12 Days of Christmas Wishes — Part 5 — Disaggregating Higher Ed

Let me admit up front that I have danced around investing in higher education for many years without making an investment. I think that’s fundamentally because so many higher education companies are in the business of selling to colleges and often propping up broken expensive business models. That’s just not interesting to me, even though some of them have been great outcomes.

What’s the change? For centuries, universities have been able to offer a bundle of goods leading to a degree. Unfortunately, that degree has become far too expensive. The top 10 or 20 schools will be able to keep the traditional model, but for most other institutions, things are going to change. It feels like there is one big opportunity for a school that starts with great online learning as its core, basically Minerva but fully online using all of the modern tools for making that great. I tend to write off the MOOCs completely because they don’t fit my definition of impact when only single digit percentages of students can succeed. It’s actually pretty shocking to me how little innovation has happened in higher education since the MOOC boom. This is a space which has resisted technology and kept increasing costs every year, what a great opportunity for founders!

If you are building something different in higher education, send me an email -john@danners.org. I would love to help!