I run an education startup and respectfully disagree -- parent poster is correct that the industry is really not welcoming for entrepreneurs, at least for people who have ambitions for things like home ownership or healthcare or relationships.

The major problem is that people who need to learn something are by definition the least able to evaluate what they need. So the dominant incentive is for companies to produce crap and then market the hell out of it, or develop connections and feed off public credit ("you may qualify for state assistance!")... almost anything except for producing stuff people actually need and trying to sell it on its virtues. And then there is the lack of money, because student budgets are often directed elsewhere, such as to their expensive but ineffective accreditation programs and university classes.

This transforms meaningful work in the education space into an uphill struggle against funded businesses with predatory business practices, and while word-of-mouth can benefit you over them in the long-run, the viral loop goes slower in education than in other areas and it is very, very difficult to build effective placement in commercial sales channels like search engines.

More direct connections between education and employment would help, but the connection is often weaker than one would think from the political rhetoric thrown around, especially considering that education is often a proxy term for "credentials" or "signaling" in public rather than knowledge.

>The major problem is that people who need to learn something are by definition the least able to evaluate what they need.

I have to respectfully but firmly disagree with this assertion.

Kids are born to learn. They seek out experiences that involve learning, and they lap it up voluntarily when given the chance.

School, as it's currently designed, does its best to remove all of the natural fun from learning.

Read about Sudbury Schools if you don't believe this can work. [1] They have no curriculum or standardized testing, and yet 85% of the kids who graduate go on to get higher degrees.

>More direct connections between education and employment would help, but the connection is often weaker than one would think from the political rhetoric thrown around, especially considering that education is often a proxy term for "credentials" or "signaling" in public rather than knowledge.

You're referring to the current (i.e., completely profoundly broken) educational system. The current system was designed for the industrial age to create interchangeable cogs in the manufacturing machine. It actively suppresses creativity and individuality. It requires all the various kids to learn in lock-step, which in reality they never do.

So of course what currently passes for "education" is poorly correlated with employment results. But what I want to do is fix education so that it does a good job, not optimize the current IMO broken system.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_school

I was thinking more of adult education, the same principle applies to children. Socrates had the example that if schoolboys could choose their teachers, they would elect the pastry chef.

Just focusing on the adult education market, it is extremely clear that the most well-known educational products are those associated with non-educational marketing factors: institutional prestige (MOOCs), television advertising (Rosetta Stone), famous people (Bill Gates & Khan Academy).

You rarely, rarely, rarely hear about educational startups that are excellent, financially independent and successful. It CAN happen, but if you are planning to build a startup with that in mind, you will have a much harder time than if you raise cash and put education behind marketing, marketing, marketing....

>Socrates had the example that if schoolboys could choose their teachers, they would elect the pastry chef.

Socrates also basically invented the strawman argument as an educational tool.

Read about Sudbury Schools. Not only do kids choose to really learn, they don't all pick the modern equivalent of pastry chef.

It sounds like you actually largely agree with SomeCallMeTim. His point above is that solving Education is a Big Problem that has many non-trivial issues involved (entrenched interests, low budgets, slow purchase cycles, etc.), yet he "still wants to try." You make the point that the "industry is not welcoming for entrepreneurs", but at the same time, you are running an education start-up, which suggests to me that you believe it is possible to make a dent in the problems plaguing education.

My Big Problem to solve is education as well, and currently, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to tackle the root cause. I feel we are all inclined to use technology as the path to success, but perhaps more fundamental issues need to be dealt with first. If this is the case, then which issue do we initially target -fighting predatory business practices, creating a culture that values education, establishing employment credibility for non-traditional education, something else?

As I just mentioned in another response, you should look at Sudbury Schools [1] for inspiration on how education should work.

The entire current educational system is based on creating interchangeable docile workers for manufacturing jobs.

What we need moving forward are creative, intelligent, and self-motivated individuals who will create value in a service/information economy.

I just listened to a story on public radio that talked about business-without-employees, and referred to the new "Participation Age" as the future. It's worth a listen. [2] He also brings up Sudbury Schools as an example of this philosophy as it applies to education.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_school

[2] http://www.cpr.org/news/story/why-employees-are-bad-idea

Yes, I agree with both of you about the desired direction of change. Where I disagreed was with the assertion that the problem with edutech companies is one of putting technology ahead of "interface". I also hope that innovative school structures help solve some of these problems.