Summary
Charles Thornburgh, CEO of Kinjo, explores improving education through technology. He addresses market fit challenges, stressing user experience understanding from students to administrators. Thornburgh advocates for personalized learning to spur student curiosity and motivation. Aligning solutions with identified needs and resources, he discusses pricing strategies and pivoting towards student persistence at Civitas. Highlighting AI pricing complexities, he underscores positive outcomes and network building in education.
Takeaways
- Building education technology businesses requires serving multiple stakeholders with different needs and expectations.
- Product market fit in education technology involves understanding and measuring the user experience at each level, from students to teachers to administrators.
- Motivation and intellectual curiosity are key factors in student engagement and learning.
- Technology can be used to expand access to learning experiences and improve the efficacy of education.
- The gap between the engagement students experience outside the classroom and inside the classroom is growing, and addressing this gap is a challenge in education. Finding alignment is crucial in the education space, including identifying the problem being solved, the target audience, and the available resources.
- Pricing and go-to-market strategies should align with the problem and the customer, considering the financial implications and pain points.
- Focusing on positive outcomes and reputational value can help justify the pricing of AI solutions in education.
- Building a strong network and leveraging relationships is essential in the education industry, as it can lead to valuable connections and opportunities.
Sound Bites
- "I'm a career education technology entrepreneur."
- "Motivation is kind of the last frontier when it comes to learning and education."
- "When they're making their own choices, when they're driving the bus, how do we make them choose things that are better for them?"
- "The most important thing is to find alignment."
- "What is the problem that you're solving? Who are you solving it for? Where are the resources coming from?"
- "There's a moment now where the way that schools have thought about what software is worth to them is changing."
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Background
03:09 Overview of Kinjo
09:20 The Importance of Motivation in Learning
25:14 Challenges of Serving Multiple Stakeholders
29:41 Pricing and Go-to-Market Strategies for Education Solutions
37:25 The Importance of Positive Outcomes and Reputational Value
50:46 Building a Strong Network in the Education Industry
About Charles
Charles Thornburgh has spent 25 years building education businesses that use technology and data to improve student success. He began his career creating K12 study skills software, and has since built online public and private K12 schools, run university academics, and most recently founded Civitas Learning, which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve graduation rates across Higher Ed. Inspired by his own young sons, Charles is now working on using cognitive and behavioural science to help families unleash the learning power of the world's most engaging digital experiences.
Connect with Charles
LinkedIn: [@charlesthornburgh]
X: [@Charles_edu]
Company Website: kinjo.com
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