Ben Hatten
I'm in charge of the school network for EverFi and a die hard Notre Dame fan.
…it’s really attractive to start a company — there’s an abundance of capital, there are great mentors, there are incubators if you want, and we have this concept of a lean startup, this idea of launch fast, iterate, and pivot if need be, which is great and can be effective.
However, some of the ideas take time to work them out. Maybe it’s not that difficult to get the first few employees, but when you get to employee 15 what do you tell them? It is important to capture people’s imagination and inspire them, and that can only be done by going after really tough challenges or going after something really meaningful. That might not be so easy to do in three months on Amazon Web Services.
(via putorti)
robgo.org: Is This VC a Good Girlfriend or a Good Wife?
I’ve been using this slightly chauvinistic metaphor a fair bit recently, so please forgive me :)
It’s always interesting to me to watch how entrepreneurs evaluate VC investors. If you are in the luxurious position to be able to choose your investors, I really recommend going through the extra…
(Source: robgo)
There was a point in the late ’90s where all the graduating M.B.A.’s wanted to start companies in Silicon Valley, and for the most part they were not actually qualified to do it. They brought the whole sideshow of the hype and parties and all that crap. M.B.A. graduating classes are actually a reliable contrary indicator: if they all want to go into investment banking, there’s going to be a financial crisis. If they want to go into tech, that means a bubble is forming.
– Marc Andreessen on the Dot-Com ‘Bubble’ - NYTimes.com(via bijan)
HackEDU
So after being EverFi for just under a year now - I’m a full believer in the HackEDU mantra. The Education space is so ripe for disruption and has so much opportunity, there is really other no other industry I would rather be in right now.
When you look at the technology hotbeds across the country, Washington DC falls between 7-10 on most lists. However when it comes to edtech companies, DC is the place to be. It started with Blackboard and with their exit, we have seen crops of new startups and angel investors from their early employee pool. Also having all the education wonks here in DC allow for some unbelievable minds to tap into. When you look down the list of the most buzz-worthy education startups most of the hottest are based in DC.
To help bring the #EDTech and #HackEDU communities together here in DC, I’m putting together a HackEDU MeetUp Group. For all of us in interested in both the edtech startup scene and the disruption of education industry as a whole - I wanted to created a forum for us to come together and hear what others are working on. So if you’re interested, we would love to have you join us at our first event on April 20th at EverFi’s HQ.
All of sudden, starting to see a lot more activity on the tumblr blog
Definitely drop me a note ben(at)benhatten.com
Pay The Teachers
There was an interesting article this morning in the NYTimes about budget shortfalls in New Jersey. Many New Jersey residents are pointing their fingers at New Jersey teachers (specifically their union) as the culprit – and claiming they are overpaid. The average salary for a NJ teacher is $66,597 a year. This is New Jersey, the state with second highest income level in the country – $66k a year is still below the median pay of the state.
With all of the articles and statistics coming out with how the US is falling behind in terms of global education – why not actually recognize the state that is trying to pay educators a fair salary. I do understand that to balance New Jersey’s state budget other state employees are going to have to make cuts and sacrifices – but I believe teachers should be the 3rd rail. It is not a far leap to believe that by cutting the salary of teachers, New Jersey is going to start losing talent to the private sector. Looking at the resume pool that flows into EverFi – anecdotally there are a lot of teachers (and very talented ones) who are looking to leave teaching.
Singapore’s model of paying teachers competitive salaries is something that US should try to emulate. I know that scaling a country’s system who’s geographic size doesn’t compare to most of our larger cities would be incredibly difficult – but continually short changing our youth should not be an option. When trying to fix budget shortfalls in New Jersey – targeting the teachers’ salaries should not be the solution.
Dinner
Made this last night for Erin - very, very good. I added a few spices, but highly recommend.
Congrats to the Tumblr Team.
We did it! You’re looking at a Top 50 site. :)
And thank you for the shout out, TechCrunch!
Wow - the fact that Tumblr is top 50 site is just incredible - and the fact that they do it with a team of less than 15 is unreal.
