EdTech has become a business target from quite some time now. Edtech startups are being established everywhere around the world. They are set up with a purpose to bring real innovation into the developing and vitally significant education market.
But, it is a fact that a large number of them are bound for failure. There are various reasons due to which they meet failure, they can be because, they’re just following the trend without having a true passion for education, they lack the business model, they lack support of their investors, they don’t engage with students and teachers much to be able to understand their basic needs and provide support accordingly. An EdTech startup can be successful if it is a sustainable company focused on improving student outcomes, empowering teachers and strives to increase the reach and efficiency of educational institutions.
EdTech startups should feel positive about their success, because they are the ones who can change the face of education. Here are the success factors, which can lay down the path to success for EdTech startups:
Be sustainable: Develop products and services that can survive the test of time. Your company should be there to support educators and students throughout technological changes or economic showdowns. Build expectations but be patient about them. If you’re able to sustain yourself, then you can surely find success.
Serve students, teachers and institutions: Helping students should be a challenge for EdTech startups. Include direct ties to student data in your product. Teachers can show you how to build a better product and they have a large influence on the technology decisions of their institutions. Empower institutions to serve their entire community effectively, so that they adopt your product.
Form Connections: Connect deeply with your customers as much as possible through one-to-one connections. Get direct feedbacks from people about the positives and negatives about your work. Have as many personal discussions as you can about how to better serve educators, how to improve your product and be attractive to institutions.
Increase market knowledge: Start exploring, get to know about your potential customers and users, how you can reach them and how they want to buy and use your products.
Develop strategies: To license your product as a school set, conduct the required pilots and provide evidence as to the effective working of your product.
Address market needs: Educational institutions need products that meet real needs. Your product should solve specific pain-points to improve efficiency for educators. Institutions which really want to use your products will find ways to purchase, license, download and use it.
Sufficient funding: Arrange for enough capital to take your startup beyond the product development phase into the business development phase. Be sure that you’ve secured funding for strong sales and marketing channels, which can be web-based as well, so that inputs are transformed into product revisions and be prepared to withstand the long decision making and buying cycles.
Build support mechanisms: You should build scalable support for a growing number of users and devices. You should have the technology in hand to manage a lot of students with different devices and also support teachers who need professional development.
Be passionate: Have leaders who are focused on company direction and can build teams that are passionate about the needs of teachers and students.
Develop potential for growth: Set up major long-term goals. Partner with companies who can take your product into schools or localize your products and support them in other countries. Develop skills and form contacts to develop business partnerships that will allow growth.
Encourage the development of policies for technology in schools: Majority of schools don’t have set policies which can guide them to properly utilize technology. Due to this, the use of technology is restrictive. Encourage the development of a centralized policy that governs the use of technology in schools that leads to innovation.
Educate the educators: Take out the time and effort to actively show educators how your products can be utilized. Collaborate with teachers and make them realize the true potential of technology.
Be innovative: There is a constant need for innovation in the industry and so it is in education. Be advanced enough to create new mindsets and ideas to solve problems.
Co-exist with the traditional methods of education: Don’t try to replace the traditional education methods at large, because some of these can be replaced, but others would just need to be integrated with technology. Your technology solutions for education should co-exist with the traditional methods of teaching and learning and should focus on enhancing their quality and delivery.
Now is the right time to build technology for education. New startups are bringing tremendous value to students, teachers and institutions. We should hope for such startups to succeed, so they can make a huge impact on education. If you know of any other ways to help the EdTech startups succeed, then do share with us. The Comment Box awaits you.
