It's been quite a while since I got the chance to share anything here. The last 6 months have been quite the rollercoaster and I've finally carved out the time to analyses the responses from 54 suppliers and publish my first Marketing State of Play report. Let's discuss some of the findings.
-- Scroll down to skip the personal update --
Where have I been? I've been quietly building School SCR, solving compliance and safeguarding problems for MATs. After successfully bootstrapping the first year, traction was good enough to raise at a decent valuation and so I hit the investment circuit. Raising funding for a company that doesn't use AI in this current AI frenzy is tough. I spoke with a lot of investors and due diligence was tough but we got a great term sheet for the £250k we were seeking.
And.... I turned it down.
Through the fundraising process, I'd come to realise that my cofounder wasn't the right person to build the business with. He wasn't passionate about the sector or to solve this problem, and when you don't have passion for what you're doing, there's nothing to sustain you through the tough times of startup life.
It's probably one of the hardest moments I've had in my career, but over the years I've learnt to trust my gut as much as my head.
I took a step back to take some time out. 2 weeks later I was working with Chalkie AI to build out their global school GTM. I said it was a rollercoaster!
Chalkie AI is the fastest growing EdTech company in Europe, and it wasn't a project I could really say no to. I've been all in on AI from the beginning so getting to work with Chalkie was a really interesting project - I'll write about AI and EdTech in the near future.
And that brings us up to date!
-- Personal update over --
1. 0% reported marketing getting easier. 57% said it was harder
Now let's start with caveats... the findings are only as good as the quality of data coming in. Perhaps the companies who are finding things easier are keeping that to themselves...
However, 57 responses is a very solid number in a market of around 1,000 active suppliers and the spread of scale in the companies was very good. We had feedback from companies with thousands of school customers, established in the market for many years, as well as small startups.
I've seen (as an advisor / consultant) and felt (as a founder), the effects of marketing getting harder first hand.
My view on this is there's a big mix of factors - buyers are more discerning, competition is more fierce, budgets are tighter, and there's a much greater requirement on demonstrating efficacy.
If you're feeling things are tough out there, you're not alone.
2. Personalisation wins / scale loses
I'm dangerously close to 'stating the obvious.' What kind of insights are these Jay? Education has always been a personal, rapport driven market. However, good marketing is always about the mix of channels and activities. What stood out to me in the feedback was the distribution of scoring. Some channels are flat out not working according to the feedback.
MAT PLN came 2nd for example, but the feedback was equally split with 50% of respondents giving it 5/5 and the other half scoring it 1/5. It's either great or a total bust. Given it's a pricey option, make sure you've got lots of other channels in your mix.
Interestingly, marketplaces and speed networking were the worst performers by a long way. Not a single positive response at all.
It's impossible to predict what channels will work for your solution, but what the data tells me is it's never been more important to measure your ROI closely and make data driven decisions going forward.
3. "Attention, attention, attention!"
One consistent theme emerged from the comments and this was that it feels so much harder to get the attention of the school buyer.
My personal view on this is that MATs have massively slowed procurement down. I don't have any data on this, but anecdotally, I can't tell you how many times I've had an impassioned champion pushing the product only for the Trust IT team to get involved and kill all progress.
Even in instances where MATs aren't at a scale to have a dedicated IT team, the GAG pooling of funding has removed the ability for 60% of schools in England to procure without Trust approval. It's added a layer of bureaucracy into the process that wasn't there in years gone by.
There's no reliable way to accelerate deals into Trusts. I've worked with a lot of companies who've chased this, and while it can be done in a few examples, I don't think it's possible to achieve at scale.
My view on this is you have to have a much bigger pipeline than you anticipate you'll need if you sell to schools.
My real bullish insight is that in the age of AI, you need a Direct-to-Teacher product (B2C). I'll write more about this in the future but for now I think AI has flipped the entire procurement model and selling to teachers (with the view to turning them into a school sale) is the smartest play.
However, you may not be in conversation directly with the MAT, and you may not get that information upfront.
Therefore 'arming' your school contacts with onboarding collateral that they can share with the Trust to get approval is a really smart move to make. You demonstrate how easy it is to get started, how structured your process is, and how achievable the outcomes are.
Let me know your thoughts
Join the conversation on the LinkedIn post and let me know your thoughts.
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If you'd like to chat through any of this I'm always up for a virtual coffee. From monthly 'office hours' support that starts at £200 through to fractional work, there's lots of ways I support EdTech companies like your own. Drop an email over
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As always, thanks for reading. All the best, Jay
