#16 with Deborah Quazzo, GSV Partners: Investing in EdTech

What's in this episode? 

• Deborah’s journey from investment banker to angel Edtech investor to interviewing Bill Gates 
• The link between investing in education innovation and giving people ‘access to the future’ 
• Difference in EdTech uptake between K-12 and Higher Education in the UK & USA
• The link between mindfulness and mental well-being in students, educators & investors
• Challenging the factory model of education, with a modernised version of Montessori & personalised learning 
• Shout-outs to some of Deborah Quazzo’s 47 angel investments from pre-K to Grey
• Challenges for start ups  including procurement issues, difficult sales cycles, & dominant legacy providers  
• What are former Angry Birds launching, in the form of Periodic-table storytelling, for the future of learning? 
• Why Edtech which is positive and not punitive wins the day with educators 
• Celebrating an increased representation of women in Edtech companies vs. the usual 6% in tech 
• Why angel investment might be the dumbest thing in your life, unless …
• Did Google’s Montessori upbringing affect the nature of the company? 
• The 4Ps entrepreneurs need to remember 

Further Reading: 

Background: Michael Moe, Investor, Entrepreneur and Author of Finding the Next Starbucks: https://twitter.com/michaelmoe Think Equity partners: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/thinkequity-llc#/entity

GSV ASU Speakers Dr. Condoleezza Rice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtG1FeuEFcE Bill Gates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxSxq5TZhBE Jim Collins: http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles.html Carol Dweck: https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve?language=en

Start-Ups/Scale-Ups: Calm: https://twitter.com/calm?lang=en-gb Headspace: https://twitter.com/headspace?lang=en-gb https://twitter.com/ClassDojo?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor Kahoot: getkahoot.com Classdojo: https://twitter.com/ClassDojo Gojimo: http://www.gojimo.com BridgeU: https://bridge-u.com/schools Lightneer: http://www.lightneer.com

Education Institutions: Chicago Public School board: http://cps.edu/Pages/AboutCPS.aspx Harvard Business School: http://www.hbs.edu/Pages/default.aspx Teach for America: https://www.teachforamerica.org Summit Schools of California: http://www.summitps.org/schools

Culture of learning: Laszlo Bock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laszlobock (Hilariously retro vid on Google Founders and going to Montessori): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C_DQxpX-Kw

Pearson: https://twitter.com/pearson McGrawHill: https://twitter.com/MHEducation President Michael Crow, Arizona State University: https://president.asu.edu/about/michaelcrow ; https://twitter.com/michaelcrow Stanford: https://twitter.com/Stanford MIT: https://twitter.com/MIT Link to Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast with Tim Ferris the following statement from ASU GSV http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/06/21/malcolm-gladwell/

Diversity in Edtech: @womened http://www.fastcoexist.com/3043779/world-changing-ideas/is-education-technology-where-women-are-starting-to-buck-the-tech-world Mitch and Freada Kapor Lifetime Achievement Award: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7u1XWwhJQo

This week's podcast is sponsored by Edspace & The Young Academy: 

Calling all education entrepreneurs! Edspace is Europe’s unique education innovation hub: including a shared workspace in London, and a global network for everyone who wants to transform education. Pick from a range of membership packages to suit you. Or attend one of our classes, workshops or meet ups. To register visit www.edspace.io and for an exclusive podcast 1/3 off your first month when you sign up as a member, use the promo code PODCAST

Calling all education entrepreneurs! The Young Academy is an incubator and investment programme for innovative ideas in the education sector. We offer a series of specialised workshops, expert support and the opportunity to apply for up to £150,000 of investment from our fund to help you grow. Our next programme will launch in the South East of England this autumn and applications are now open. To find out more and apply, visit www.theyoungacademy.org

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