What triggered your interest in education innovation?
When I attended Hathaway Brown (a K-12 school in Shaker Heights, Ohio), the Head of School believed that women could and should excel in math and science. Perhaps an unremarkable belief today, he was ahead of his time as a school leader. This belief fueled the rest of my academic experience at Boston College and Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as my career in finance. Early K-12 experiences have the potential to inspire, motivate, push boundaries, and open doors.
Our work at A-Street is driven by a dedication to PK-12 educational equity. I believe all students should have access to a rigorous, high-quality learning experience. I am interested in investing in the sector because I believe innovation requires new ideas and risk-based capital.
What inspired you to join A-Street as a Managing Director after a private equity and investment banking career? How did your previous work experiences and time at Stanford help you decide to become an edtech investor?
Born from the Walton Family’s 35+ years of dedication to educational equity, A-Street was launched in 2021 and is led by a veteran team of leading K-12 innovation and systems change leaders and growth private equity investors. Relative to other funds, A-Street is unique in our specific focus on PK-12 education, combined with a long-term time horizon and multi-stage approach to investing.
Joining A-Street has allowed me to combine traditional growth equity investing experience (TA Associates) with business evaluation fundamentals (JP Morgan) and my personal mission orientation. My time at Stanford influenced my desire to help build something that could try to make a difference. We are our own startup, and Stanford helped prepare me for the rewards and challenges that come with building and growing an organization.
You are also on the board of multiple edtech companies and education non-profits. How are you making a holistic impact across the education innovation ecosystem through your leadership roles?
Board roles evolve over time based on company needs. There is pattern recognition that comes from working with both for-profit and nonprofit organizations at different points in their lifecycle. My job is to show up as a partner to leadership teams, a collaborator to our co-investors, and a good steward of capital to our limited partners. All constituents should succeed together.
A-Street is very focused on impact measurement while acknowledging we are in the early days of our efforts. Our work today starts with our diligence process, which requires all the companies we invest in to meet certain impact criteria. Once we partner with companies, we help support the expansion of their teaching and learning impact through improved data aggregation capabilities, disciplined key performance indicator board-level reporting, and outcomes measurement.
What were your most memorable education innovation experiences at Stanford?
Stanford taught me that no matter what business you are in, it’s about connecting with people. Teaching, learning, investing, and building cannot happen in a vacuum.
Stanford’s Interpersonal Dynamics program expanded the boundaries of my understanding of leadership and the power of human connection.
How do you see the future of education evolving? What will be the role of technology?
We hope that technology can continue to be leveraged as an enabler of excellent teaching, not a replacement. Teachers today have to spend far too much time sourcing their own materials. Classrooms of the future need access to high-quality curricula with coherent digital tools that can improve teaching and learning while decreasing the amount of time spent on piecing together content, data and assessment aggregation, and administrative tasks.
What’s one unique criteria you look for when evaluating potential investments? How important is learning science and efficacy when deciding your investments?
Coherence. We seek solutions that strengthen the relationship between teacher, student, and high-quality content. Everything should work together. Learning science and efficacy are critical parts of our diligence process. We want to invest in companies focused on improving student outcomes. Our job is to support them in increasing their reach, improving their effectiveness, and building stronger businesses.
What advice would you give to Stanford students interested in catalyzing education innovation? And to students interested in becoming education investors after graduation?
Traditional risk-based capital can be a mismatch for investing in education. There is a need to think creatively and with patience.
A-Street is investing for the long term. We measure our investment in terms of a multiple of money return versus an internal rate of return. In many ways, we believe this approach is a better match for the purchasing and innovation cycles in the PK-12 market. As you think about a career in education investing, study the market supply and demand dynamics. Align investing solutions that can best support efforts to drive improved learning outcomes.