Maayan Yavne | MasterSchool | How to Build an EdTech Product
Host: Eyal David · Guest: Maayan Yavne · About the host
Maayan Yavne, VP of Career Training at Masterschool and co-founder of the EdTech startup TailorED (a Y Combinator alum), says that in education a great product isn't enough: the way to succeed is to follow the money. The buyer is usually a public body with sales cycles of up to 24 months, budget lines and fixed seasonality, so you need to build for whoever holds the budget and the metrics they're measured on, not only for the teacher and the student.
In this episode
- In education, like every industry and even more so, follow the money: a great product won't sell if it has no line in the buying body's budget, and the seasonality of budget releases decides when you can sell at all.
- TailorED's B2C2B model through teachers failed: a teacher who loves the product isn't necessarily a champion, and the purchasing decision sits with administrators who have other targets and budgets.
- Build for the buyer too: administrators need dashboards and analytics that prove they're doing a good job, like Panorama Education, which succeeded with a simple survey and a school-climate dashboard.
- AI turns content into a commodity, so the next opportunity in EdTech is assessment and compliance tools, which were the first barrier to AI tools entering schools.
- In the AI era product skills only get stronger: defining what to build and checking that it's right. The number one skill is Driving Towards Clarity, followed by strategic communication and structured thinking.
Listen to this episode
Episode Description
Maayan Yavne, a former iOS developer with a dual degree from Stanford, co-founded TailorED, an AI engine that built personalized learning paths, reached almost five million users and shut down. In the episode she explains why the B2C2B model through teachers didn't work, why selling to schools with 24-month sales cycles doesn't fit a startup, and how to build for whoever holds the budget. She walks through EdTech's four segments, the three revolutions in content (textbooks, digitization, and AI turning content into a commodity), the big opportunity in assessment and compliance, and the product skills that matter most in the AI era: driving toward clarity, strategic communication and structured thinking.
Chapters
- 0:43 · Who is Maayan: from iOS development through Stanford to EdTech
- 2:35 · TailorED: what they built, the pivots and why it shut down
- 9:16 · EdTech's four segments and the revolutions in content
- 13:46 · AI as the third revolution: content as a commodity and personalization
- 15:47 · Teachers and AI: a tool for the teacher, not a replacement
- 18:36 · The opportunities: content, personalization, tutoring, assessment and compliance
- 21:35 · A world built on skills, not roles
- 22:02 · Product skills, follow the money and selling to B2G
Full transcript with speakers and timestamps
Selected quotes
“However much a teacher loves your product, it doesn't mean he's a champion inside the organization.”
“If you build a product and there's no budget line defined for it, you can be the best product in the world, it won't help you.”
“That's always the number one skill set: driving toward clarity.”
Questions & answers
Who is Maayan Yavne?
Maayan Yavne is VP of Career Training at Masterschool. She started as an iOS developer, earned a dual degree at Stanford (MBA and MA in Education), worked in product at BloomBoard and co-founded TailorED with Yael Ramati, a Y Combinator EdTech startup that raised more than five million dollars.
Why did the startup TailorED shut down?
According to Maayan, because of a mismatch between the product and the business and funding models. Selling to schools and districts involves sales cycles of about 24 months with contracts of up to about 5,000 dollars per school, the B2C2B model through teachers didn't lead to purchases, and the product had no clear budget line.
Who actually buys EdTech products?
In three of the four segments (early childhood, K-12 and higher education) and part of vocational training, funding comes mainly from government bodies. In K-12 there's a "starting four": the administrator buys, the teacher is the gateway, the student uses, and the parent is a secondary stakeholder.
How is AI changing learning?
AI is the third revolution in content after textbooks and digitization: content becomes a personalized commodity. Maayan describes four waves: content creation, personalization, tutoring and assessment, and adds that the teacher shifts from what we learn to how we learn.
Which skills matter for product managers in the AI era?
According to Maayan, the most important is Driving Towards Clarity: define the problem first and make sure everyone is aligned on it, and only then the solution. Next come strategic communication and structured thinking, and the ability to check whether the solution really meets the need.
People & resources mentioned
People
- Maayan Yavne, VP of Career Training at Masterschool
- Yael Ramati, co-founder of TailorED
Companies & orgs
- Masterschool
- TailorED
- BloomBoard
- Y Combinator
- Stanford University
- McGraw-Hill
- Pearson
- Panorama Education
- Coursera
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