Atin Batra_E38: The Intersection of EdTech [12/1/2021]
Atin Batra, GP at Twenty Seven Ventures in SouthEast Asia [12/1/2021]
Note: References with links are listed at the end of the show notes.
https://anchor.fm/posi2ive/episodes/Atin-Batra_E38-The-Intersection-of-EdTech-1212021-e1b40bg
INTRO:
1:00 Shares passion for trail running, and how it inspires his work. Talks about trail running in Hong Kong. Talks about long distance ultra-marathon running (50–200k races), and the styles around it. Breaks out into the psychology of distance running — and how it’s positively impacted his personal life.
SECTION1: Long Term Games
8:00 We talk about running as a metaphor for discipline in training. We talk about the value of being nice, and working hard while being thoughtful. He shares how his father shared his passion for helping Entrepreneurs — being trusting, has led to a pay to being a net positive effect. Atin shares how his father influenced some of his thinking through both math, and collaborating with Entrepreneurs.
15:00 Talks about the unconscious learnings from our parents. Highlights how Entrepreneurs just keep trying, in pursuit of the problem-solving aspect. His father imparted this work ethic. Tells his story of meeting his wife, supporting in her non-profit — teaching soft skills to young adults. This led him into his passion for education.
SECTION2: Love of Education
20:00 Shares passion for helping to change people’s trajectory through education. In 2019 when he was first forming his fund, he found that he wanted to combine passion for education with work opportunity.
23:00 Talks about his timeline of EdTech, and the general market. He shares it’s origins around Khan Academy nearly 15 years ago. Frames EdTech 1.0 with startups like Coursera, YouTube, and Khan Academy. He frames EdTech 2.0 as one-on-one educational platforms like iTutor and VipKid — with WebRTC live video working across countries around 7–8 years ago. EdTech 3.0 includes the social elements of learning, and putting them into digital frameworks.
30:00 Shares recent Series A led by USV in Fivable, and their market penetration of 51% of all AP students this year. Talks about Experiential Learning (learning while doing everyday tasks [passive learning]), with startups like Fluent.
SECTION3: Productive Work
32:00 Talks about the origins of the fund, and how the Future-of-Work had an obvious overlap with EdTech from lived experiences to being productive. Currently have 20+ startups from operating 2 years. Talks about reskilling and upskilling, and how relevance drives this opportunity space. Also talks about professional coaching market.
37:00 Talk about India and underemployment, and how access ties into the Future-of-Work. Shares how remote companies are filling in this gap. We talk about geographic opportunities, and his global investment thesis. Shares why being an emerging manager, creates alpha — where valuations are low and conviction is required
44:00 Discusses early child education, and the shift in technology demands. Shares screen time beliefs of parents, and how these trends have changed around the pandemic. Talks about technology assisted products.
SOURCES:
-Twenty Seven Ventures: https://27v.vc/
-Barclays Run Documentary: https://www.amazon.com/Barkley-Marathons-Race-That-Young/dp/B017Y43P3S
-John Danner article: https://johnwdanner.medium.com/are-you-building-a-library-a-coffeehouse-or-a-bar-4041e59a7d28
-Origins of EdTech: https://er.educause.edu/articles/2018/7/twenty-years-of-edtech#:~:text=Ward%20Cunningham%20is%20credited%20with,Wikispaces%20made%20the%20process%20easier.
-Serious Games: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_game
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Song Credit: The Croft — By Joakim Karud
[ No Copyright on Music and Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 ]
