Scaling an Educational Services Business to $50 Million: Todd Zipper, CEO of Learning House (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

The white-labeled education services business is scaling rapidly, and institutions of all sizes are building online programs. Learning House operates in the small, regional college and university segment, and has built a nice business.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised and in what kind of background?

Todd Zipper: I was born in New York. I went to University of Pennsylvania for my undergraduate and studied History and Economics. Like many people from Penn in the mid 90s, I made my way to Wall Street – to the Equity Research Department of Solomon Brothers, which eventually became Citi Group. >>>

Featured Videos

Bootstrapping an Education Company: Tod Browndorf, CEO of Coggno (Part 1)

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page. 

Tod has built an interesting online education company focused on specific niche course types. Read on to learn more.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start at the very beginning of your personal journey. Where are you from? Where were you born, raised, and in what kind of background?

Tod Browndorf: Wow! We’re really going way back. I’m originally from the east coast. I was born in South Carolina but was raised in New York and New Jersey for most of my life. I lost my father when I was 10 and a half years old. I started working very early in life. He was in the manufacturing business. I started working early through school. I travelled the world pretty extensively. I lived in Australia for quite a while. I lived in the Middle East and eventually started my career in Finance. I started off as a trader on Wall Street, then later here in San Francisco.

Sramana Mitra: What did you do for school? >>>

10 Women Leaders Running Bootstrapped Companies

As I was writing the previous post, 10 Women Leaders Of VC-Funded Companies, I noticed that six out of the 10 companies I included on the list followed aBootstrap First, Raise Money Later strategy.

My point of view is that as long as you follow this strategy, your chances of raising money is always going to be higher, whether you are a man or a woman.
>>>

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Ron Olsen, CEO of Remote Learner (Part 1)

What kinds of technologies are missing from the portfolios of learning management systems that customers looking to launch online learning programs need? This is the subject of my conversation with Ron Olsen.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start with some background about yourself as well as Remote Learner.

Ron Olsen: I’m the CEO of Remote Learner. Over the last 20 years or so, I’ve worked in a wide variety of industries and businesses. I’ve actually worked in the venture capital industry directly with a couple of VCs back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In general, I find myself having a deep appreciation for anybody who has actually started their own business regardless of how it got funded. I’ve actually started a few service-based companies myself.

In terms of my background, I’ve always had a passion for education and I taught entrepreneurship. I’m on the Board of an education-focused non-profit here in Colorado. When an opportunity to get involved with Remote Learner came up, it seemed to be a good blend of taking a company that has been around for a little while and growing it in new directions in an area which I’m passionate about.

>>>

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Bharat Anand, Faculty Chair, HBX at Harvard Business School (Part 1)

Online first or classroom first? This discussion delves into the design principles of the two models.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to the Digital Learning initiative at Harvard.

Bharat Anand: I’m a Professor in Strategy at Harvard Business School. I also served as Faculty Chair of our new online learning initiative called HBX, which launched in 2014.

Sramana Mitra: What is the mission of HBX?

Bharat Anand: We started HBX as a way to keep up what seemed to be fascinating trends in the online education space. We really tried to think about how we, as a school, can create some offerings that serve our residential students well as well as allow us to better fulfil our mission, which is training and educating leaders who make a difference in the world. Those are really the objectives behind HBX. >>>

10 Women Leaders of VC-Funded Companies

As I wrote in my recent article, 10 Must Read Posts on Women and Entrepreneurship, I am concerned that the public discourse on feminism is veering in a victim-oriented direction, something I don’t care for.

As a follow-up to that post, I would like to introduce you to ten women who have raised venture capital as a founder CEO, a co-founder, or a non-founder CEO. In each case, I have linked to a detailed interview discussion I have had with the person, so that you can really dive into the points of view of these successful women.
>>>

290th Roundtable Recording On Jan. 21, 2016: With Steals.com Founder Jana Francis

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here:

10 Must Read Posts On Women And Entrepreneurship

The issue of women and entrepreneurship has been top of mind of late. It is a topic that I have written a fair bit about, and want to share with you a shortlist of key posts: >>>

Is Y Combinator Asking for Too Much Equity for 120k Worth of Funding?

I don’t think it’s a bad deal. $120k is decent seed funding, 7% is reasonable equity for that amount. Their previous deal, I thought, sucked (6-10% equity for $15k-20k). This one is reasonable.

Recently, Sam Altman released some statistics … they’ve funded about 900 companies of which about 7 unicorns have emerged. That part of the story is great.
>>>

Roundtable Recording On Oct. 29, 2015: Capital Efficient Entrepreneurship with Susan Mason, Aligned Partners

In case you missed it, you can listen to the recording here: