Thought Leaders in Online Education: Amesite CEO Ann Marie Sastry (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: As I’m listening to you, there is something that is going on in my head that I want to brainstorm with you. It’s not part of our usual discussion, but just because you’re talking about an area that I have huge interest in.

It stirs something in my mind that may be very interesting to discuss. We do all our program as an online education program. We have a digital curriculum that has thousands of case studies and thousands of hours of video content, podcasts, transcripts, and video lectures.

We’ve created a case study-based program. We have developed video lectures and methodology that is derived out of that body of case studies. We interview thousands of entrepreneurs and figure out how they put one foot before the other.

This has been going on since 2005. It has been 15 years worth of research that has gone into it. At this point, the program has now been around for a decade in its current format. It has evolved somewhat. It hasn’t drastically changed. I think we got the design right pretty early. It’s a very robust methodology. It’s a powerful concept.

We focus much more on bootstrapping than trying to go raise money right away. We teach fundraising, but we know that it applies to a small percentage of people. We believe in Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later. All that is supported by solid case studies.

Here, you have a tremendous body of content. If we applied AI to our content, to what extent can you enhance this material and the learning effectiveness?

Ann Marie Sastry: I hope a lot. I love what you’ve done. As we are, by various measures, in the cusp of a major recession, bootstrapping is critical in order to incubate new businesses. Telling people you need to raise money to start a business at the beginning of a recession is a couple of different kinds of crazy.

First thing is, everything on the platform, from an operational standpoint, is really easy. Video is push-button. Chats are push-button. One of the things that really matters for entrepreneurs is to be able to be in conversation with each other and be able to learn from each other.

Not only do I think we could brainstorm how to unlock connectivity by thoughtful searches of content and learning what people need by applying successive selection methods after assessing similarities, but we could also support conversations among entrepreneurs and possibly identify entrepreneurial groups that would benefit from one another.

This is my second company. I sold my first company to a bigger company for $90 million about four years ago. I worked for the acquirer for a couple of years as a global executive. Then I decided to do something with my life to help out in education because this is the most fundamental problem we have in terms of where the world is going and where equity needs to get.

I can tell you there is a lot of digital ink talking about what is the hot startup center and where is thought leadership globally. Is it Silicon Valley? Is it Israel? Is it Washington DC? To me, it’s a completely silly discussion.

The best technologies will allow people to interact regardless of their point of origin or their residence. I love the idea of connecting people however possible independent of geography.

Sramana Mitra: Is this something that is coming up in the kind of courses that you are developing? Is entrepreneurship education coming up in those contexts? 

Ann Marie Sastry: We have been asked about that but we have not executed anything. 

Sramana Mitra: I love what you’re doing. I did two AI companies early on in my career. One in fashion and one in sales lead generation and qualification. I know a lot about AI in general. We have done nothing in that area as far as the One Million by One Million is concerned. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Thought Leaders in Online Education: Amesite CEO Ann Marie Sastry
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