EdTechX Awards Spotlight: CareerFoundry
CareerFoundry was award runner up in the EdTechX Impact Awards Category, a category launched last year to recognise demonstrable economic and/or societal impact or on prioritising ‘purpose over profit’. We spoke with Martin Ramsin, CEO of CareerFoundry about the ‘New Normal’, what advice he’d share to other entrepreneurs starting their journey and more…
What was the inspiration behind starting CareerFoundry?
We wanted to build a more human-centric online learning of tech skills. At the time that we launched most of the online learning services were video based. I tried to use one of them to learn to code but it felt like an innovation that had gone backwards — it was less good than the old classroom on-ground version of education. So we started CareerFoundry with the aim of doing online right: with people and for people.
What would you like everyone to know about CareerFoundry?
CareerFoundry feels more human than traditional learning — even though it’s online.
What are you looking to achieve next?
We want to build a platform that can automate manual tasks so that we can make the service more affordable and accessible.
Looking back to the day you started, what would you have done differently?
A lot of things :) I focused all my energy on the product and I did not pay enough attention to finance or marketing. That slowed us down in the first years.
What piece of advice would you give to other entrepreneurs?
If you have not started yet, wait no longer! If you have started and feel the pain of juggling too many balls at ones without any clue what you are doing then my advice would be to slow down. This is probably counter-intuitive because everyone wants you to grow as fast as possible but if you can get some things right in the beginning it will save you years down the line. Culture is one of those things. Be intentional about every part of the culture that you have or want to have.
What’s been the biggest challenge you have seen with CareerFoundry amidst the COVID-19 pandemic?
We’ve been lucky in that we did not need to change the service since it was anyways all online and our students and mentors are remote. The one thing we have doubled down on is our career services and placement efforts since the job market for our grads is a bit more challenging.
How to envisage the EdTech landscape to change as we go into the ‘New Normal’?
People have gotten used to tools like Zoom and realize that it’s actually pretty good. I think more people will consider learning online with mentorship. People have also gotten used to deciding when they work and when they learn. The flexibility of online asynchronous services is something we have gotten used to and I think will have a hard time let go of again.
Finally, is there anything else you would like to add?
I think the biggest challenge for the edtech industry after the MOOCs and the Bootcamps is to create something that is both accessible (like MOOCs) and at the same time effective (like Bootcamps). The company that manages this will be hugely successful and I believe that company will be called CareerFoundry ;)
You can follow CareerFoundry on Twitter and Linkedin as well as visit their website: https://careerfoundry.com/
