork makes the dream work: Celebrating the edinno.lab coach, instructor, and expert communities
As edinno.lab III comes to a close, we wanted to take a moment to recognize the amazing network of people that came together to make it happen.
edinno’s edtech innovation lab (edinno.lab) not only consists of a cohort of companies, but also a group of world-class coaches who meet 1:1 with founders, instructors who lead participants through a series of six total Learning Sessions, and the edinno expert network. Throughout the program, these groups come together to support a cohort of early-stage edtech founders. They help founders hone their product market fit; gain a better understanding of the U.S. edtech market; dive deeper into successful trials, pilots, and implementations; and interact with content intended to spur “aha” moments.
The series of six Learning Sessions are taught by instructors Colin Magee, Jean Hammond, and Rayna Glumac and the RYE Consulting team. Next, we have the dynamic coaches — Ben Bungert, Kripa Sundar, Sarah Fryar, Holly Woodruff, Catherine Mannick, Erika Tepler, Jean Hammond, and John Faig — who work to guide edinno.lab III participants through their founder journey by asking essential questions and supporting them at the earliest stage. Next, we have the edinno expert network which is comprised of educators; serial edtech entrepreneurs and investors; experienced edtech sales, marketing, and UI/UX professionals; and members of the LearnLaunch Accelerator Mentor and Venture Partner community. We cannot thank the instructors, coaches, and edinno expert network enough for sharing their knowledge and time with us and for being such a critical part of making edinno’s third edtech innovation lab a success!
You can read more below to find out how you can become involved with the edinno.lab. Now it’s time to meet the edinno.lab III coaches!
We asked the edinno.lab III cohort — DigiPals, Hubble Learning, KOBI by Hopalai, LearnAla, Pedestal, Smartifact, StudyBot, and Tailor-Ed Systems Inc to share how their coach supported them throughout the program. Continue reading down below to hear what they had to say:
“Thanks to her expertise, Jean is able to analyze the project from different angles in a 360 degree view. She is honest and transparent with her feedback, and shares both positive sides and potential challenges of the business. It could be pros and cons for the end user, angel investor, VC fund, or even founder. Her experience is also helping us shape the correct business model in EdTech and she is always willing to help and make introductions to people that might be helpful for the project/founder.”
— Konstantin Yevishkin, Founder, Smartifact
“Ben has brought a tremendous amount of enthusiasm to our coaching sessions. He has the right mix of general startup and edtech specific knowledge to always be asking the right questions. In the cases where he’s not sure, he’s got three people he can put us in touch with to keep us on the right track.”
— Chris Hopkins, Co-founder, StudyBot
“Working with Holly is great. She is extremely supportive and has shared great insights about K12 schools, ideas to help move me forward, and has also introduced me to another teacher to help me with my market research.”
— Sophie Nissim, Founder, DigiPals
“Sarah Fryar is an enthusiastic and passionate education expert. Her insights and thought provoking questions led us to reexamine our strategies and go look for more answers through customer discovery. She has been completely committed to our growth and has helped us in and out of our mentoring sessions through application feedback, introductions, and idea generation.”
— Bernardo Gonzalez, Founder, LearnAla
“Dr. Kripa’s insight has help make big decisions easy, or as close to easy as us founders can get. Her expertise transcends the education industry and bleeds into marketing, sales, and product. I am so fortunate to have worked with her and thrilled to have her support.”
— Aaron Guyett, Founder, Pedestal
“Our Coach Erika is spicy, proactive, and full of energy & insights. Weekly meetings with her help us make continuous steps forward. Her feedback on the product is very valuable and I always look forward to our next session!”
— Ursula Lavrencic, Co-founder, KOBI by Hopalai
“John has offered great insights from his experience testing many EdTech products. He is helping us improve our pitch as we plan to seek new partners and potential seed investors early next year.”
— Andres Garcia Lopes, Co-founder, Hubble Learning
“Cathy is an incredible coach. She has huge experience working with early stage startups and her advice and tips are always spot on! She shares fantastic resources about developing my business model that perfectly match the company stage. She is also super attentive to my unique position in the market and for every meeting brings in new ideas and suggestions to follow up on this week’s work at edinno.lab”
— Dana Kravchick, Founder, Tailor-Ed Systems Inc.
Our Expert Network
Our edinno.lab III participants have summarized why being apart of the edinno lab is such a rewarding experience: it brings founders and edtech experts together to stretch the idea of what is possible and disrupt the concept of education as we know it. The best news is, you can be apart of it! Yes, you. If you identify as an edtech enthusiast, expert, educator, investor, etc., and have more than 5 years of experience in the space, join us for the edinno.lab III Expert Network Mix and Mingle on December 16th.
This event — which we’re calling edinno.lab III Expert Network Mix & Mingle — is the culminating event of one of edinno’s pillar programs: the edinno.lab. It is edinno.lab participants’ way of practicing their presentations, connecting with experts and community members to build their networks, and having fruitful conversations about their business.
So don’t miss out on this opportunity to connect with founders, provide groundbreaking insights on their pitches, and expand your edtech network. Please reach out to Cailey Newton at cailey@edinno.com or Sarah Fryar at sarah@edinno.com if you’d like to attend.
About edinno
edinno is an open learning community created to support and empower emerging edtech innovators.
We’re on a mission to democratize access to information and social capital, making founding an edtech company more accessible to all.
Get Involved
Interested in learning more about edinno.lab? Fill out the interest form here or reach out with questions. Want to get involved as a partner, expert, or supporter? Send us a note.
Continue to follow us on Medium, Linkedin, Twitter, and on our website to hear more about these exciting companies. Also sign up for our Interest Form and Newsletter to hear about our upcoming programming. If you want to get involved with other edinno members, follow this link to join our Slack Community.
